Pros:
Watching this course grow up from its creation last summer has been awesome. Seeing the teepads get installed and the jungle around the holes get slowly beat down is a true testament to the builders' passion for this course.
1) Well marked course, hard to get lost except finding the tee for 8 at first
2) Great Mach X baskets
3) Long teepads w/concrete tiles
4) The front and back 9 have two completely different personalities. Front 9 shorter, more technical. Back 9 lets you air out shots.
5) It's gorgeous and uses the elevation of the land beautifully on almost every hole in one way or another
6) Makes you bring out every shot you have
Cons:
So I've rated this course a 4 because for this area of New England, this is a top tier layout compared to courses like Amesbury, Topsfield, Burlington, & Pelham (great course as well).
But there are some fundamental flaws in this course that simply must be addressed to make this an Elite Course. So, from the perspective of a scratch golfer here is my problem with this course: The ENTIRE course is full of very, very easy par 3's yet many of them are nearly impossible to birdie. Even with a perfect nuke of a drive you will hit the landing zone and STILL have a 75 foot upshot. Holes 1-6 are birdie holes. I can throw 430' and holes 7, 8, & 16 are like the adopted step-children this course could stand to lose.
I understand the idea of making a hole a "3.5" in that it's a difficult par 3 and 50% will par and 50% will bogey. However, on these par 3's 80% will par, 18% will bogey and 2% will birdie. Either push these holes back and make them "3.5's" or move them in and make them possible birdies, because at the moment they are simple, simple, par 3's and offer no score separation at all if in a tournament.
Other Thoughts:
LOVE the course, it's beautiful, clean, has great fairways and lines to hit and has grown so, so quickly. If 5 or 6 of the pin locations were adjusted, this course could be 5 stars.