A rugged and petite church course with a mix of cool and questionable fairways.

-Beauty: The woods holes here are really nice, with rugged rock fairways and elevation.

-Flow: The flow of the course is intuitive and pretty easy without a map. (1)-(2) are mostly open, then the rest of the course plays in the woods.

-Gameplay: An interesting mix of holes. The open holes are so-so, with (1) providing the only distance challenge over 300 feet. The woods holes are short but have small and tricky gaps. Both shaping and elevation factor into decision-making. Technical players may have a blast here. I found (4) and especially (8) to be exceptionally fun, somewhat challenging, hilly, short woods holes that could easily belong on a 4.0 course or better.

-Challenge: The woods are tight enough that this course could pose a challenge up to intermediate level.

-Length: The length of the holes doesn't live up to the precision required. Even when I didn't hit my line I was able to scramble consistently. Thus, Common Ground is too hard for beginners and too easy for advanced players.

-Amenities: Good DISCatchers and turf tee pads. Nothing else. That includes tee signage--I recommend UDisc if you want to know distances.

-Overgrowth: There are lots of undesirable plants near the fairway here.

-Tightness: I think some of these holes push the tightness too far. (3) comes to mind especially as a hole without much of a believable line to get all the way to the basket.

-Variety: (3)-(9) have little diversity of distance or environment, although some of the elevation and shot shaping choices are good. (1)-(2), though open, aren't interesting enough to really enhance the thrill of throwing something new during a round.

CGDGC is a neat little 9-holer, but nothing special. There were a couple of woods holes that were great birdie challenges in a rugged setting. However, only a limited skill swath of very technical players will prefer this over other courses within 30 minutes.

Common Ground DGC, situated on the campus of a small upscale church, hosts a surprisingly fun layout. Overall, it's a short course with only hole one asking you to break the 300' mark. The eight remaining holes averaged out in the 225' with a couple of them in the sub-200' mark. The course itself topped out at 2074'. It's a compact layout with holes fitting together like a puzzle with little wasted space. While shoehorned onto the side of the wooded hill, the designers did an impressive job maximizing the landscape with some varied elevation changes, tight gaps, and the course certainly asks for some accurate shot shaping. Overall, left and right turning shots were reasonably represented.

The landscape is quite nice. A mix of mature hardwoods and thicker smaller scrub trees, which are very familiar to this part of Tennessee, decorated the backdrop and defined the routes. Rock features with small outcrops and steps dot the landscape and are incorporated a time or two. Hole one's relative wide open anhyzer shot, punching into a wooded pocket, is a nice start. Hole two creeps into the woods with a little tighter fairway and then it's a steady dose of tightly wooded shots. I happened to like the way it tip-toes you into the woods. Hole six's elevated basket, mounted on a rocky face, was a nice touch and visually appealing from the tee. Hole nine was decent finishing hole with its rustic barn in the background of this picturesque shot.

For a church course, where funds are generally earmarked for more important requirements, it had everything it needed. Sure, some will scoff at the carpeted tees, especially with some in better shape than others. But really, with the short holes, there's no need for anything more. And besides, this gives them the freedom to adjust the layout in the future as needed. There are decent tee signs with the all the pertinent info. They're printed and attached to large white corrugated plastic yard signs, which also serve the purpose in identifying the next tee from the basket. This made navigation a breeze, especially when coupled with the random orange flags that hashed out the trails from hole to hole. Full size yellow banded DISCatchers were nice and a plus for a church course where cheaper baskets are usually found. Benches were a nice touch at a few of the pads rounding out the amenities.

Repetitiveness or lack of diversity is the biggest ding on the course. This is coming from a wooded course loving player too. There's just not a whole lot of character separating the holes in terms of design or length. If somehow you could have expanded the footprint of the course to about twice the size, you would have had a lot more freedom to get creative and add some needed length.

I generally don't like elevated baskets as a rule. There are times when a natural feature or circumstance calls for them when they have a "cool" factor. I do think this course has room for one to break up the monotony of hole types, but I think they picked the worst hole to put it on (#6). The hole is a nice downhill shot to a rocky faced green. It is arguably one of the more scenic and fun shots. But the rocky feature stands on its own and a normal basket placement would have been fine, reserving the use of the elevated basket elsewhere on one of the weaker holes. Let me explain. The downhill shot is a short ace run. It's one that temps you to take multiple shots. But if you are playing for score, you'd never make a hard run at it as a blow-by means in almost all cases you will lose a stroke. Instead, a jump putt lay-up off the tee is the safe shot with a disappointing and mostly easy putt to the elevated basket, which deflates the excitement. Maybe it's just me, but an uphill elevated basket placement would make more sense here. Perhaps number seven would be a good hole as it has a unique walk up rocky ledges to a tucked and guarded basket placement.

Some won't like the natural and deteriorating carpet pads.
With the packed in design, if multiple groups get on the course, look out for others. Baskets and tee pads are close to one another. On the above-mentioned hole six, a missed ace run could wind up giving players in nine's fairway some plastic shampoo.

Although I played after record rain in the area, the course drained well. However, the wet rocks are slick. More of a word of caution than a ding on the course.

While playing in late winter, I had no issue with underbrush. It's easy to see from the landscape and images on DGCR how lost discs or at least spending time looking for errant shots can take away from the overall enjoyment of the course in the growing season.

This course is less than 10 minutes off I-24. It's a perfect leg stretcher if you are traveling through. Playing solo, you could be off and back on the interstate in less than an hour. If you are not pressed for time and looking for a well-rounded 18-hole course, then the nearby Barfield Crescent will be the better option. For the course bagger though, this one is well worth the effort and has a great fun factor.

I could have saved the key stokes on the elevated basket thing in the cons as it really is a personal issue. But it doesn't change my rating of the course with it in mind. This really is a fun little course and the property is really nice. But for the typical disc golfer, especially one with any meaningful experience under their belt, I'll have to give it a 2 out 5 as a reasonable 9-hole church course.

(1.949 Rating) A heavily wooded 9 holer with moderate elevation usage.
- RAW BEAUTY - The beauty I think this is the best aspect of this course. Normally when I think of church courses, I imagine open multi-use fields, a spattering of trees and baskets laid out along the fringe areas. Not at all with Common Ground as this one is almost entirely set in the woods. There are lots of rock features too, which apparently is common for the Nashville area. In all, I'd say this course is around 60 percentile in my course beauty ranking spreadsheet. No water features and too many small downed branches in the fairways and fringes are holding it back from a slightly better score.
- CHAINS - Yeah DISCatchers. It made spotting the target down fairway in these heavy woods that much easier.
- ACEABILITY - With nice solid baskets, it's going make chain smashing all that more common. Most of lines require a little movement, but seven shots are under 235 feet.
- QUICK PLAY - Once finding the start of the layout, running the course is fairly quick. Figure 35 minutes for a solo and 70 minutes for a group of four.

Those that like manicured open layouts should go elsewhere.
- TEES - They are carpet and are slowly being returned to nature as I write this. This course is not that old, perhaps 2 years on my play. So to know that carpet will only last maybe a year or two makes installing them pretty much a waste of time. In addition, they were laid directly on the ground with no surface leveling consideration. I personally teed to the side twice.
- NAVIGATION - There is no map for this course on DGCR, but once finding (1), It's not too difficult. First off, players should park at the southern end of the parking lot. To find tee (1), head southwest towards the road and tree line intersection. There along the road sidewalk is a bench, a deteriorating carpet pad and a vinyl sign becoming engulfed in overgrowth. After this adventure, most next tee signs can be spotted from the prior basket or there's a intuitive pathway. Tee signage quality is poor.
- CHARACTER - Only the crude basics of tees and navigation, however as noted above, great DISCatcher baskets. There are a few benches spaced evenly along the layout. All other amenities and extras are absent.
- MAINTENANCE - Common ground is maintained just enough to make it passable. As stated above, the tees are in rough shape. Fairway edges are very raw with small fallen branches everywhere. Anyone with walking impairments probably should avoid this course. The signage is on flimsy white vinyl and they are fading a touch. I doubt they will make it through the winter. On the flipside, I spotted very little trash and pathways between holes are wide enough to keep the machete in the car.
- OVERGROWTH - Not epic bad, but straying off fairway even a little bit, will get interesting. I pinged a tree on (7) and it cut into 30 feet of dense foliage. I constantly found myself searching for spider web destroying sticks so as not to become entangled in a silky wrap. Hole (8s) foliage is extra evil as the fairway line gets a little sun, thus the edges are even more diabolical. I wasn't paying to great deal of attention for poison ivy, but I think it's here. I was more worried about the terrifying harmless spiders.
- UNIQUENESS - About average for a niner but lacking overall. Hole is (1) is the only longer shot and lightly wooded shot. Hole (2) is moderately wooded. The remaining holes are all heavily wooded. Sure a couple are up and a couple are down, but the surrounding elements felt the same. Basket (6) is a raised placement to punish those running at the basket on the downhill line.
- BEGINNER FRIENDLY - I wouldn't take a beginner here. Take them to nearby Barfield Crescent instead and play the open 9 hole layout.

I liked it for a church course. I went over my past notes and it appears that this was my 13th church course and its currently my second highest rated even at a mid 2 rating. Far behind my favorite, Austin Ridge Bible Church which I have at a solid 4. I think this set-up will work well for members of the church and for those within a couple miles. The lines a pleasing enough and there's enough obstacles in the short layout to keep players working for it. Obviously this type of course won't please everyone. I could see those that enjoy bombing shots not enjoying this one as the driver may have to stay in the bag the entire time. I personally only used mine once on tee (1) where I think the hole is much longer than the stated 302 feet. It's more like 330 to 340 according to satellite imagery. Regardless, this is a nice church course and an effective use of unusable land. I'd play here routinely if I lived in the neighborhood.
- LACK OF CHALLENGE - About average or a touch below. Yes this is a heavily wooded course, but it's too short for skilled players. I could see myself as an Intermediate level player averaging 2 down with for 4 birds and 2 bogeys. The main key for a majority of the holes is to throw a putter or mid on a subtle moving line in hopes to miss a pinch point. A hit means easy bird, while a big miss means a dire scramble for par.