As others have said, the tee pads and signs are great. Course was well maintained, didn't see any trash. Holes have some variety.

Didn't get any wow factor from any of the holes. I'm a 907 rated masters age player and played the golds. The pars are way off which shouldn't matter, but playing it blind I realized that being more aggressive would have given me some extra putts for a 2. I thought the lines were fair. I thought it was too easy. I didn't play well at all and ended up with a 55, I feel that with a few more rounds and better putting I could easily throw in the high 40's.

Its not a bad course at all, hense the 3.0 rating, just didn't give me the "I wish this was my home coure" feeling. There are some technical lines especially on the back 9. I thought the pins were well placed near the creek and liked the overall park.

If you're a North Carolina resident looking for the ideal disc golf pit stop in between Charlotte and the Triangle, this is the one! I've tried Springwood (near Burlington), Barber (in Greensboro), and a couple 9-hole courses. Creekside stands out as the clear winner:

+ It's very close to I-85. If you are traveling through NC and want to make the best use of an hour or two for disc golf -- minimal driving off course -- Creekside truly is the best option I've found.

+ Course navigation is very easy, with descriptive tee signs and next tee directions.

+ The Beginner Loop is a great idea that I wish more courses would implement. If you want to jump right into the 18-course, you can. If you prefer a warm-up, the Beginner Loop is an easy, short 6 holes. Or, if you want to combine the courses into a 22- or 24-hole course, you can. The course design supports the flexibility to do any of the above options.

+ The baskets were in good shape. Most of the tees were in good shape.

+ There are long and short tees on most of the Main Loop 18. The long tees are in the intermediate/white tee range (perhaps a little on the easier side, especially if you go with course par's on the tee signs). I do not think that the long tees are true blue tees, as advertised. The short tees are firmly in the rec/red tee wheel house, as advertised.

+ I'll talk about par a little bit in the con's section, but I will say that I generally like courses with some par 4's and 5's. It's debatable to me whether or not some of the 4's and 5's at Creekside are true 4's and 5's, but I'll just say as a positive, I like playing courses that are over par 54 and force you to throw a drive to a landing area, then an approach shot before a putt.

+ I love the use of elevation on this course. I can't remember the hole number (maybe 6?), but it's a dead straight downhill hole with a narrow gap to hit at the top of the hill. You can see the top of the basket from the tee, but you don't realize how dramatic the downhill is until you walk up a few steps. The basket is right in front of the creek too. Very fun hole.

+ Speaking of the creek, I really like how many baskets are close enough to the creek to make you worry about your tee or approach shot -- and some putts too. The course is aptly named!

+ Overall, I liked the variety of hole length, mix of different pars, hyzer, anhyzer, and straight, as well as elevation changes. Good course design. I enjoyed playing here.

These are mostly nit-picks. I really enjoyed this course.

- I thought the course was a little too easy. On my first and only time playing the course, I shot 10-under. I think some of the par 5's are more like par 4's (maybe even 3's) and some of the par 4's should be 3's. I'm around an 850-player, so if I'm going out and blistering a course on my first time out, it's probably a little too easy. (That said, on the pro side, this is a great course for beginners and intermediate players.)

- At least one tee sign was missing when I played.

- You can't exactly park next to the path to the 1st hole. You're better of parking near the rec center building and the 18th basket, then walking about 200 yards to the 1st tee.

- This critique may sound hypocritical -- because I thought the course, overall, was a little too easy for my liking -- but I thought that the fairway gaps on some holes were unfair. There were a couple of "poke and hope" type holes with indiscernible fairways or unrealistic gaps to hit.

I highly recommend trying this course out, especially if you live in the Triad OR if you travel through the area and want a go-to course as your pit stop in between Charlotte and the Triangle.

This course is well laid out and signed well. The overhead views and distances of the holes are easy to read. Most holes have more than one tee box. It has a good variance of hole distances. Some holes are basic and some are tricky. Not much elevation change. Hole #1 is fairly close to the parking lot, and #18 finishes on the backside of the parking lot. In September there wasn't much underbrush to deal with, therefore making for faster play.

Not much elevation change between holes. We didn't see the directional sign for hole #8, but the rest are marked well if needed. It took a while to find the first tee box.

Hole #14 is a little tricky with the approach shot down hill. Be careful not overthrow or you'll end up in the creek, throwing uphill for the next shot.

Leaving the disc golf aside, Creekside is a really nice park. Mostly light forest, it's traversed by a walking trail that made me wish I had my running shoes. Aesthetically, it's an incredible place to spend an afternoon. Throw in some nice cement tees and some shiny new baskets and you've got the makings of a solid course. It's so pleasant an atmosphere that the occasional long walk between holes, which is usually a con, is actually a plus here.

I also appreciated that the ever-present walking path is kept out of the way of the majority of the holes. It is typically encountered between holes. That is, you cross if while walking from basket to tee.

The bridge that crosses the river(you cross it twice) is essentially the signature part of the course and some of the better holes either start or finish there. 14 is a downhill hole that finishes near the creek while 5 and 15 ascend away from the water's edge.

The issue some could raise with the course, is that it is not aimed at a target ability level. It's confused about what it wants to be. There are parts that seem appropriate for red level players. There are other parts that are too tough even for blue level players. The problem here, is that parts of the course will bore advanced players. At the same time, beginners will be very frustrated at times. For the most part, the different tees change distance without affecting difficulty too much.

Part of this could be cleared up with some artful pruning of trees. As few as a dozen could make the entire course blue-appropriate from the long tees. It's strange in that the trees left behind are often odd choices. They are frequently square in the middle of fairways, punishing good shots. There is one directly in front of a tee, limiting what players can do on that hole.

In that vein, there are several holes that would be described as plinko. There's just a lot of fairways that approached with a groan. There are a bunch of really good holes here and with the natural beauty, I could see a four-star course here. It just needs some tree removal to make some of the fairways more fair. But even without that, it's a more than pleasant way to spend the day.

There is also a beginner's loop that features the first two real holes and then 4 additional short holes. It's a really fun idea but I'm not sure that all of the beginner holes are that easy: they're just short.

Creekside is one of the closest courses to my farm. Probably the best features of Creekside are the huge tee pads and the excellent signage, both tee signs and directional signs. Rhoades and I might have been the first players to play across the creek and even without the signs, we found our way through. We did almost miss #10, but saw it before teeing of on 11, which we originally thought for a moment was 10. The course flows and follows well and is an enjoyable walk through the woods. Though I do tend to appreciate more open courses more, Creekside is still an nice and fun place to play, with its well defined fairways through the forest. It is also good for same day, different course play, with its proximity to N. Asheboro, Johnson Street and private Cedar Lake, right around the corner.

My first and foremost detraction from Creekside, like many Russell designs is the overly close proximity of baskets to disc disappearing water. We used to joke that it was a mental illness, but finally realized that it is a very shrewd business decision, because the more discs that Russell can make you lose, the more discs you have to buy, perhaps from his employer. 6, 10, 11 and 14 all fall into that category. 11's basket should have been moved away from the creek and planted in that big stump, which is, of course, now gone. It would have been a picturesque perfect ending to an already truly signature hole. 14's basket would be better placed on the island, making it a real signature hole, as well. And its short pad is way too short, even if the basket were moved to the island.
Secondly, I've always maintained that if you're going to have multiple tees on any holes, they should be on all holes. If that is not feasible, red and blue par rating should most often differ, especially on holes like 5 and 7. Rhoades and I have found perfect places for second pads on all of the holes without them. They would all be red, except for #8. Pads painted on sidewalks have always irked me, here, in Statesville and even when we pretty much had to do so at The SPC. I understand the cost cutting aspect of it, but it's still a design flaw. And the two gold pads...well, there's nothing I can say about them without sounding like an arse. When their paint fades, they shouldn't be repainted. 17 Blue should be moved off of the sidewalk and tucked into that grove on the rise, just to the left of the gold tee on the sidewalk..
And some of the par ratings seem rather arbitrary, like Crooked Creek at Northeast Park. Sorry to say, but there is not a hole at Creekside, from the red, blue or gold that merits a par rating of 5.

If the Triad were to ever institute a tourney like the Triangle's Great 8 or Charlotte's Iron Man, Creekside would definitely be one of the courses to include.

A 6-hole loop suitable for beginners, and an 18-hole loop for those ready for the next levels.

Walking paths comes near/into play on a few holes.

Course plays on the thickly-wooded slopes, through the openings created by utilities right-of-ways, and often near a creek at the back of a multi-purpose park. Most throwing paths are fair, although a couple could be confused with walking paths. A few holes (6, 11, kinda 10) provide you with a choice of fairway. Over/misthrows could find water (small creek) on about 1/3rd of the holes. Elevation-wise, flat/subtle is most prevalent, although a couple holes have short, steep drops.

Holes 1-2 are shared by both the 6-hole loop, and the 18-hole loop. As part of the beginner-loop, these holes are the most challenging, as they are fairly tight. The remaining beginner-holes are more open, although only number-6 is wide open. Unlike many beginner courses, which are typically wide-open, all of these holes but the last introduce that control and line-shaping is a necessary part of the game.

There are two tee location on about 1/2 the holes, found more frequently on the back nine. The tees are concrete and plenty long-n-wide. Tee-18 is "misaligned", as the basket is way to the left. There are teesigns at every teepad, even those that have two.

The long tee dramatically increases the difficulty of the hole, adding not just length, but also forcing you to hit a challenging window before you even reach the short tee location, which will typically have its own tough window to hit in order to reach the basket.

The course was a cinch to navigate - my first time here, hardly had to refer to the map. When the next tee isn't obvious, there will be extra signs offering directions.

Good course, providing you with several choices of how to challenge yourself.

UPDATE: I've played this course repeatedly now. Still very clean and well kept. The beginner loop is not the easiest but with practice would be. Big teepads, excellent tee signs on whole course now as well as on the beginner loop, complete with little DG tips on throws, grips, etc. The locals have done a good job of turning many of the "unfairways" into legitimate holes. What holes are super tight are given an appropriate par so that most non-Open players are not playing for bogey. There's still some tricky lines and windows to look for to play some holes well but that's a pro I think. Great park full of ball fields, basketball, playground, etc, very nice little walking trails through out. Plays within a serene, winding creek. Amenities restrooms, etc. Really nice discatcher baskets.

The course has really been opened up, not exclusively with the fairways but with the rough where on many holes like 6-10 really punished you with brier rife pain if you didn't keep your disc on the narrow fairway. Now a lot of those briers are gone so you can breathe a little on those holes w/o worrying about becoming perforated if your drive is slightly off.

Now that it's dry it's much better but some cons still remain. Always be wary of playing after the area has received a lot of rain b/c a creek does wind all around the course and it's low and prone to flooding.

There's still some safety issues that really hurt the course's rating IMO but most of these are due to the addition of the long and tourney level tees. Hole # 3's long tee is behind a bend of the sidewalk which is very used by patrons so you have to take care that nobody is coming around the bend when you tee off. Hole #17's long and tourney tees are actually marked off on said sidewalk and again you really have to be mindful of the patrons and occasionally wait for joggers and the like to pass if you use those tees.

Hole #7 irks me. It's uphill and would be more fun if you threw a big anny or FH but you can't unless you have a spotter b/c of the still very thick rough that flanks the hole. Otherwise you have to place shots.

Hole #10's tee has one stupid tree directly in front of the middle of the tee, you can almost touch it while standing on the tee. It would be a cool hole otherwise. The "green" on hole #11 has had a lot of earth moved around and looks like a construction site, holds water in tire treads.

Still not many holes to really air out a big drive so if you're used to playing predominately open courses this may not be for you.

I've gone from not liking this course at all to actually enjoying it now. It still has some tough, tight lines but the pars are appropriate so it's a non-issue to me. I do notice that many 1st timer's do not like this course, especially if they're used to park-style pitch and putts like Horizons. But if you like a challenge and don't feel like driving down to Charlotte, this is a quality course to play.

I just wish some of the long tees didn't have busy sidewalks in-play, otherwise I'd rate it higher.

Bottom line: Short-ish and very technical course requiring extreme precision and disc(putter) placement on many throws, posted par is fair and necessary to not destroy most golfers' egos.