If Creekside had been a niner that started at the back lot, a pretty solid course could have been made because there are some solid holes here. 8 and 9 play along a lake, though not close enough for it to come into play. Both are mostly open holes but the 8 tee is tucked low and backed into the woods so the thrower is confronted with a steep climb initially and 9 features a small valley as it the hole doglegs right but large trees provide a canopy near the approach, requiring any drive to be very low to be successful. 10 is another fun shot. (Though the blue tee over the parking lot should be scrapped.) It's open again but the basket position (into a narrow channel to the right of the green space) makes it interesting. From there you are into the woods, where the holes range from well-done to pinball. I'm surer by careful selection, a setup of the right five holes could be arranged to complete a really nice nine-hole course that finishes at the back lot. (Adding one hole that leads from the lot to 8. (Really just move the seven tee to the other side of the playground so that discers throw away from it.)
For the most part, the wooded holes have reasonable fairways with a few changes in elevation the underbrush isn't terrible. The most notable hole is downhill all the way with water behind the basket but there is a gulley here and a mound there on most holes and the trees definitely make you shape your throw. There is good nine-hole course here for beginning and even intermediate players. One that has offers a taste of most aspects to the game and offers variety, some challenge and a lack of frustration.

However, that layout isn't labeled here and there are a handful of holes that range from inappropriate-for-players-that will-enjoy-the-rest-of-the-course to enjoyable-by-no-one. I'll start with the latter. The first five holes are just back and forth across the same open field. 2-5 might even be the exact same distance. Moreover, only the "fairways" are mowed, which adds nothing to the difficulty or fun and only to the frustration of the new player. Experienced will find those same holes pointless. Their frustration will come on 16, when there is not a single possible line to be found. Veterans will enjoy 18 as it is considerably tighter than anything else on the course but thus considerably out of line with the difficulty of the previous holes. 6 is just as bad as 18 in those terms but it is lined with very thick brush that will swallow discs that even slightly off the mark.

So while the location could support a very good red-level niner, about half the course doesn't fit with this philosophy and the first stretch of seven holes does not leave a good impression.

- Another course in New Bern. Glenburnie DGC sets the bar high, but being from Wilmington with Castle Hayne basically in my back yard I understand how one might want a break even from a top-shelf course. Creekside provides that change.

- "Interesting" layout. Creekside gives you holes where you can launch it as well as holes that you have to "thread the needle." Wide open holes coupled with extremely wooded holes provides a little something for everybody.

- Bi-polar layout. I said the layout was "interesting" and that that was a plus, but it's also a detractor because of the lack of variation between the extremes and the lack of flow on a few holes. Allow me digress and get specific:

* As someone else noted, the first five holes are basically the same wide-open shot across the same wide-open field. Okay, but really repetitive.

* After 5 you're presented with brushy and wooded holes with fairways as wide as 12 and as narrow as four feet wide with the same par. Yes, they're a skosh shorter, but it seems (for lack of a better word) schizophrenic. There's no transition. You don't have an open shot that LEADS into the woods (providing an idea of what's to come), you just jump right from the World Cup into the Walking Dead.

* After you play #6, you have to FIND #7 based on a lonesome singular sign next to the pin. Once you maneuver your way down the path, across the road, through the parking lot and past the playground, you get to play #7.

* When you hole out on 7 you see #8's pin. You have to walk down 8's fairway to FIND the teepad - which, incidentally, is down a hill in a gaggle of trees next to the water - and there are no signs indicating this is where you're supposed to go.

* #9 is a dog-leg right that aims right towards a playground. Now, this doesn't look like a playground that garners heavy traffic, but disc golfers need to be vigilant to make sure they're not endangering any kiddos playing. Just seems like this hole (with all the other land available) could have been placed in a less precarious locale.

* #10 is one of the few alternate tees I noticed. The long is par four; the short a par three. However, the long layout (for its added length) offers ZERO risk/reward so far as I can tell. There's no line that offers a legit look at birdie for big arms that doesn't offer a par to the mortal chuckers playing from the shorts. It's just long for the sake of being long it seems.

* #16 is RIDICULOUS wooded. I'm all for making it tough by having tight lines to practice your accuracy, but 16 is borderline retarded. Seriously. There is quite literally no fairway. It's like throwing a Frisbee through a briar patch. I only par'd it because I threw two tomahawks and am deeply religious.

- CRAZY foliage. It's disc golf: throwing Frisbees in the woods. I get it...there's bugs and pointy plants and lions and tigers and bears (oh my!). I'm not saying this is anything out of the ordinary, but since this is a new course that hasn't been worn down yet, I implore you - if you're one of those who likes to wear flip-flops or some other manner of open-toe foot appendage - wear shoes if you're going to play this course. Between mad briars, wicked thorn bushes, and crazy thorny weeds blooming out of the ground like the devil's botanical Bellagio, you WILL be sorry if you don't wrap your piggies in some Kevlar.

- No topless Hooter's girls frolicking along the #8 fairway.

Creekside is new, just coming on to the scene in 2014. Like your favorite Valkyrie, Firebird, or DX Roc, it has a lot of seasoning and beating in ahead of it to make it good. With a design overhaul to give it more balance and a lot of TLC to make the "fairways" (such as they are) more believable, Creekside could eventually be a course that could/might/maybe/sort-of give Glenburnie a run for its money. MAYBE. However, as it stands it's not worth driving out of your way to play. It's great for New Bern/Jacksonville locals who have 18 more holes to play, but out-of-towners would be better off skipping it and playing Glenburnie twice for now.