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Norwood, NC

Darrell Almond Park

1.55(based on 2 reviews)
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BrotherDave
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Experience: 16.9 years 192 played 189 reviews
1.00 star(s)

Temper Expectations 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:May 6, 2017 Played the course:once

Pros:

Excellent concrete tees (some holes have short and long options), good signs and functioning baskets, plus a practice basket. This is all in a smallish park that is mostly occupied by a big pond in the middle so the course plays clockwise around it. This is a nice clean park in a quaint small town and among the disc golf you can espy ducks, turtles, geese and other wetland fauna.

Navigation is nary a problem, mostly b/c the park is so small you don't have far to look. A wee bit of elevation comes in to play on the first 3 holes, especially hole three with its very steep green towards the pond. In addition to the pond (which isn't much of a lost disc hazard in terms of rollaways due to a fence) there is also a nice, decently sized creek that runs alongside a few holes.

Not an overly difficult course by any means due largely to openness and relative shortness, though some holes require a decent toss and good line manipulation. In terms of pure design, the holes here are overall largely pleasant if not clever. A couple of sharp hyzers, good use of elevation, baskets placed near roughs or the creek to provoke precision in placement, etc. Lastly, the park was nicely mowed the day I played it and I have the impression that is par for the course.

Cons:

Most if not all cons stem from the obvious fact that this course is shoehorned into a small park dominated by a pond, which is in turn surrounded by a very popular walking path since the pond is the central attraction of the park. To put it bluntly, the course is slightly too big for its britches. Many holes throw directly over parking lots not to mention paths or sidewalks. Hole 3 for example is perhaps the best/coolest hole here but has fatal safety flaws. A fun par 3 left to right dogleg that sweeps sharply downhill at the corner ends with the basket placed extremely close to the trail around the pond (and thus the pond). So if you went for it, you could easily make the blind corner and smash a child, jogger, etc. No bueno.

Some of the holes suffer a bit from crowded greens, like hole 2 which is surrounded by cedars or I think hole 4 where less than 3' past the basket is thick, poison ivy abundant schule. Design-wise this punishes peeps for overthrowing the hole which is cool but fun-wise it can lead to a loss disc and/or lots of frustration.

The tees are excellent except one crazy one for I think hole 5 which tees from a dam by the pond. I don't know why they even poured it since the walking path provides a nice level spot and they used it for the previous hole anyway but they poured a great tee on the down slope right beside it and it takes significant restraint to keep from going ass over teakettle with your follow through.

The last, biggest con is that the course ends with a long walk around the pond; basically the course winds around a little over half the way around and then stops. Now this is a small park and a short course so the Bataan Death March it isn't but considering that the designer(s) didn't care to avoid parking lots, roads, a pond or trails with nearly all the other holes it's kind of curious why they didn't throw one or two more sketchy holes in there just to shorten the walk. You might even be able to improve the design a bit.

Other Thoughts:

Worth noting: Salient baskets of the DiscNation Liberty variety. It's oddly satisfying playing on baskets by the most infamous, notorious DG company that ever was, akin to watching terrible B movies for the comedy. As you would expect from the brand dearly nick named "Failient" most of these baskets look like they were dropped from 20' but they do function so far.

If you ignore the obvious safety flaws and the goofy long walk around the pond this is a pleasant place to throw some mids and putters around, a quick, fun romp.
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