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.

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.

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.

Sometimes you feel like a nut. When you play a course primarily to add it to your 'played list' and it ends up being better than expected, well, the joke's on you.
- Darrell Almond was a solid, varied layout. Many small towns looking to build (or hopefully redesign existing) 9-hole courses should look here as an example of what a good one looks and plays like. The course had enough appeal that a long-time hack like me can enjoy while a newbie can also get a feel for the game without being overwhelmed.
- This is a reverse-sandwich course with the substance being the bookend holes - #1-3 and 7-9, with the middle holes (#4-6) being substance-less. Any one of those three holes could (should?) be replaced by something better. Perhaps a closing hole throwing over the water instead?
- The only elevation on the course is found in the first three holes. Each hole offers a varying degree of enjoyment and challenge with its respective elevation. The highlight is clearly #3. It's a dogleg right, 311-foot from the long tee, 150-foot straight downhill throw from the shorts. There's a small chance if your disc sails too long, you might sail the fence and end up wet. In the end, you've got to finesse your way around a tree to the basket. Then you've got to put up with a Salient basket that's already unable to remain upright.
- Hole #9 is an under-the-radar fun layout, even from the short tees. It's a dogleg right, 250-foot (340 from the longs) tee shot that forces you to keep your shot low to stay below the branches and/or far right, sweeping back to a basket that's located on the other side of a creek. If this hole implemented some OB (make the walking trails and creek OB) you'd be force to play safe to the left or have enough power to clear the creek. As it stands, this is an excellent closing hole.
- There are plenty of birdie chances here. Good risk/reward element as the course allows you to be aggressive, making runs at the baskets, while potentially penalizing overly aggressive shots.
- Course is easy to navigate. It also has great tee signs. This makes it easy for anyone to make their way through their round.

I'm not a fan of the long walk around the lake from #9 back to the parking lot. The nine holes make their way around two-thirds of the lake, then you've got to walk the remaining one-third to get back to your car. Seems like you could do something with that - like adding a hole over the edge of the water - especially when considering your filler holes.
- A couple basket placements teetered on gimmicky/poorly planned. #2 is placed between trees, which block putting angles from many sides. #4's basket is less than 15 feet from thick rough long, left and right. Basically the basket was put in a corner, as close to the rough as possible. I had a 20-foot birdie putt, it just happened I had 5-10 feet of rough between my disc and the basket. You would never see a basket placed there on a pro-level course, so why do it on a beginner-friendly course?
- Level of pettiness towards certain courses in the region continues. Look at who downvoted my review if you need to know who. Still going on after all these years.
- The baskets are in rough shape. After several holes in a row of bent and/or severely leaning and under-chained baskets, my buddy and I were wondering how a course less than 1-year-old could have baskets in such bad shape. I checked the basket on the next hole, and to my surprise....it was a Salient basket. Now I understand the anger against the company. These baskets were already looking and acting as if they were a decade (or more) old. Frustrating and discouraging.

All told, Darrell Almond is a very impressive nine-hole course. By nine-hole standards, it was an above average layout.
- For a course that has very few trees or other obvious obstacles, the designer did an outstanding job of creating a good variety of challenging layouts. The flip side means that there's not going to be (m)any chances for redesigning layouts. Unless you incorporate one playing over the water. Look at Jack Marley Park as an example.
- Holes #3 and 9 are both solid layouts. They deserve their due recognition. Plenty of other people will enjoy the challenges that hole #2 & 8 offer.
- I came to this course with no expectations, not knowing what to expect due to no reviews. My thinking was that was probably a bad sign. Instead, I discovered the course was simply overlooked as it was due to being out of the way, and not convenient for anyone.
- I had to make a detour from Charlotte to get here. It would definitely get more traffic if it were closer to Albemarle and Fox Chase. It's a shame this course never got the traffic it probably deserved.