Pros:
Very solid course in a nice, well-maintained, multi-purpose municipal park in Suburbia, USA.
• Disc play: Really nice variety covering a range of shots and fairway types. A great mix of semi-open, moderately wooded and well-wooded fairways of varying shapes and lengths. Invites you to throw hyzers, annies, spike hyzers, straight shots and more... well-balanced in that respect. Nice mix of holes allowing multiple routes as well as holes that limit you to one or two routes. Transitions from open to wooded a few times to avoid monotony. Holes 3 - 18 all give you something to think about. Admittedly, the first two are the weakest, but I've seen much weaker filler holes and they serve to ease you into your round.
+No hills, but the rolling terrain creates moderate elevation changes on many holes, making them play longer/shorter.
+Distances are a bit on the short side, but there are a few reasonably long holes where most players should be able to let rip (4, 15 and 16).
+ Plenty of great pin placements. Many guarded by trees, making tee shot placement important to line up good par and birdie opportunities. Also has a few pins with roll-offs or other trouble behind them to make you think on putts and approaches. Raised basket on 9 will have will also have considering whether or not to run at the basket, especially if it's windy.
+Rough ranges from dense brush to prairie grass/weeds to dense woods, but all the fairways were well-mowed and clearly defined. Punishing in some spots, not so bad in others... as far as I'm concerned, that's all part of the balance between risk/reward: if the rough looks scary, maybe you should consider a safer, more predictable shot.
+ Dual tees should accommodate skill levels from Novice to Advanced. Shorts will be challenging for beginners, but not intimidating. Longs aren't necessarily much longer, but present tighter windows/tougher lines to hit. The longs also present a few more blind looks than the shorts (hence I recommend not playing the longs solo unless you're familiar with the course or willing to accept the risk of disc loss.
• Flow/Navigation: Virtually seamless. There were only a couple of questionable spots, think I only checked the map once... pretty much just followed the well-worn path.
• Basically isolated from the rest of the park, I didn't see other activities likely to bring non-DG traffic near the course. Fairly compact and efficiently laid out - can be played quickly if there isn't a lot of traffic.
• Equipment: Tee posts with hole #, distance, and picture (only at the short tees). Long and short tees are both concrete, reasonably sized, in good shape with little to no signs of erosion. Baskets were a bit older, but in good condition (one was bent, but not so bad it warranted replacement).
• Aesthetics: Very pleasing to the eye, somewhere between a pleasant walk in a city park and that away from it all feel. Didn't see any trash.
• Extras:
+ Plenty of benches throughout.
+ Bathrooms and snack bar that sells drinks near parking.
+ Practice basket has bricks marked at various distances.
Cons:
No glaring deficiencies - only the first two factor into my ratings. The rest are just informational.
• Some holes are packed in a bit close together... expect to hear "FORE!" if it's busy when you play.
• Although it's a solid course, none of the holes have any real "wow" factor.
• Signs at both tees would be optimal, but if you're only going to spring for one set, it makes sense to put them at the shorts. Presumably, people playing the longs should be more adept at finding their way around a course.
• The rough is dense in spots - there's a reasonable chance of losing a disc here.
• Quite a few blind holes (even from the shorts) will have first timers walking up fairways.
Other Thoughts:
Eagle Ridge/Civic Center is a well-executed, reasonably challenging course with high fun factor. Lots of deuceable holes that are protected well enough to really make you earn birdies. Interesting enough to make you want to return. If I were local, I'd play here regularly.
Some will say it starts out a bit weak, but I like the way it eases you in before things get tougher. The long tees will prove challenging for most players, but even the longs require placement moreso than distance. I'd give the disc play a 3.75 on it's own merit, but the superb course maintenance, design and fun factor make this an excellent place to play - thoroughly enjoyable in pretty much every way... enough for me to bump it to 4.0.
Not that it isn't suitable for tournaments, but you can tell this course was designed with the fun, casual round in mind, rather than challenging top (or even local) Pros... goal achieved!