There seems to be a pretty wide range of opinions on the Angry Beaver, with many Trusted Reviewers saying it's one of the best, while a couple of others "not so much." I fall into the "not so much" group. Reposado wrote the review that most closely aligns with my rating, 2.5, and experience on the course. Give him a read.

+ It's one of the most challenging course I've ever played. I say that as a con in addition to a pro. It's a con in that I really didn't enjoy it at all. It's a pro in that I believe the challenge of the course is the most important piece of the rating. In the Angry Beaver's case, it's a 10 out of 10 on the challenge, 1 out of 10 on the fun, and the rating washes out in the middle.

+ I've played the Eager Beaver many times and think it's highly enjoyable, especially when playing with my sons. It might actually be the perfect course for that, in fact. Hole 1 at the Angry Beaver starts out right next to its Eager brother and is very short and downhill. Hole 2, likewise, is straightforward enough and short. The basket is on a ridge right in front of the pond. These two holes were fun, but that's basically where the fun ended for me!

+ Good baskets and tees.

+ I'll mention it again: the main pro of the Angry Beaver is the challenge it throws at you. Holes are long *and* technical. It's designed with advanced players in mind. I'm not exactly the intended audience, thus I didn't enjoy it. But if you're an advanced player looking for a top notch challenge, you're likely one of the folks ranking the Angry Beaver among your favorites.

The Angry Beaver was way too angry for my liking:

- As I mentioned in the pro's, holes 1 and 2 were fine. But on hole 3, the Anger starts. It's a blind shot over or through an absolute jungle of trees and underbrush. It's a short hole and a spike hyzer or tomahawk probably gets the job done, but as a first-timer on the course, I didn't want to blindly throw my disc that way towards the road! Oh yeah, the basket is right by the road entering the disc golf section of the park. To me, this hole is a big safety hazard, especially for people who haven't played the hole. You can't see the basket, you can't see where your disc lands, you can't see the road, you can't see oncoming traffic, and there's a jungle of mess you have to walk through. Why?!?!

- I mention the underbrush on hole 3, but it's bad in spots on other holes too. We somehow managed not to lose any discs there, but it was a miracle.

- Maybe the course has seen better days, but it's in need of some TLC now. There were several missing tee signs. Navigation was impossible in the middle of the course. And it appeared that some tee signs were no longer accurate. (Renumbered?) We somehow got off track and skipped a few holes just because of the lack of signage.

- I don't want to just recap Reposado's review, but I agree with it word for word on the length of the course, the 90 degree turns, and the layup after layup nature of the course. All of these aspects of a course can be good, but for hole after hole after hole, it's just brutal.

- Upkeep and aesthetics were not good. I mentioned the underbrush. There was also a lot of trash. The course would also be a lot more fun, in my opinion, if a few more trees were taken out.

I know I could get some thumbs down on this review due to its negativity and being out of step with many other reviews. To detractors, I'll just say that it was my first and only time playing the course, no one else was on the course when I played (which is sort of a telling sign that maybe not many people like it), and I had no direction when the navigation became impossible. I would hazard a guess that if I gave the Angry Beaver another shot, I might appreciate the challenge more and actually enjoy the round (maybe). But not living in Charlotte, with so many other phenomenal courses in the area, the chances of me playing here again are next to nil.

To me, reviews are important because they help you make wise decisions on where to play when other tracks are available. Reviews help you determine your opportunity cost for playing a course. I'm an intermediate player and not living in Charlotte. If you're an advanced player and do live in Charlotte, I imagine the Angry Beaver is an acceptable or even a preferred option for you. If you're a beginner or an intermediate player--or coming in from out of town with limited time to play the fantastic tracks in Charlotte--I can't imagine choosing to play the Angry Beaver instead of one of the many other courses here, including the far less challenging, far more fun, newbie-friendly Eager Beaver. If you're looking for a reasonable mix of intermediate- to advanced-level challenge *and* fun and well-maintained, I offer these (superior, in my humble opinion) alternatives in Mecklenburg County: Nevin, Hornets Nest, Robbins, Bradford, and Kilborne. (Note: I haven't played Renny Gold, the Scrapyard, or Reedy Creek yet.)

I apologize to the course designers, those who may be doing upkeep on the course now, or those who love them some Angry Beaver! It just wasn't for me.

It's tough. It's long. It's challenging. It's tight, woods golf in the Carolina tradition. The angry beaver will drag you down over eighteen holes and spit you out exhausted and beaten down.

There are some nice holes here, starting with 1, a downhill tunnel that forces an extremely straight throw to the pin.

There's a ton of variety with shots moving to either direction and a decent amount of elevation on many of the holes.

Also, if you like forced layups, this will be the best course you have ever played, because they are featured on most of the holes.

But hard does not not necessarily mean good and Angry Beaver is a good example why. While there are courses that are both challenging and excellent, this is an example of a course that was toughened up to make more difficult while ruining anything that was good about it.

A perfect example of this is what has happened to hole 8. The old 8 was probably the best hole on the course, with a long fairway over a meandering creek. It only needed a few trees removed on the approach to make an excellent signature hole. Instead, it was combined with hole 9(a bad hole with a too severe curve) to make the new 8. It's probably the worst hole I've ever played. It's shaped like a damn question mark. Unless your goal is to play courses shaped like sentences, I can't see you liking this change. It's harder, I guess, but only because it's a ridiculous hole in an artificial shape. This is an absolute disaster of a hole design which has warped the entire course in the name of difficulty.

There are an absurd amount of ninety degree turns here. The course encourages placement on drives, but only so that it can make the majority of drives a forced layup. I stopped counting the sharp turns on this course but none of them increase the fun here. It's a groanfest of sharp corners.

When the fairways don't require layups, they are typically overly long shots. This is evident in some of the new tees, where they are lengthened just for the sake of length. 5 is a good example of that. It's not a fun hole. It's just long.

Long can be good. But after a dozen holes of ugh, long is really bad. For a ton of people it will be a tiresome course full of holes that don't really make sense as disc golf holes.

The biggest problem is how much the course drags towards the end. The holes are long and there is little memorable about any of them. For the last last third of the course, I was more weary than excited. That is accentuated by the similarity between most of the holes and laying up to a ninety degree turn seventy feet down the fairway is extremely frustrating for the sixth time.

In many cities, I'd advise checking out the Angry Beaver. It has a lot of good qualities. But in Charlotte, there are a lot better uses of disc golf time.