Pros:
A lot of fun in just a little space. The course is in a nice looking park with some other amenities. There are picnic tables, pavilions, a playground, bathrooms, etc. And it's just a short drive from downtown Cincinnati and Northern KY.
The course starts and ends right beside the parking lot. It makes a nice circuit around and across a small valley. The valley is made up mainly of nice grass and mature trees. The outer edges are made up of thick shrubs and brush. The fairways are defined by a shorter cut of grass. The day that I played, the grass and rough was very nicely manicured.
Course navigation is very easy, even without a map, as you can basically see each of the next tees from the previous basket. If you have a map, then there's no reason to have any trouble.
The tees are blacktop. They're close enough to grade and big enough for the length of the course. (However, there are cons listed below, too.)
I appreciate that several holes really require you to shape your shots. The length is relatively short, (I throw level drives about 325' consistently to give an idea of my perspective.) but I wasn't just throwing simple RHBH hyzers the whole time. I enjoyed the opportunity to shape S-Curves, Anhyzers, Hyzer-Flips and dead straight line drives with my mid-ranges and putters. Actually, I only threw one Hyzer off of the tee.
The holes are excellent practice for mid-range and putter drives for me. And I think that it would play well for beginners, too (with one major exception listed in the cons below). Since the holes play more across the slopes, than up and down them, the walk isn't too strenuous either, as long as you take it easy. So if you're not in good shape, you could still probably play the course without too much trouble.
Cons:
The age of the course is clearly showing in the baskets and tees. The baskets could be the biggest drawback for beginners. I would hate to have people turned away from the game due to the inconsistency in the baskets.
Some baskets are low, almost sitting on the ground. Others are at normal height. They all have single chains that don't take to hard putts very well. And the #5 basket is coming apart at the welds and the chain assembly is bent. The hole #2 basket is also labeled with #9 on it, which was a bit confusing as the hole #9 basket is labeled properly.
A couple tees are splitting apart, leaving bad gaps in the blacktop. And most aren't level, with a couple on pretty steep downhill grades.
And then there's the subject of the weird 6' circles of blacktop around the pins. Not even counting the toll that this could take on your plastic, it creates weird skips and roll aways. I understand not wanting to have to weed-whack around baskets, but mulch can take care of this without the drawbacks.
If you require bomb holes, this course isn't for you. There wasn't a single hole that I couldn't reach with a mid or putter. Since the course plays over grassy fairways and just around big trees, it's not very technical (or difficult). While the holes playing across the slopes, vs. up and down them, makes the course easier to traverse it also left me wanting a downhill bomb to throw. I don't feel that the layout takes great advantage of the on site elevation change available. There's no water in play... except that the holes in the lowest part of the valley probably get very wet & sloppy when it rains.
Normally you have to pay $3. It's not big deal to me. But I know that some people frown upon pay courses/parks. When I was there, a maintenance guy told me that if there was no ranger in the park station, then you didn't have to pay. So I didn't have to pay (at 6:45 in the morning).
Other Thoughts:
I can't believe that this course was installed in 1981. I was playing target golf with a Frisbee in the early 80s and didn't even know that there was such thing as "real" Disc Golf. If I had played this course then, I would have been totally blown away.
Still, I found the course very enjoyable. It was a quick, simple, relaxing play for me. As I mentioned before, it was good practice for mids and putters. I really liked that I only got to throw one Hyzer off of the tee. I've played courses where every hole was a Hyzer, so this course was very refreshing in that sense.
If the baskets could be upgraded, it would immediately raise my rating of the course by half a point. And I don't mean replacing the baskets. If they could simply all be set to the same height that would help. And if #5 could be welded back together it would be nice. If they wanted to add a set of inner chains, that would be icing on the cake. I do appreciate the old baskets in the context of this old course.
Highlight holes for me include: Hole #5, possibly the simplest hole on the course. It's just a simple, basically level, dead straight shot at 248' that plays across a small depression. It's lined by trees on the right and to the back and is more or less open on the left. It looks like a ball golf hole to me. Sometimes I don't know why a hole is a favorite. This is one of those holes. I just really liked it.
And hole #8... There's a nice, reasonably tight, gap between two large trees midway down the fairway. The pin sits over a little hump and down a little hill. Unfortunately, the gap is obscured by a bunch of dead branches hanging from the right tree in the middle of the gap. There is an alternate route to the hole, a Hyzer line that you can get to, but the obvious line just needs to be cleaned up.
I was only in the area for two days. I got to play Idlewild in KY once and then this course. I could have played Idlewild twice instead, but don't regret going around Embshoff at all. I genuinely appreciate this "classic."
Would I go a long way out of my way to play the course... no. But that doesn't mean that it wasn't fun. I would hope that any disc golfer could enjoy the course for what it is, just a simple, old course.