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Henderson, TN

Gene Record Park

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35(based on 4 reviews)
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Gene Record Park reviews

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wellsbranch250
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 10.4 years 662 played 642 reviews
2.50 star(s)

Parking Problems

Reviewed: Played on:Apr 8, 2023 Played the course:once

Pros:

(2.307 Rating) A diverse parkstyle niner with two tees.
- HOLE VARIETY FOR A NINER - In my travels, very few of the niners I've played have had this good of hole diversity. There's a Dog leg par 4 that requires proper placement on the tee shot. There's several opportunities to bring out a driver and there's an ace run to end it. There is a mix of tree coverages, although none I would define as heavily wooded. Water comes into play a couple times. A hole hooks left and right one time each. Among the 197 niners I've thrown now, I have the variety here in the top twenty among those.
- BASICS - DISCatcher baskets, Yay! Concrete Tees and two of them on each hole, Yay! Always nice when a course gets the standard required items right.
- SKILL LEVEL FRIENDLY - Considering the two tee element noted above, this place will work great for multiple skill levels. The back tees will work for MA1s and 2s, while the front tees will work for MA3s and 4s. Some of the hole distances are not optimal though. I'm not a fan when courses have open 435-foot par 3s and also open 455-foot par 4s. The noted examples here play no different and score no different.
- TEE SIGNAGE - Only one tee sign per hole, but the tee sign has all the required info except next tee direction. The sign is also very easy to read from a distance.

Cons:

Figuring out how to get to tee (1).
- LAYOUT FLOW - There is zero parking by tee (1) on this course. There is however a ton of parking by tee (2) and (3), and a bunch by basket (9). Regardless of how one intends to start throwing their round here, there will always be a large transition gap between basket (9) and tee (1), which are nearly a ten-minute walk apart. Being my first time, I parked by (9), and walked to (1). This required walking through pathless woods at one point, as I was trying to cut down the distance I needed to travel. This is a huge course flaw. I could see reviewers shaving off significant rating score for just this issue.
- MISSED OPPORTUNITIES - I'd really like to know why the park's centrally located wooded hill was completely skipped over in the course design. Were they not allowed to go in there? It could have really helped the flow with just one hole present within this feature.
- MULTI USE HAZARDS - Most holes have a spacing conflict. For some it's an adjacent ball field or walking path, while for others it's a road or parking lot. I could see a hole or two needing to be skipped if there's an active park setting. It is what it is.
- NO EXTRAS - No practice basket, no tee benches and no course map.
- TIME PLAY - Gene Record takes much longer than most niners due to the layout issues noted in my first con.

Other Thoughts:

I think a majority of small towns would love to have a course like this one. It'll appeal to a wide swath of skill levels because of the two-tee set-up, but also allow players to play 18 different basket and tee combinations if desired. I don't think the course is large enough or exotic enough to appeal to destination seekers. Near-by JB Rolling Hills likely fits that description, although I have yet to play it. The course sort-of reminds me of places like Gattman in Florence Alabama, North Drive in Kentucky and Mills Park in Gatlinburg. Overall a 2.25 to me with just enough positive aspects to cancel out the egregious errors and end up above my 2.25 rating threshold for a 2.5.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - I scored this aspect a touch below average. The small rural park has some nice features to it like a small creek and a modest hill. The view from tee (8) looks great with all the crepe myrtles and it also parallels the before mentioned creek. Hole (7) has a pond fountain in the backdrop. Too many open shots however and man-made features in view for me to personally score higher for this aspect.
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