Pros:
Glenn Elementary has a 6-hole "course" -- or practice area -- around the perimeter of the school's property. Tee areas aren't officially marked, but if you follow the DGCR course map, you can pretty much figure out the design (or you can play safari from wherever you'd like).
+ I was surprised at how much length the course had. Kudos to the designers for creating a space with 6 holes with decent length as opposed to 9 dinky holes. Using the course map and guessing at tee areas, several holes were at or above 300 feet in distance. Playing safari, you could make the holes much longer.
+ Good use of trees and topography on holes 1, 2, and 6 for some added difficulty. Hole 1 has a guardian tree and the basket is situated on a hill behind it. You have to play an uphill anhyzer or flick over the tree to land on the green. Hole 2 is a long hole with the tee and basket on a ridge. Miss to the right and you're rolling down the hill towards the school building. Hole 6 is a slight downhill shot from the school road down to a green area with trees on three sides. More technical than holes 3-5, which are wide open.
+ The baskets are in good shape.
+ Plenty of field space here to just rip practice drives. If I lived nearby, this would be my field work stop.
Cons:
I don't imagine anyone would travel to Glenn Elementary to play it (not designed for that, obviously), but it serves its purpose as a place to introduce people to the game. That said, here are the drawbacks of the track:
- It's not really a course, per se -- just 6 baskets scattered around the perimeter of the property.
- The course starts on one side of the campus and finishes at the other. You're going to have a long walk either at the beginning or the end. I parked at the #6 basket and walked across the front of the school to reach the #1 tee area.
- I mentioned holes 1, 2, and 6 as pros. Holes 3, 4, and 5 are just open field shots (from wherever you choose to tee off from). The baskets are close to the tree line, so you can make the holes harder by teeing off closer to the tree line and hyzering out into the field and back towards the basket. Still, as mentioned, it's not really a "course," just baskets set up around the edge of an open field.
- Natural tee areas, mostly unmarked. (Hole 1 has a bench that I assume marks the 1st tee. Otherwise, you just have to guess based on the map.)
- When I played, the grass had not been mowed in some time on the side of the campus with holes 3-6. (The areas for holes 1-2 were fine though.)
Other Thoughts:
Worth playing here if you want to bag an extra course or if you need some field work or a warm-up on the way to Durham courses.