Hildebran is a beginner friendly, pitch-n-putt nine hole course. For those looking for a challenge, the good news is that Glenn Hilton is only 10 minutes away.
- This is pretty simple layout, meaning what you see is what you get. For such a small piece of land, you do get a decent variety of holes: a couple uphillers (#2 & 6), a good downhill hole (#7 - the best hole on the course), a couple of dog legs and straight ones as well. As is this case with most simple courses, the biggest obstacle is to place a basket behind, or close to, trees, which you see on #4, 7 & 8.
- Nice, brand new baskets.
- Very beginner and kid-friendly. With no holes longer than 131 feet (although #6 at 125 plays longer because it's uphill), even if someone has never thrown a disc before, length will not be an issue. Even beginners should see some 2s and 3s on their scorecards.
- Good practice course for more seasoned players. I don't see this course getting a lot of traffic, so it would probably be pretty easy to pick any spot on the course and throw to almost any hole you want.
- Nice, clean neighborhood park. There isn't a lot here - playground, picnic area and restrooms - but it's all new. There is also a course map next to the main parking lot; however, there's a small lot with a couple spots by hole #1, so you might not see it. Not that you really need a course map.

There aren't many cons at this course, at weird as that may seem.
- Course needs to be cleaned up and, well, finished. There are a lot of small shrubs, roots, plants that need to be cleared away. On #4 &6, especially, these plants are all around the baskets, so if you land in it, you might spend an extra 30 seconds searching for a disc. It also and perhaps more importantly, limits possible skip shots.
- Navigation needs to be improved. Yes, there are arrows pointing to the next tee; however, there aren't clearly defined tee areas. So, if you're a perfectionist, and need to find the precise tee spot based on hole length, it'll drive you crazy. If you see an area around where the tee should be, and decide that's good enough, you'll be fine. Even simple flags or brick markers would solve this problem.
- Along the lines of navigation, some holes play on top of each other. You pass #4's basket to get to (the general area) of #3's tee. On other holes a stray shot is going to land in a different hole's fairway. And as others have mentioned, #2's basket is way too close to someone's yard.

To its credit, Hildebran manages to squeeze 9 holes in a tiny piece of land. Even if they tried, I don't see how any hole could be more than 200 feet at this course. So for that, they did a decent job. To see a bad version of squeezing 9 holes into no land, visit Marion DGC, 40 minutes to the west.
- As mentioned already, yes, this course was clearly aimed at beginners and the most casual of players. If you come to this course carrying more than two discs, you're bringing too many.
- The course is less than 3 minutes from I-40, so you can stop here for a quick round. If you're here alone, you should be able to play through twice in about 25 - 30 minutes.
- If I was rating this course in a vacuum, it did a good job in achieving its goal, so I might give it a B or C grade. But, comparing it to all courses, this course is essentially a mini-golf version of a real course. If I lived across the street, I'd practice here all the time. It reminds me a little of Fewell Park in Rock Hill (around the corner from Winthrop), in that they offer some fun in the pitch-n-putt, one or two disc needed variety. You'll enjoy the ace chances, and that's the extent of it.

- That it's There. Hildebran is a small community on the outskirts of Hickory, NC. The park the course is in is just as small as the community it is in. It's a "pro" when disc golf reaches small communities and courses are installed... even if they are extremely short putter courses.
- Great for Beginners and Advanced Putter Practice. Hildebran would be a great place for a beginner to learn to throw some shots... and a decent enough place for an advanced player to practice their approach game.
- "Cubby Aces" and "Birdies" All Day. With holes ranging from 80'-130', you could have 10,000 "aces" if you played here all the time. I played the course with 4 Aviars... throwing each of them off the tee-pads, trying to get "Cubby" aces and park jobs. I got one "Cubby" ace (Hole 5)... and of the 36 drives I threw, I think only 3 of them would not have yielded me a 2.

- Ridiculously Short. I realize the course is for beginners, but this course was ridiculously short... You could easily use a jump-putt on several of the holes as your "drive". But, then again, the designers did what they could with the land that was available (the entire park is extremely tiny... maybe 6 acres). And, if you simply look at the course as a putter-upshot-practice course, the shortness is forgivable. Just pretend that the tee-pad is where your first shot landed on a regular course... and try to get up and down to save Par.
- Extremely Raw. This course has only been in the ground for a few months and therefore is still extremely raw. The fairways haven't fully healed from the clearing, tee-pads have not been officially installed (there were some construction flags on some of them, but not all).

- Overall. Hildebran is an extremely short 9-hole course that is in a small community. It is a great place for extreme beginners to learn to throw a disc, or for more advanced players to practice upshots. Being right off the I-40, it's a decent little stretch your legs stop if you're making a long drive (i.e. on your way from Raleigh to Asheville, but without enough time to stop at Hickory or one of the other courses). Hopefully this course will introduce lots of beginners to the game and give them a place to learn before having to go to Hickory and other harder courses. I will stop by here again, as I drive the I-40 corridor a lot for work and often want to stretch my legs - looking for "Cubby" aces.