Overall it was a good course, had fun playing it. Pretty easy to follow. Can't remember what hole it is think it was 5, throw down the hill take a 90 degree turn right and fo back up the hill. Was no clear path and could not figure out how the designer intended the hole to be played.

Had several poke and hope holes and several tweener holes.

-This course challenges your ability for the long drive, aiming, consistency, and technical shots
-The holes are spaced nicely so that there are few holes that get backed up
-There are a good variety of hole types (wooded, open, flat, hills, etc.)
-Clean course
-Well maintained

-If you cant throw very far you might get discouraged. There are a lot of holes that are 400+ feet.
-I was there in the early spring, and that probably had something to do with the conditions, but it was extremely muddy when I played.
-Find the next hole was sometimes challenging. Try to play with someone who has played before.

-The course designer did a good job with what they had available.
-The course was really easy to find.
-I talked to a local, and he said they change the holes up pretty frequently. I really like this about courses

Idlewild has excellent land to work with and the designers made very good use of the terrain to create picturesque, challenging holes that force you to carefully approach every shot. The course is well cared for and things like litter and graffiti are almost non-existent. This course is rightly called "epic".

The designers definitely set out to create a tough course but lets face it - any hole is challenging if you don't cut down any trees. Several holes have ridiculously convoluted and obfuscated flight paths to hit where your shot basically becomes a roll of the dice. In the same vein, six or seven holes have truly mystifying OB rules where even an excellent shot is considered OB because it is 1 ft outside the designated green.

Idlewild is truly something special - you don't really play the course, it plays you and forces you to perform at the top of your game. Your hometown course will feel like pitch-and-putt after a round through Idlewild. Don't go into the round expecting to play well - you won't; this course is something that you simply experience rather than actually enjoy.

Very large course. Lots of open water and water hazards. Maintained very well. All fairways were mowed and neatly manicured. Plenty of parking. Great directions to the park.

While the course had great maps of each hole on each tee pad, each hole had two and sometimes three baskets to chose from that you could visually see on the maps (which to me is a huge mistake)...however not all baskets were in play. You may overthrow the first basket which may be in view...only to discover that the basket you were wishing to play was not there...very discouraging.
The out of bounds on a few holes was rediculous.

It was a very nicely laid out course, beautiful. Definately recommend, but after playing Lincoln Ridge, I enjoyed that course much more...if you are in the area, definately go there to give it a try!

Idlewild is an amazingly beautiful course on a perfect piece of land for a course. It is an innovative design and an absolute "must play" - a destination course to be sure!

From what I have read and heard, it is a PROFESSIONAL level course with a Par of 72 and a Scratch Scoring Average (SSA) of around 69-70.

I was expecting to get beat up by a grizzly man (like I feel after playing Renaissance in Charlotte, NC). Instead, I left feeling like I was beat up by my sister! Frankly, I was let down based on my hopes and expectations.

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of GREAT shots and great spots on the course, but there were waaaaay too many "doinky" holes. What I mean by that is multi-throw holes where you float a putter 100-200' to a landing zone and then do it again and again to get to a par 4 or 5. I mean, I could make a ton of par 5's in my house that would be about as interesting: Throw from closet to bedroom door (10'), throw down hall (13'), throw into bedroom (10'), throw into closet (8'), putt. Obviously, I am overstating my point....but I hope it makes my point........ On top of that, there are 2 holes well short of 200'.

Maybe I should have known this would have been the case since the course is only 8,220' long and is par 72 (by contrast Renny Gold is 9,407' and is par 70). I should have expected there to be some tricks used to bump up the Par & SSA.

Maybe the PDGA course description calling it "professional level" misled me. I might have had a different expectation going in had it said something like, "This innovative finesse course will test your accuracy and placement shots like none other. Check your cannons at the door since you will need them on only 3-4 drives." On top of that there are 3 holes that are less than 200' long....that is a very high percentage of holes that professionals would never feel challenged by.

There are simply not a lot of holes that you can really get the testosterone flowing and let 'em rip. I am not a big arm (average 300' controlled drive with 360' being my absolute max - real distance measured on a football field), so for me to say that should give you an idea of how some of the bigger arms might feel. Talk about being beat up by a girl.....

There were also too many holes with tightly spaced trees in either blind areas or in your approach to the basket. That is not a good design technique in my opinion since it injects too much luck into scoring.

An element that is unique and very cool on the course is the way that the course uses a beautiful meandering stream as an obstacle. It is beautiful and fun. My only complaint is that there are 4 holes that have the creek wrap around the putting green creating OB moats within 10' of the pin. That is a cool design for 1-2 holes per course.....but 4??!! It is a very artificial way IMO to boost up scores (and SSA) as it unfairly punishes shots that are otherwise great approaches that are slightly low (or long in some cases) or that take a bad skip.

I rated this course a B+ in its ability to draw me back to itself again and again and again (my profile has more detail on this). Funny thing is, Banklick Woods (or Linkin Park or whatever the new name is) is several miles away on a similar piece of property and is absolutely phenomenal in my book. It is the highest ranked of all 180+ courses I have played - I absolutely looooove that course! Obviously, folks in Cincinnati know how to design good holes/courses, but Idlewild falls short in what I personally prefer.

PS: I shot a 75 my first time out. That was with 3-4 strokes added by me hitting what looked like the landing zone "perfectly", only to find out that I was not even close (that's what you get by not running up and scouting the hole....or playing with a local). I also missed about 4 putts inside 20' (I usually miss about 2 per round).

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I fully expect others with different tastes/philosophies to disagree with me. See my profile for my rating philosophy.