Pros:
I went through some previous reviews and pulled out a few adjectives that really sum up what I was expecting to find on my first trip to Iron Hill: Hard, Long, Beat Down, Difficult, Intimidating, Scary. As a glutton for punishment, I was eager to experience this for myself.
What I found was not what I expected. I don't consider Iron Hill to be a hard, intimidating beat down. Sure, it's long, but it's fair. In my experience, truely "hard" courses are ones that use water, OB, and elevation in ways that force players to think long and hard about how to make the safe shot. Often times, these kinds of courses require a lot of luck to score well.
To the contrary, Iron Hill presents players with wide, clear fairways. The lines to the basket are well defined. Success at Iron Hill comes not from finding the safe shot, but rather from execution and placement over long distances. The fairways themselves are not overly hard to hit.
While this makes Iron Hill sounds easy, don't be fooled. The difficulty, and most of the score separation, comes from the subsequent fairway shots. With a par of 72, the course is designed with 18 fairway shots. That's 18 additional opportunities to make mistakes on shots without the benefit of a teebox from which to throw. With fairways that twist and turn throughout the woods, placement off the tee is critical. Hitting the fairway off the tee is not enough, to succeed, you need to be able to hit a spot on the fairway that sets up the second shot. This is a unique challenge that is rare in disc golf.
Cons:
My comments above refer primarily to the gold layout. And they really only apply to players who can hit 350' with accuracy on multiple different golf lines. The fact is, that's who this course was built for, and that's who gets the most enjoyment out of it. Most players find this course difficult simply due to the fact that they can't hit the intended landing zones to set up the second shot. Lower power players simply will not have the same kinds of looks at the second shot that stronger players will. Some of this can be overcome with pinpoint fairway accuracy, but that leaves little room for error.
The shorter layouts provide some relief for players with less power, but these layouts feel second-rate compared to the gold. The short tees are not nearly as well kept and are a mix of natural and flypads. The silver baskets, although new and in great shape, are very difficult to see in the thick woods. I frequently had to walk most of the fairway just to get an idea of where to throw. Some sort of visibility aid (flags, colored tape, etc) would be really helpful.
Other Thoughts:
This is a very difficult course to assign a single rating to. For top level players that can hit the lines and distance required consistently, this is a must play. Iron Hill will provide a unique style of play that is hard to find anywhere else.
For lower power players that don't have the skills to truely appreciate what Iron Hill is, the course is nothing special. There are no real signature elements that set it apart from other courses. It's certainly fun to play it as a measuring stick to see where your game stands, but it's nothing special outside of that. And the shorter layouts that will cater to these skill levels better lack the polish that the Gold layout provides.
I gave a positive to your review, which I felt was pretty dead on. The White tee pads and Silver baskets have under gone many changes to make 4 distinct courses. This is why they're not all done. It been done in a very deliberate, calculated manner to get the best out of them. This has led to multiple changes and delays on getting them complete. I thought your review alone would have ranked 4 stars, but I'll take positive and negative feedback over ridicules bashing and blind praise. The Gold course is designed for 1000+ rated players and I don't mind be reminded of that at all.