Pros:
The Gold Course is a 10,000+ ft, open course designed to be the most challenging of four courses at the Kayak Point Disc Golf Resort. This is the big brother to the Red course, with mostly wide open fairways. The fairways are a little tighter on some holes than on Red, and the distance is significantly longer. The main challenge in this course is the elevation change. The majority of the holes play downhill either the whole way or downhill off the tee and back up to the basket. The elevation change provides challenge in shot selection and angle control. I went on a relatively calm day and it was a challenge, so I can imagine a windy day being very tough. Basket placements are also done well, with lots of elevation utilized on the green and guardian trees on a number of holes.
-Tee pads are nice turf
-Tee signs are professional and informative
-Fairways are a fair width
-Grass in the rough is kept long, which is nice because it makes for more challenging footing and adds a degree of punishment for missing the fairway
-Pin placements are interesting utilizing trees and elevation to challenge putts
-Elevation change makes for challenging shot selection and angle control
-Location is beautiful, course is well-maintained
Cons:
Hole 12 seems out of place and is not a very well designed hole. It is similar to Hole 6 on Reds, but feels much more like a hole that was put in just to regain some elevation and get to the next tee. From the tee you are staring at a 15' vertical wall of dirt, and have to throw some sort of trick shot up and over to a fairway with low hanging branches...so reaching the pin is nearly impossible on the shortest hole on the course.
On many holes, the cart paths that cut across the fairway play as OB...I'm not opposed to OB on or over cart paths that line the fairways (like most of the Red course), but having OB 'rivers' that run through the fairway seem arbitrary and annoying.
Not a huge deal, but there are four 600+ ft par 3s on the course...while I can see a big arm getting all the way to Hole 1 off the drive due to the severe downhill slope, the other holes have an extremely guarded green (3,6), or a tunnel that starts 400' down the fairway (8). These are all great holes, but the par may need to be adjusted.
Other Thoughts:
If you don't have a huge arm, ignore the par on this course and you'll have a great time, but if you want to score well, play the Red course. Fun long shots with more elevation change than most (any?) course in Western Washington.
I walked the course and logged 5.3 miles in a 2.5 hour solo round. Carts are available at the pro shop for rental.