Update 7/1/23: By far the biggest flaw of the course (lack of a permanent teepads solution) has been remedied. Brand new 5x10 concrete pads are installed on all the short and long (bar one long using an existing paved walkway), and it makes the world of difference. Also, there has been another round of mulching, which has cleared out undergrowth on many holes.

Disclaimer: Though I have tried to make this review as unbiased as possible, I designed the course and am heavily involved in its development and upkeep.

Layout Variety: With 2 active teepads and basket positions on each hole, there is a layout for players of all skill levels. There are 8 layouts available to play: White to A/B/Short/Long & Blue to A/B/Short/Long. The Blue tees play 6-8 strokes higher than the White. It's worth staying for a second round to try out the other tees or basket positions. Lots of thought went into the long tees and non-original basket positions; they aren't an afterthought.

Shot Shape & Gap Variety: The course has it all in terms of shot variety: basic backhand/forehand hyzers, straight shots, stall/dumpy hyzers, hyzerflip to turn/fade etc. The shot variety is heightened by the different gaps that you can take. 11 of the 13 wooded holes have multiple gaps, which require different shot shapes to access the pin. The different basket locations almost always change the shot or gap required while about 1/3 of the long tees change the shot or gap required (2/3 of the long tees are longer versions of the short tees and don't change the shot/gap considerably).

Open/Wooded Mix: 5/18 (Holes 1, 2, 4, 8, and 14) holes are generally open while the other 13 are moderately wooded. It's nice having the open holes interspersed throughout rather than having the first 5 be open and the rest wooded. The open holes aren't boring either; most of them have a narrow fairway and/or non-gimmicky OB.

Compactness: The course's small footprint makes it easy to play quickly. A solo round on Whites takes just under an hour while a round with four people takes about 1.75 hours. The walk between holes is generally very short. The course was also designed to have two distinct loops: Holes 1-4 & 14-18 make up the Front Loop while Holes 5-13 made up the Back Loop. There's additional parking near Hole 11 to access the Back Loop, which is perfect to play on a lunch break. You can knock it out in 25 minutes.

Par 4s: With the prevalence of Par 54 courses in the Southeast, it's great that Lagoon has 8 Par 4 basket locations: Holes 1, 4, 13, 14 (x2), 16, and 18 (x2). Though only about a third of those positions have a dedicated landing zone, none of them are just holes where you throw the same boring hyzer twice. Though the positions aren't the longest (many are tweeners), Holes 13, 16, and 18 provide challenging but gettable eagle opportunities.

Signage: Signs are 8"x12", colorful, and look like they'll last a long time. They have all the standard information but no bells and whistles (elevation, qr code with drone footage, etc.). They're very detailed and match up well with the trees. Two signs on each hole for each teepad is a nice bonus.

Fun Short Aceable Holes: This is a great course for somebody to get their first ace. On the Back Loop in particular, 2/3 of the holes are pretty aceable. They're in the 175-225ft range. They aren't just gimmy open shots either. You have to navigate tricky gaps, which make the aces feel rewarding. I've got four aces on the course after about 150 rounds played on it.

Distance/Land Limitations: If you look at the shape of the course, you can tell how limited the space is. The course has two shallow sections of woods separated by a lengthy, even narrower connector. The White layouts average around 5,200ft while the Blue layouts average 6,200ft. Holes 1 and 16 in their longer positions are the only true distance driver shots on the White tees. There are also 5ish holes that are sub 200ft and the par 4s on Whites average around 515ft with multiple being sub 450ft. Though flow is generally good, the walk from 4 to 5 and 13 to 14 along the connector is a little long. It's a shame that it's too narrow to do anything with.

Safety: The compactness creates another issue with holes being too close together. Shots on Hole 3 can leak onto Hole 15's tee or 16's fairway. Holes 4 and 14 play next to each other separated by an OB line of small trees. Holes 5 and 13 are next to each other; drives on 13 routinely end up in 5's fairway. Same for 17 and 18. And though the short walks between tees is nice, it is often risky to be teeing off when there is a group on the tee in front of you. The course is rarely busy enough to where this presents a true safety concern, but I imagine this will be an issue during tournaments. There are also a few blind shots (Hole 8 with its sharp dogleg left and Hole 16's tee shot over the big downed tree). Lastly, Hole 14 plays pretty close to a service road, which is separated by a median to the pretty busy Highway 231. There is routinely a headwind on 14, which can cause less careful power players to turn their RHBH drives into the median or potentially the highway.

Lack of Elevation: There is little to no elevation to speak of on the course. The only spot is the Hole 3/16 area where you have a slightly uphill shot on 3 and the reverse of that on 16. Montgomery is very flat in general and the land that the course is on doesn't help.

Lack of Signature Hole: Though I think all of the holes are good, none of them stick out. The closest thing would be Hole 16's teeshot over the big downed tree.

Progress: The best thing this course has going for it is a dedicated group of volunteers willing it to progress. The course opened in April 2022 and has progressed a ton in this short period of time. I'm excited to see how the course progresses over the next few years.