Pros:
Laurens County Park is a great scene for a disc golf course. Right next to the airport, and a large natural area, this is a solid park. Just be prepared for a walk.
- There are some good holes. The setup is there for an even better layout.
- #2 & 7 are the only holes that aren't over complicated. #2 is an open-field, downhole 524-foot layout. One of several holes for players to unleash big drives. #7 is a straight layout in between the trees, at 324 feet. Ignore the design on the tee sign, which clearly was drawn by a blind person. The fairway is straight, not a dogleg.
- There's a mixture of open holes, wooded holes, and quasi-wooded holes - three of each. As such, distance is a benefit on several holes, accuracy on others. And better yet, several holes require smart shot placement as they're multi-shot holes.
- There are several risk/reward holes - #4, 8, and 9 - where an aggressive tee shot can lead to a real birdie chance. Unfortunately, all three tilt too heavily to the risk side where the aggressive shot probably isn't a smart choice.
- There's some nice scenery. If you want to get a full appreciation of the park, you're in luck during your 5-10-minute walk from #9 back to the parking lot.
Cons:
No. No. No. No. No! Easily one of the worst five designed courses (out of nearly 300) I've played. Hole #9 ends the furthest away from the first hole as is possible. The entire course is 3100 feet. You have a 4/10-mile walk (approximately 2200 feet) from #9 back to the parking lot. Any positive feelings I had about the course were lost during that walk.
- The course seems like it was laid out by non-disc golfers. If you did design this, and you are a disc golfer, well then. I was wrong. There are just weird, awkward angles, layouts, and flows to holes.
- Why are you throwing directly at a swamp on 4? Why are you throwing blindly, downhill, directly at a pond on #8? Why are there so many blind tee shots, especially when it's important to know where the basket is, a la #3, 4, 5, and 8? As mentioned above, sadly #2 is the most logically designed hole.
- Tee signs are essentially pointless. The hole distances at least appear correct. The simplistic layout designs offer little to no help.
- In The Office, Season 4, Episode 1, Michael creates a pointless 5K run. At the finish line, we have this exchange:
- Toby: Where are we?
Kelly: I dunno, like 5 kilometers from the office.
Toby: He (Michael) couldn't have made it a circle?
Other Thoughts:
Laurens County Park is a nice park. The disc golf portion needs a massive undertaking.
- I sensed things were going downhill after finishing hole #6. Instead of turning back towards the front of the course, the layout turned left and went deeper into the woods.
- The course would be better, and more compressed, if you were to just play holes #4 - 9 twice. You'd eliminate about 2/3s of the extra walking.
- I don't understand the design of #4. You're taking dead aim at a swampy area just 20 feet to the left of the basket. In front of the basket the ground is muddy. Does that mean this area is often under water? Is it drying out? Just, why?
- #6 is also a simple, decent layout. An open, dogleg left design. Perhaps I enjoyed this even more because my disc never turned over and it flew on a rope directly into the bathroom building.
- #9 is a good closing hole. The water shouldn't come in to play. Ignore the water and the fairway is a little smaller. That said, it's a pretty simple par 3.
- The course gets major deductions for such atrocious flaws. It has the makings of an above average nine-hole course. Simply by adding a couple of wide open holes on the way back to the parking lot would break up that walk. The upstate has some pleasant nine-holers. This is not one of them.