Pros:
WHAT TO EXPECT: Extremely beautiful scenic mountain course filled with towering Pines and Ponderosa Trees. Fun course with a very medium difficulty level that will suit a lot of skills of players.
TEES/SIGNAGE/BASKETS: Large textured concrete tee pads that are flat and good shape (there appeared to be some long tee pad locations on a few holes that were rubber mats but we did not play them as we played the Masters Worlds set-up that was installed). Large course Kiosk with all relevant rules and information and a detailed course map. Tee signs (the actual permanent course signs, not the coorigated plastic worlds installed ones) were pretty good, a little small, but had all relevant hole information and a detailed hole map. Baskets were in good shape, dark red/maroon in color and caught well. Practice basket beside Hole #1
DESIGN: Wonderful use of elevation where available. Surprisingly flat for course at this elevation, but the designer utilized slopes and gradients well where they could. Fairways were wide, forgiving, and cleaned out. Course uses a solid mix of distances between the varying holes. There are 4 par 4's, all relatively on the easier side of scoring, bunched together but I could see them all being hard 3's if you wanted to play the course Iron Man Scoring style. Multiple shots required at varying distances, RHBH shot shapes, RHFH shot shapes, gentle turnovers, options for big over the top plays, mix of tight wooded holes and more open bombers.
EXTRAS: The course looks and smells terrific. The views are spectacular at all the Flagstaff area courses so this is no surprise. Has a way of feeling secluded and out in nature despite being in a populated area. As such there will be a few nature loving walkers about, but the course was pretty much empty when we played. There was zero trash or debris throughout the course when we played. This could be a result of worlds coming up, but probably more of the extremely dedicated disc golf community in Flagstaff and the maintainence crew. I'm guessing this course is always immaculate.
Cons:
TEE SIGNS: Were set up for cotter pins to indicate pin location for the baskets, but most were missing and some were indicating the wrong location. Of course we went by the worlds layout, but they were very inconsistent.
BASKETS: Nothing wrong with the baskets themselves, but the color was a little annoying. They were a dark red/crimson color set against a wooded landscape with rich dark red soil. It made some of them very difficult to locate against the backdrop. Minor con for sure, but added some time and confusion for a first timer.
TEE PADS: Minor con, some are a little short due to how they are shoe horned into some locations and combined with them being elevated a few inches above the ground, make long run ups difficult, especially if you are trying to come in from the side to create an angle.
NAVIGATION: Without much next tee signage it was rather difficult to find where you were going despite the course flow being not that bad. There were a couple tricky transitions #12-#13 for instance.
ROCKY LANDSCAPE: There are a lot of rocks on this course that will beat your discs up, provide uncontrollable kicks and skips, and give you some bad beats on occasion. It's part of disc golf in this area, but it can leave you with a bad taste in your mouth.
Other Thoughts:
Wonderful course, moreso for its raw beauty than anything, but the design is pretty solid for this rough Arizona landscape. I would definitely play it again myself or recommend people visiting Flagstaff to play it themselves as part of their time there. 3.5 rating might be a little low for this course, but it just doesn't earn a 4.0 in my book. It does have the potential but it just isn't there yet.