This course really exceeded my expectations! The course rating was 2.7 and my daughter played in a tournament there. I was told that recent improvements to the course were what helped make it dry and a really good wooded course from white and red tees.

The course is a standard New England quality wooded course, although it lacks the elevation that lots of New England courses have. The fairways are plenty wide and totally fair. You won't play Plinko unless you miss the fairway. There are white and red tees for every hole. The baskets are quality. The course is free and parking is ample. The design is good, as the course plays in a figure eight design. Unlike previous reviews indicated, the course was not muddy at all. There were TONS of woodchips. Navigation was pretty straightforward. The tees were a real mix of gravel, turf, concrete, etc. But all of them were more than adequate. There's tons of shades. No prickers and barely any poison ivy. It's also SUPER close to I-84!!

-Could have better signs and more benches
-Lack of elevation
-Lack of water
-Lack of OB
-Lack of any open holes

Go play Panthorn! You'll have a great, fun round on a nice, quality wooded course. Review it and let's get the overall rating above a 3.0. It certainly deserves to be!!!

Lots of old and drive-by reviews. I found the course to be better than the cumulative average rating of 2.77; it definitely deserves a fresh review.



+ The course is wooded and flat; it plays through thick woods but the fairways aren't particularly tight. The course is 15 years old and well beaten-in. There are a few partially open holes that provide some additional variety (you're throwing across an open area from the tee, or through a wooded fairway into an open green)


+ Two sets of tees that provide a significantly different experience (the reds are a pretty short par 27 4600', while the whites jump you back to 6300' and create four par 4's). I only played the whites, but I think most of the difference between the two is added length off the tee, and not real differences in angles. The overall benefit is that you really have two courses: one for newbies, casual rounds with mids and approaches, and the other "full" course. You really could bring a young or inexperienced player to play the reds while you play the whites


+ Some of the back tee positions are really creative. For example, hole #3 almost doubles its length to 456' by moving the tee straight back. You now have to cross an open field created by a fire break, with the challenge of making the gap on the other side. It's still just a longer version of the hole, but it's introduced the need to have control much farther off the tee


+ The most memorable hole had to be #6, with a massive tree lying along the length of the fairway (377'), and the basket obscured by the roots of the trunk reaching a good 10 feet in the air. It's a slight dogleg right, so it's all about touch with a fade around the roots

- The only Cons are environmental: the course looks like it can get very wet - even swampy - and I'd advise avoiding it after a rain. The other environmental factor is a major highway (I84) running next to the opening holes. It's pretty much obstructed from view by the woods, but the sound volume when trucks roared by made me think I was playing in the breakdown lane

~ There are a couple of longish walks between holes, but they're well marked and easy to navigate. The first tee is pretty far into the woods - you cross over #14, and you may see #7 and #13 baskets on the way


~ Plenty of parking, but the course is a long and winding way from the park entrance. I never saw any signage, and it took me a few wrong turns to get there (when in doubt, head in the direction of the highway)


COURSE AMENITIES:
The course is 15 years old, and some of the equipment is showing age (old chainstars, and simple hand painted signage). But there's evidence of excellent care everywhere: Newer paper maps are screwed in over most of the old signs, rubber tees are level and in good shape, and some of the tees are being converted to turf. I didn't see a speck of trash, and even though it's deep woods, none of the fairways showed overgrowth interfering with the designed lines



RECOMMENDED COMBINATIONS:
You don't have to go all the way up to Harford for Wickham. There are other excellent options: the newly-expanded Hidden Pond to the southeast shows a lot of promise, and the terrific combo platter of Page and Rockwell to the north. Panthorn doesn't provide the hills of Page or the thrills of Rockwell, but it's a very good wooded course to include on a bagging day when the weather is dry

Unbelievably clean and well kept course. used for tournaments a few times a year and the crew that goes through to prep the course does an outstanding job clearing brush and blowing leaves. Well defined layout with great hand drawn maps of each hole. This course gets better and better every year. Winter seems to be the best time to attack this course.

fully wooded course so leaves become a hazard in the fall. Also very swampy on the back nine so if it's been raining bring your mud boots! Skunk cabbage also gets bad late in the season if its been a rainy summer.

Wide Open Wooded Holes but "fair". Right off the highway so it's easily accessible. 18 Holes!~

All Woods. Some holes seem "random". Some of the holes didn't have proper signage. Some of the rec tees also didn't have proper signage.

1) This course is challenging which is nice. While the course is entirely in the woods, there are both wide and narrow fairways.
2) Many holes are attack-able right off the tee box, but also require a variety of shots/approaches
3) Reasonably flat for a CT course makes doing 18 holes after work quicker and easier to beat the sunset
4) Secluded from the rest of the park

1) When it has been rainy this course gets extremely muddy. If it has been a day or two since the last rainfall during the summer time you will be fine. Give it a few extra days if it is spring or fall.
2) There are 5 holes that run close to the highway. The noise isn't great, but I have never actually been distracted by it. The other holes have a better woodsy feel

This course if fun with some challenging aspects to it and is a decent distance for a 100% woods course. It is also in the center of the state and easy to find, I strongly suggest it.

-Located in a beautiful park in Southington. Lots of activities after you're done golfing, if you just wanna hang out and grill or whatever.
-Pin locations are excellent. Usually tucked away behind some rocks or trees. Hole 17 in particular is awesome, the pin is behind this rock wall and makes for a very interesting hole. Hole 2 has the basket on top of a little hill which gives an elevated basket feel. You can tell course designers went out of their way to make sure pins were in cool places.
-Fairways are very clearly defined and wide open. Never really a question of where you're throwing.
-Challenging! Not an easy course at all. Very punishing when you make a mistake, but very rewarding when you hit your lines.
-Awesome elevated teepads. Very smart, considering that the land is very swampy.
-Tee signs, where they have them, are excellent, with distance, local route, and the more conservative route. Pars aren't on there, but that's less important (Just count everything as a 3! Strokes are all that matter anyways)
-Ample parking
-A lot of bombers. You don't usually get very long holes out here in CT in the woods, but there are some monster here, including 9, a 500 foot behemoth of a hole.
-Relatively easy to find your way from one hole to the next. A few places where this could be improved (10 to 11) but for the most part the signage is great.
- Hot tub hole, #6, is an interesting short hole with OB in the form of, well, a hot tub, just short of the basket.
- Big Lacrosse fields right next to the course for warming up, although I don't think you're technically supposed to be on it.

-As was mentioned in pretty much every other review, this place is a swamp and gets very very wet and is difficult to play within a week of rain. However, it's not as bad as a lot of people make it out to be - there are walkways here and there. It is admittedly really bad in some places, and a few nice bridges could go a long way.
-Right alongside a highway. Not relaxing to play like some other courses around.
-A lot of holes are missing tee signs. This is made even more depressing because the tee signs they do have are really cool.
- Some holes are really frustrating. #16 might be my least favorite hole in disc golf because, unless I'm mistaken, there doesn't seem to be a realistic way of getting a 2, and you basically have to make 2 short upshots and just try to save a 3.
- A lot of very tight gaps. Some holes, especially #14, feel a lot like, 'Throw it and pray holes'. There is a definite line to hit, but it's so small you really have to be precise to get it through. I think to a certain extent this is good, but Panthorn goes a bit over the top here and there.

I really like Panthorn. It's a nice sister course to Page in Bristol, Page being more technical and Panthorn being a bombers course. I do think this course gets unfairly scrutinized because of its location, but the holes that are here are a lot of fun. I would much rather go to Page, but definitely try this place out as a change of pace if it hasn't rained in a week or two, and you'll have a blast.

NEVER BUSY. I play here several times a month and rarely see more than 2-3 players on the course.
Layout: The course has a good variety of holes, though it is nearly 100% wooded. The fairways are well defined and range in difficulty. There are some score-saving short holes that nicely contrast a few frustrating card-busting holes, I am talking about you #14. The course is flat and plays relatively quickly. I find myself playing at least 36 here every round.

This course can eat discs, you need to keep your disc in play.
It is difficult to get around the first few times you play. Once you get it, the play is a great pleace to work on all aspects of yoor game.
I have not experienced "wet" play here, but I did play here all summer and never had a problem.
Highway noise on the first 6 holes

This is a great place to play. Thanks to many rounds here my scores have improved dramatically at the other area courses. This is a tight course that forces you to make good decisions and execute them well, otherwise your score suffer.

Well organized course with tees easy to find - well marked. Technically challenging. Heavily wooded. Great for hot days because it is entirely shaded and very flat.

Never a chance to just throw it as hard as you can because the woods will swallow you up. Some baskets are really hard to see. Someone put orange cones on them, but they faded over time.

Lots of wildlife. I saw a snake before I even teed off on # 1. Then I stopped looking. The ground is rough - a rock cut a hole through my sock and left me bleeding.

One of my favorite courses in all of Conneticut. Not only is the course itself amazing the amentities are great as well. There are two sets of tees on most of the holes. There are clean and easy to understand tee signs at every hole and next tee signs where needed. The course itself doesn't cater specifically to one kind of thrower but will punish you if you don't have multiple styles available. The rough is some of the thickest I have ever seen. This is good because it forces you to stay on the fairway. The fairways are clear of fallen debis and there are only a few small piles of scattered brush throughout the course. There is a good use of OB and clearly marked by colored rope. The teepads are made of rubber and level! Benches are available on most of the holes; even the ace races. There is ample parking and bathrooms and athletic fields across the way, Hole nine comes out right next to one. A welcome board and scorecards are on the way to the first tee. There are also wooden planks on the low boggy areas.

After a little rain the course could become soaked. Some of the recreational tees are in rough condition ( wood chips recently put down to help with this). Some of the rough is almost too thick to the point it is easy to lose a disc. A few of the holes are slightly overgrown. The possibility of a lost disc is a little higher here than most other non-water courses.

- Great signage on this course. I played by myself and never once got lost. The map of each hole was precise and the distance seemed to be spot on. There were also signs for "next tee" after every basket, and that was the best part for me. With this course being totally enclosed in the woods, I would have wandered about like little red riding hood until a brave lumberjack came to rescue me. I did not see any wolves however. I did have a run in with a giant schnauzer though.

- This course is challenging. There isn't any "easy" holes on the course. even the under 200 foot holes weren't easy to just attack and go for it. Most of the baskets were hiding behind trees like little precious metal deer.

- manmade water hazards were a really neat (though not really needed with all of the water) touch. I like the little coy pond looking thing in front of the basket (see the video in the other thoughts).

- there were tee pads on every hole. Though some of the pads were small, or just a rubber mat tossed on the ground, they were absolutely needed with all of the water flowing here and there. The joint was flooded from front to back, and I would have fallen like an old drunk without those pads.

- good layout for the most part. for the most part, all of the holes favor a RHBH player. I can tell you that my flick was not loved by the trees on this course. I felt at times like I was in Oz and that they were going to start throwing apples at me at some point. There were some two or three straight ahead holes as well. They were NOT easy either.

- every hole had a place to sit down and a table to put your stuff down at the tee pad. Again, this place is WET and the tables were much needed.

- I can't mention enough, as you have probably noticed, how bloody wet this course was. I was up to my ankles in mud from the time I teed off until I trudged my way back to the car. I almost packed it in about half way through because I was tired of sinking up to my ankles in the middle of the fairways and basket areas.

- some of the tee pads were short and not full out "pads". they could have also been elevated to get them out of the water.

- I'd have like to seen more variety in the shot from time to time. It's not much of a "con", but there were a TON of dogleg left holes. I am probably just griping because I am primarily a forehand player.

Did I mention that this place was wet? ha.

I want to play this place in the summer when the leaves are on the trees and when it dries out. I can't imagine that it isn't just more kickass when you can throw a roller and not have it stick straight up in the mud.

I'd have liked to played with a local, but alas, I played alone. Not a huge deal, but it's always funner (my word) to get in with someone who knows the lay of the land.

Check out my youtube video that I made with this review to try and give you a visual of the place. please let me know if this is helpful in the youtube comments, or what else you would like to see in the videos. It's my first shot at this to enhance my reviews, so any feedback is most helpful.if it happens to not be processes yet, come back and check it out. THANKS!
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87GTc-IJAUA

Long, wooded and challenging. great mix of shots, no advantage for any type of throw or player. 18 nice Chainstar baskets and almost all tees now have full raised boxes with fly pads. Signage is improving, can be tricky at first but it is a well worn/played course so just follow the footsteps. Nice flow and design with 1 and 9 and 10 and 18 right next to the parking lot, to play front/back options (nice for a backup on hole 1, start on 10) Course is only upgraded for and by players, town is 'hands off' which can be good and bad. Big fields adjacent to parking for practice throws.

A little tough to find from the park entrance; just keeeeep driving up and to the left until you're there. Usually, the course is wet in all but the driest of weather, with puddles and swampy sections. Bug spray mandatory in spring through fall.... seriously. Signage could use updating for new players. Fairways are kept up but rough is just that... ROUGH. Long tight holes are beginner un-friendly, but there are short tees.

One of the toughest courses in CT; long, tight, gnarly rough, accuracy needed, easy to blow up on any hole. Only thing missing is major elevation and huge open holes. Pro par is 58, and course singles record is only about a 54 or so (update: might be lower now).... Some new tee boxes added in late November '09. Bring waterproof shoes and some patience, worth the stop.

UPDATE: don't listen to the bad reviews here. It is bone dry, and a great course. If you can't throw in a straight line more than 200ft, throw from the rec tees.