Pros:
UPDATED 7/7/16
-27 holes
-Good concrete teepads
-Redesign is great
-Variety of shots used. Long, short, left, right, straight, tunnel, open
-Water in play on a few holes
-Some risk/reward
-Elevation comes into play on about 5 holes
-Finally there are tee posts with hole# and distance
-Finally there are next tee signs, navigation is very simple now!!
Cons:
-A lot of baskets are very old. Some have detached dangling chains
-This course gets VERY soggy in the wet months and after a good rain.
-A few tee pads are cracked and uneven
-A few tee posts are in very bad spots, such as right next to the front right corner of the pad. I kicked one on my follow through.
-Leave it up to the loser riff-raff to knock over a bunch of the new tee posts and next hole posts
Other Thoughts:
It's been a year since I've played River Bends and I am extremely happy with the work that was put into the course over the last 2 years. One of the biggest complaints in these reviews was navigation. There are now tee posts and next tee posts everywhere. Navigation is 100% simple now.
The redesign of the course is excellent. I was a little bummed that 13 over the river is super short now, 14 is no longer an over the river shot, and 15 has been made shorter, which takes a lot of the river out of play. But overall, it was still good.
I knew that this course had a ton of potential, it just needed a lot of man hours put in. It finally got done and I have no problem at all rating this a solid 4. If every basket was brand new, I would seriously consider a 4.5. If I lived near by, I would play this course all day every day. Packs a great 1-2-3 punch with Stony Creek's 2 courses