The gold course is situated predominantly on a largely cleared hillside of typically rolling piedmont terrain, which is a part of a donated farm site. It is Cabarrus County's flagship park, offering a selection of activities typical of a large regional park. Driving the entrance road to the hill's top, gives one a preview of almost the entire course, which is unusually long and open, certainly considering this region's typical offerings. Rotary disc golf course offers the perfect opportunity to discuss the formal design concept of 'fairness' as it relates to disc golf courses. This review is 'limited' to the gold course.

Fairness, often the subject of controversy, is more of a Platonian ideal designers need strive for, but never reach. It is impossible to make any course perfectly fair. So in practice, fairness consists of a 'fair test of golfing skill', which determines the 'best' golfer. Therefore, fairness consists of a balanced and well-rounded test with opportunities to use precision, strategy, as well as power to negotiate the course well. This demonstrates consideration of players not only of similar levels but players of different skill levels, while allowing equitable competition between players with different play styles, or fortes, if you will. Fairness attempts to avoid favoring a particular play style over any another.

As noted, Rotary is very long and very open. Any competitor unable to throw 450' on command may fall way behind, unless he is matched with competitors of nearly equal ability - a highly contingent occurrence. Even strategy underperforms at Rotary, as the course is so open with so few hazards, placement is frequently and for all intents, irrelevant. This demonstrates exactly why Rotary is 'unfair'. As in the cases of some other area offerings, Sugaw Creek (vast preponderance of holes within a small distance range) and RL Smith (strongly favors counter-spin play), Rotary's imbalance intrudes on every golfer, morphing this track into a grinding endurance test. A typical exemplar being #18, a difficult, tiered uphiller, no doubt inspired by Laurel Spring's finisher. Thank goodness for the views, which are certainly the course's strongest aesthetic points.

It should be said that merely because a course is strategically lopsided, it is not necessarily a 'bad' course. Of course, if the desire is to improve one's distance off the tee and from the fairway, Rotary is excellent. Rotary features largely unobstructed putting. Sugaw Creek has very good pacing and tight-to-open variety. RL Smith exhibits superior use of elevation changes, a pleasant creek and is very secluded. So, binary evaluations lack quality and nuance. Formal design concepts are tools used to create situations where players may express the depth and range of their ability, as well as evoke differing moods and attitudes. Fairness is just one of these tools.

Very nice park with lots of activities.

Play or practice until 9 pm from April through October. The open nature of the course and limited artificial lighting allow you to play certain holes after dark, especially by the tennis courts.

The park is like a giant, grassy hill. You can see many of the tee pad/target areas from many spots on the course. With good distance on some of the holes, there is a real chance to show off in front of fellow discers and park goers. Or you can watch a lot of other discers and their techniques.

A restroom with water fountain is almost always visible or nearby. At least 3 are close to the course.

Sweet course map, and good signage at each tee pad. Look on the tee pad signs for an indication of where the next hole will be. It shouldn't be too difficult to follow.

Great environment: Gorgeous sunset views, and there is often a nice breeze in the park.

5 holes are decidedly uphill, and 6 are decidedly downhill.

7 holes that make good use of limited trees to encourage accuracy on either the approach or the drive: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 17.

2 to 5 holes where the woods can come into play, depending on how well you throw: 3, 4(definitely wooded), 5, 6, 7(wooded at the end).

Never seen anything like hole 6: It feels like you are in a trench. If you try for an ace, you risk losing your disc in the brush. I always concede the ace and play it safe.

Hole 12 is my favorite design decision: With just 3 trees, it gives you a choice of 4 different driving routes.

Hole 18 is an uphill beast to finish on.

Potential for improvement. A high percentage of the few trees are young and growing. A few more well-placed trees/obstacles could make things really interesting.

Park currently closes at 5 pm from November through February. I think Mecklenburg County courses give you a little more time in the colder months.

Serious safety issues and questionable design decisions on 2 holes: Number 5 includes the corner of a parking lot in the fairway! It is often used for softball league or big soccer days. I sometimes lose a stroke just to avoid hitting a car. Number 7 more or less uses a popular walking path for its fairway. I like both of these holes when no cars or people are around, but you have to be really careful. There are some milder safety issues on a few other holes. Just be cautious.

Holes 1, 2, 13, and 16 are completely forgettable filler holes. No obstacles whatsoever and not a ton of distance.

The sun sets at the lower end of the park, so it WILL be in your eyes if you play certain holes at certain times.

You can park closer to the entrance by the tennis courts and begin at holes 11/12/13, if you don't feel like driving up the big hill and deeper into the park.

Cabarrus County needed a good 18 holer and it got one. This park has been an obvious disc golf candidate for a long time. Apparently the Charlotte region needed a solid, open course. This is it. Many thanks to the Rotary Club of Cabarrus County and everyone else involved!

Very open course. It is a great addition to the Charlotte area. Not many courses give that much space to work on long drives and the wind game. 12 or so of the holes are pretty much grip it and rip it. There are 4 par 4's that are over 600'. There are a couple short par 3's, and few other par 3's that are in the 375'-450' range.
The absolute best part about the course is the beauty. It is extremely well maintained. You can see over most of the course from just about every teepad. And speaking of teepads, they are very long and very wide, which is really nice. No worries about not having enough room for a run up. Also, the signage is great. It is on a post with a well designed picture of the hole including trees and paths to the basket. There is also a flag on each post to help judge the wind. That is a nice touch.
It is definitely fun and there are very few danger areas, which make it less mentally challenging and stressful. I think it would be a great place for a beginner to learn and develop distance.

There are two cons. One really big, one not so much.
First, holes 5,6, and 7. They really are head-scratchers. It's not the holes themselves that are bad, it's just where they are placed. Hole 5 you have to throw over a parking lot. There are two trees right at the tee, so I am guessing that is why they put the teepad there, but really the teepad should be 100' closer and to the side of the parking lot. Having the potential to have to throw over cars is not a good design, in my opinion. Hole 6. This also runs adjacent to the back of the same parking lot. An ill placed drive just slightly left will likely hit a car if there are any parked on that side. The pin for 6 is right next to a softball field. Throw too far and you are more than likely going into the field. There is also the potential for disc golfers to be hit by softballs as it is just over the left field wall. This hole should have been about 100' shorter, in my opinion. That would take most of the parking lot and the softball field out of play. I do kind of see why the designer probably went ahead with these holes as the parking lot is only used for the softball fields, so their thought was that it will most likely be empty most of the time. A good fix would be an alternate tee for those times when it is being used. Hole 7, you have to throw down a jogging path. The jogging path is the fairway. That pretty much is all I probably would need to say about that, but there is train tracks running adjacent to the left side as well (I will admit that I am unsure how much the tracks are actually used).
The other con is the lack of variety of throws that you need. Come with a light bag. Most of the day will be driver, putter. That's not really a big con, just something to note.

Overall, this is a very good course. I would give it a 4.5 rating with a little bit of redesign of holes 5,6, and 7. It is worth playing if you are in the area if you want a break from the more technical, woods courses in the region.