Pros:
~Pristine setting in a Summit County Metropark
~Extremely challenging yet fair
~Fantastic navigation
~Great concrete tee pads
~Love the Mach X baskets
Cons:
~Tailored towards upper level advanced and open players, ignores the casual players due
to level of difficulty
~Only offers gold level tees
~The rough is unforgiving and full of briars
~Huge lost disc potential throughout the course
Other Thoughts:
Threw a round on a warm Winter Solstice afternoon with a good friend. Right away you can tell this park is well maintained, and that the course is a showcase for high level disc golf play. Ample parking lot with a nice restroom facility, you can warm up on the practice basket before following the asphalt path to the first hole.
Fully aware that this is a championship level course, and knowing it was long, I was skeptical heading into this adventure with how much enjoyment this 43 year old sub 900 rated player could have. While the majority of the holes here play long, the course is very fair overall and rewards smart shot selection and placement. Huge risk reward is constantly offered to the player, and you need to decide on when to go for it. Most holes played bogey golf to my distance and ability, and I walked away satisfied with that.
The course shows it's teeth with sneaky distances, elevation changes, and landing zones that appear more accessible than they truly are. The key with Silver Creek is keeping your disc in play, and often times that means discing down and choosing your spots which often costs you a stroke from par, but keeps you in play. The rough throughout this course is brutal, thick, and full of thorns. Lost disc potential is extremely high if you go more than 10' into the thickets.
Extreme length occupies a good 75% of this course, with a handful of reachable par 3's and some modest par 4's but everything else is bombing controlled shots sometimes three of them to get into putting and approach range. We specifically waited until Winter for our first time visit knowing how brutal the rough was in the growing season. I don't know if I would seek a round out here during the Summer, but Spring, Autumn, and a warm Winter day makes for a good option.
This course doesn't appeal to a regular player like myself as a place I'd come back to very often, but it's extremely well thought out and constructed. It exceeded my expectations at all levels, and was worth the visit. I just don't understand why a gold level course would be installed in a metro park without shorter sets of tees to accommodate all skill levels. Unless this is meant to generate revenue through pro events, it does fall short on what public disc golf courses should be built for.