Challenging and just a little too long in the woods for your average Rec to Intermediate player to score well, the 18 holes at SKYCTC (formerly 'BG Tech') each boast concrete tees and DisCatcher baskets, plus a defined line of play. The rough crowds you from tee to pin, so you know before you throw that you're gonna need some real technical precision to avoid heartbreak. It's not a course intended for beginners, but for players with enough self-knowledge to know when to disc down and take the bites it gives you.

You will need to bend shots in both directions and, on several occasions, know when to play a hole in stages. Holes 1 and 12, for instance, have 'second fairways' (after the first bend) that are longer than the first. You'll need controlled distance on holes 3 through 7, which play more open.

This is a course that will favor local players over time, as the design incorporates numerous blind basket positions, and though there are informative tee signs, they do NOT always give you a reasonable depiction of the hole configuration (see below). One of the sweetest holes is 15, where a controlled drive (test the wind first!) just past the rocky culvert will line you up for the pretty lane into the woods (ALL the pictures here need updating: there's no fence, but an OB driveway uphill to the right, now).

With plenty of parking right beside the fire station, the design nicely incorporates two loops of nine (though if you're allowed to park on campus and want to play all 18, I'd suggest parking between 6 and 7 to make it an even quicker flow). There's a nice shelter 'gazebo' and practice basket near the 1st tee, 9th basket and 10th tee.

The lack of next tee signage usually isn't a huge problem, but if you finish hole 6 'unawares', you'll be mystified before hopefully realizing you have to cross the entire campus to your left to find 7. And since the course has been redesigned, even the kiosk map is out of date: Hole 1 bends hard left, they've added a little 2nd right bender, and renumbered to the eliminated old hole 6.

An example of a 'misleading' tee sign is hole 17: it seems to show a gentle dogleg right, but the hole plays as a lefty S- bending shot. It's a neat hole: out through a couple of guardian trees, open in the middle and guarded on the approach, best line coming in from the left there.

The rough is nasty and usually thorny in unexpected places. And often, the debris that has been well cleared from the fairway now constitutes a barrier wall between you and your disc, if you went more than 10 feet into the rough. You often will have an extended disc search, followed by a prayerful pitch out, rather than a recovery shot.

Hazards: Hole 7 has a dangerous culvert just a few feet past the basket (marked as OB for this year's BG Ams, making for a tricky upshot). Oh, and throw parallel with the fence: the basket you can see to your right is #13. The apparently new rockpile between 12 & 13 does a nice job of separating the fairways, but poses hazards in climbing up if your disc lodges there (likely on 12). When you finish hole 18, there's a cut-through path to the parking lot that puts you in line of the 1st tee shot, so cautiously look left, or better yet, walk around to the practice basket to your left.

I've not heard many folks throwing out huge compliments for this course, but it clearly has potential. It's a little too difficult for new players to come and enjoy it, so the rough doesn't get beat back much. Clearing the undergrowth and leaving the trees and major shrubs would mean a TON of work, but would increase the fun factor a bunch (and my rating a notch or two).