Pros:
Course has so much potential to be outstanding, but it falls so far short.
- Good use of the terrain, provides many holes with good elevation and obstacles.
- 2 longer tees are challenging. If you can't throw straight, you're in trouble. And as I mention in the cons, even if you do through straight, you may still be in trouble.
- Good variety of holes. This course definitely requires you to use all the discs in your bag.
- Low chance of losing discs. Water only in play on 1 hole. It seems the biggest risk is hitting a tree and having it bounce deep into the woods. On some holes, the woods are really thick and unforgiving.
- Beautiful scenery. It's a great looking park in a great part of the state, the tractor-pull track not included.
- I liked the red marks on the baskets being used as arrows to the next hole.
Cons:
There's a lot of small things that need work. You can accept when there's only one major problem, but when it starts adding up, it gets real frustrating.
- As mentioned already, some holes were missing true fairways. It felt like going into the woods and throwing a disc, and luck would play the biggest factor in whether you hit a tree 50 feet away or 200 feet away. I played with a group of guys, and on several holes we hit trees on almost every single shot.
- One or two holes may need to be redesigned or have a bunch of trees cut down. There's a big difference between tough, but fair and over the top.
- The cut-down trees and branches were never fully cleared away. Piles of logs and debris were on just about every hole. For the holes that did have fairways, some of the piles were about 2 feet off the fairway. Again, not fun having to climb and dig through a pile of branches when a shot barely misses the fairway.
- Perhaps my biggest gripe was that the stumps were not cleared away. Every wooded hole had stumps in the fairway. It gets old really quick when you're tripping and stumbling over stumps almost constantly. All were maybe a quarter inch to 2 inches, so they're not always easy to spot. Our shins and ankles all took a beating from tripping over and hitting the stumps. Frustration might be an understatement by the time we finished.
- I couldn't always find the correct tee pads. They need to be better labeled.
Other Thoughts:
Despite the issues with the course, it has some serious potential.
- I think I am being overly hard on this course because it has the makeup of a 4 - 4.5 level course, but due to the problems, it gets serious markdowns. If it improves, this course reminds me of Richmond Hills in Asheville, NC with a little bit of Renny in Charlotte thrown in. Its potential is that good.
- The course is from '08, so I hope these problems are just because it's new. It will be a shame, and serious waste of potential, if the problems don't get fixed.