I haven't played the 18 hole course at Statesboro in a few years, not since it was first opened anyway. I figured with the introduction of a new weekly PDGA sanctioned league and an upcoming tournament, it's time for another try. It's about the same distance as many of the Savannah courses from where I live, so it was due.

This place has a reputation for being punishing... and downright not enjoyable. That seems to match what I remembered a few years ago, but honestly after playing it again recently, it's not bad. It's still long, it's still technical, but it was actually quite a bit of fun.

One of the biggest complaints about this place is the rough. It's soooooo thick... it actually reminds me a lot of the UK courses I've played. However, I think that much of this has thinned out over the years. The wear and tear of golfers looking for their drives has started to beat in paths and corridors to look for plastic. Either that or it's so thick that your disc bounces off of it instead of falling in. In any case, I'm putting the rough as a Pro because it's better than it used to be. You can actually go in the woods, find your disc, and play on.

Now that we've talked about that, let's talk about the course itself. It's looooong. They have permanent concrete Gold teepads on every hole. Blue pads have been installed with flags as well. The blue tees are significantly shorter and straighter than the gold counterparts. We played golds, but blues reminded me a lot of the way Tom Triplett part in Savannah offers not just distance changes between tees, but line differences. Blues are almost a different course entirely.

My favorite hole has to be hole 4. It's just beautiful. When we got there, a slight layer of haze was lit up by streaks of sunlight sneaking through the trees. It was gorgeous! Hole 10 (the bridge hole) is quite fun as well. The grounds crew did a good job framing the fairway in the grass on hole 18... it was also quite memorable.

One thing I really enjoyed about this long course was it felt like you we're actually going somewhere when you played. Each hole, while similar to the others, was different and progressed nicely. The east side of the course is different from the west side, and they're both different from the airport side.

Some holes are very long, but there are also a handful that are under 300 and reachable on the drive for most players.

Parking is easy by hole 1 and there's a great map of the course right by the teebox. A practice basket is also available.

Some of my favorite things in summary:

- Concrete gold pads
- Easy parking
- Practice basket (and room to practice drives too)
- Variety of hole types and lengths
- New baskets
- Maintained fairways
- Clearly marked OB (with white flags)
- Cool airplanes and skydivers overhead
- Next tee signs and markers
- Friendly club

It's long and it's tough. No way around it, this course will punish you. Again, it's better than it used to be, but it's still tough. You'll spend a significant amount of time looking for your drive if it gets a tree kick. Bring some high socks too because some of the plants aren't very smooth.

The walk from 18 back to the parking lot is long too. There may be room to add a couple more holes in here too just to fill the gap.

Due to geography, this place can be HOT in the summertime. Bring bug-spray!

All in all, it's really a great course. As more time progresses, it will definitely "break-in" more and more. It forces you to be accurate, and that's not a bad thing. It's worth a visit if you're in the area. The club is very active on Facebook as well, so if you let them know you're coming you may be able to play with a buddy. The holes are long enough to need a guide!

Very enjoyable course, lots of technical shots but not without plenty of grip it and rip it holes. Very well marked and easy to follow.

Not set up for drainage, lots of wet fairways this time of the season. Narrows the choice of how each hole needs to be played. Hole ten is a stretch, kind of just seems like an afterthought and could have been placed better.

I feel that a mix between extremely long holes and shorter holes would help the playability of this course. I couldn't find the basket on hole 9, I think the cutting 9 down to a 750ft hole and then stretching ten out where you could lay up before the water or go for the big arm throw if you want to would help this course. Only took 5 shots on the 1042ft hole and enjoyed it a lot.

I'd known a Statesboro course was in the works for a while now, and was excited to check it out. A close friend of mine goes to Georgia Southern University, so I knew a road trip was in order once the course opened up. For a course of this caliber and style to be the first course in Statesboro blows my mind. I give a ton of credit to the designers and guys that got this course in the ground, because they introduced Statesboro to disc golf by building a MONSTER.

Bulloch reminds me of Jackson at the IDGC(one of my favorite courses of all time) only tighter. The course wraps its way through classic towering old growth Georgia pine trees. There was not much elevation or any spectacular features that stood out as particularly memorable, but I still found the course to be very pretty in a classically Georgia way.

The fairways were very well cut into the brush, but many trees were left in place. The fairways vary in size, but seemed very fair to me. On the more open holes many trees were left scattered throughout the fairway, so even the more forgiving shots needed accurate placement. Other holes had you throwing down some tight, intimidating tunnels.

I love playing long courses, and Bulloch has that in spades. There were a few shorter holes, but the long grinder holes where par means having to string together several excellent shots abounded. That is by far my favorite way to play golf, even if it means fewer birdies for me.

The flat terrain made the length pretty easy on the body. A course this long with lots of hillls will wear you out. Even though the round at Bulloch is a bit of a grind I found myself feeling better physically after this round then I have at most other courses of similar length.

Course was muddy, wet, and/or swampy in several areas that were clearly supposed to be part of the fairways. March is a very wet month in Georgia, I'm not sure if this will be a year round issue or only seasonal.

I thought many of the pars were too challenging as listed. As far as I could tell the pins were only in the long locations, with only 1 par listed on the tee sign for both pins. Many of these pins were extremely long. I have an above average arm (can drive about 450 feet) and several holes signed as par threes were not reachable off the tee by me with a perfectly executed drive. I don't think that it is good course design for a par 3 to be reachable off the tee only by elite players who can accurately place shots over 500 feet. I thought some of the signed par 4's played more like 5's as well.

The rough off the fairways was brutally thick. If you missed the fairway or took a bad kick into the rough the best case scenario was pitching back to the fairway, and even that was impossible at times. This is to be expected from a course that has only been open for a few weeks. I'm sure over time this will become better as more work is done and the course just gets broken in by players. Right now though lost disc factor is very high when you miss a fairway.

Some of the gaps you have to hit between trees are REALLY tight. Combining the super tight gaps with the impossibly thick rough and long holes can make holes rapidly go from bad to worse. I think most holes would play better with a couple more trees removed. Obviously for a brand new course its much better to leave too many trees in then to take too many out, so I'm curious to see if any changes are made as this course continues to develop.

This is a great course and a fantastic start for disc golf in Statesboro. Its still in its infancy, but I am excited to see how this course develops over time. I think in another year or two this could be one of the better courses in the state. Its still rough around the edges, and that is to be expected from a brand new course. I can easily see this course growing into a 4 or 4.5 rating in the next year or two