-A meadows type course thru a park, mostly lightly wooded. There are a few moderate wooded holes, some gaps off the tee, protected baskets by trees or bushes, and mostly a flat course with few sloping holes. There're also a handful street holes, and a few influenced by a street.

-Some holes have two tee pads which are concrete, two baskets, shared tee pads, and shared baskets. #13 tee is painted on a street.

-There is an Orange short course primarily for beginners and recreational, and a Gold course primarily for Intermediate and Advanced players and will challenge them. Both layouts have their own track and, on some holes join, and on others separate. Both Gold and Orange are considered one course.

-The Gold layout has a variety of distances and par. I played the Gold and the majority of my review will focus on Gold.

-Tee signs have hole number, par, distance, and will indicate which course the tee is for whether its for Gold or Orange or both. The maps are very detailed and will show locations of tees and baskets color coded. Also, next tee sign. Each tee has its own tee sign.

-Navigation is clockwise for Gold and very easy to spot next tee except #11 Gold. Not sure about Orange since I didn't observe all the holes. Each tee has a huge sign with the hole number in black and the background orange or gold or both to indicate the course you're playing. The navigation indicators for the next tee I rank #1 for the courses I've played. It would be difficult to lose your way on the course.

-Gold course is very memorable which is surprising considering the course is all park meadows golf. Only #14 was a little hazy prior to writing the review.

-The walking experience from tee #1 to basket #18 is very pleasant and scenic thru the meadows.

-On a busy weekend for disc golfers, the navigation for both courses can have a collision course. For example, #10 Gold and #13 Orange share the same tee and basket, and there are other holes like it. You're likely to have groups arriving on the tee box at the same time from both courses or playing the same basket from different tees.

-I would think that most players will find the navigation easy enough. But I'm sure there will be some who find gazing across the course and seeing all the signs can find it confusing. On the first tee for a moment looking around it was a WTH is this but took just a few holes to figure out the two-course concept sharing tees and baskets and separating.

-#11 was the only hole I had a problem locating. It's a few minutes walking along a street and you run into tee 13. Only time I had to check Udisc and found #11 behind 13 across the street and uphill a few hundred feet.

-There are a few streets in play, but I only saw a few cars with no waiting on a Wednesday morning. Also, some walkers on the course which was light, and I had no waiting.

-There's a dog park that parallels #12, wouldn't want a wayward disc getting handled by a set of teeth.

-On some holes high disc lost with heavy trees and thick brush.

Sunset Park Gold very much enjoyed the round found it challenging with some long holes, a few gaps to play, avoiding large trees with there canopy in the fairway, a few narrow holes, and some well protected baskets. A good variety within the realm of park meadows golf and scenic, and I can develop my game on the course. The Gold Course lacks variety such as water holes or even elevated tees, however it's not repetitive since there are distinguish features on each hole. I think the Orange Course would serve a purpose as a tune up for the Gold Course if time is permitted. This is the second course I've played with street play and I'm beginning to love it. I found the navigation easy enough after I figured how the course was playing within a few holes.

I agree with member aredoubles, Sunset Park rating is too low likely due to most and older reviews based on the Orange layout. If you are a skilled player, I recommend the Gold layout as well for the challenge. The only concerning con I have is on a busy weekend having course collision on some holes. If I lived in the area, I would play Sunset weekly, likely on a weekday.

Sunset Park is now one of three courses I've given a 4-disc rating without clicking the favorite box, there's just a few personnel preferences missing for me. My overall rating is anchored on a 5.0 for the Gold Course. The time to play clicking pictures was 75 minutes.

Notable Holes:

-No. 4 Gold Par 4 at 540 feet is a straight away hole from an open tee to a well-protected basket that is shared with Orange course. A street comes into play that crosses the fairway about 320 feet out, I didn't see any O.B indicators. Before the street are canopy trees lining both sides of fairway and stretching over the fairway. Its open the rest of the way just before the basket. There's a wall of trees and brush protecting the basket on C1 line with gaps no bigger than 10 feet. The approach is difficult, and I like the look from the tee. Got blocked by a canopy tree on the left could only advance up fairway and made a gap.

-No. 8 Gold Par 4 at 728 feet is a straight away tee to basket sharing the tee with Orange #10 with separate baskets. From the tee you get push to the right by a tree 100 feet to your left, but you must come around and hit thru a doable tree gap about 220 out with a ditch running across which was dry when I played. The hole opens with trees still lining fairway until about 60 feet from basket that is protected by a huge canopy bush on the left. To make birdie need the full distance in two or a par in three. Very scenic hole from the tee and the basket placement. Hit a tree at the gap on the right and took 4 to get a bogey putt.

No. 10 Gold Par 3 at 256 feet sharing tee and basket with Orange 13. A straight away hole tee to basket meandering a little left with heavy trees and brush both sides, the gap very narrow at 10 feet at 180 feet out with extended branches overhanging the fairway. The basket is raised and protected by a few guardian trees. Another scenic hole, short and difficult. Got caught up in the bushes to the right and just skip up to the basket to salvage par.

No. 11 Gold Par 4 at 595 feet doesn't share with Orange at all. A down slope fairway lazy dogleg right all the way to a semi raised basket with the street bordering C1 on the right, the street is O.B. The street protrudes into the fairway about 350 feet out. The fairway is very short grass with dirt patches here and there with layered pine needles, it's a hot running fairway. From the tee mostly pines and other trees with canopy and extended branches a very scenic look. LHBH and RHFH will see a line all the way to the basket from the tee just to the left of a group of trees 100 feet out and will probably put a smile on your face "distance"! Its scenic and a very fun throw. Had a very solid tee shot but left my approach hanging out to the left.

Signature Hole:

No. 6 Gold Par 3 at 250 feet and shares the basket with Orange. Is a downhill straight way tee to basket. The basket is open and sits in a grass triangle surrounded by O.B. street. Most of the grass is within C1, some of the street is within C1. At C2 just before the street is a wall of trees with overhanging branches, largest gap about 8 feet. Very formulable look from the tee and the angle is downward toward the street. Picked a gap hoping to skip off the street onto the grass. An agonizing early release sent me to the right of the tree line got my street skip, bounced off a traffic sign pole in the safe grass and backwards onto the street. The drop zone is to the right of the tree line.

Trouble Hole:

No. 5 Gold Par 5 at 910 feet shares the tee with Orange No. 6. The hole starts from the tee throwing into the open with a heavy tree line and brush to the right. You'll have a glimpse of the #6 Orange basket about 300 feet away and that's your dogleg right pivot point. Need to get it there for a good look at the 400 feet down a very narrow fairway with heavy trees and brush on both sides with some area high disc lost. You'll see in the middle of the fairway at the end of the 400 feet a pile of debris bushes and trees that is your marker for a dogleg left. Don't want to land in the debris would be very difficult to throw out. The last 200 feet is upslope with the basket tucked to the right behind guardian trees. Any mistake with the distance will likely cost you a stroke and using long distance discs risk flying into the woods. From the tee you may want to hug the tree line on the right, but that was my mistake. I block myself from the dogleg right and tried to skim the extended branches and was knocked down. Best hope was now bogey, but I did enjoy the view.

In my opinion, Sunset is a much better course than the score indicates. Browsing the reviews, it appears it has come a long way from a humble beginning and still has the scores from that time dragging it down. To me, Sunset gets an easy 4 discs. The orange layout alone would be 3 or 3.5, but together the layouts are one of the best public properties I've played. I think it's great, for a number of reasons.

Both layouts are quality. The golds are fantastic with multi-shot holes and challenging par 3's. They have a really well-constructed combination of risk and reward. But, the oranges are still a nice challenge with a combination of some easier open park golf and pitch and putt holes. I've not played huge numbers of courses, but to my knowledge the number of courses that have 2 layouts this different is quite low. Most multi-pad courses I've played are basically more of the same, with extra distance on the back pads.

A little Google-Fu suggests that several disc golf pros including Brian Schweberger helped Rocky Mount Disc Golf and Rocky Mount Parks and Rec with designing the gold pads. It shows! If I had to pick one pro about Sunset, it would be the construction of the par 4's and 5's off the golds. They are the epitome of risk-reward. Almost every multi-shot hole at Sunset lets you bite off as much as you want, but the farther you go, the more danger there is to the shot. A couple of these holes rival holes anywhere I've played in quality.

Big concrete pads and Innova Discatchers are always nice.

Tee signs were nonexistent the first time I played but this last time there were some nice ones up. Pretty simple with bright colors and clear info. Quality stuff.

There are some quibbles throughout the course, but that's exactly what they are in my opinion. There are no huge cons in the times I've played this course.

Navigation can be just a little tricky. I don't think this is a tough course to navigate, per se, but it's not completely straightforward. It took me a bit of backtracking my first play through, after that it is pretty simple and flows decently. This is an area where you can see that the course has been modified and evolved, it has a couple of disjointed areas of flow. It's not too bad at all. With the new tee signs, it's that much easier. I didn't inspect them closely since I had already played the course twice before they were put in, but they looked to be pretty accurate.

There are definitely a few holes that are shoehorned in a bit because that's how they fit best. 7 orange, as well as 14, 15 and 16 orange are basically just filler to get you from one area to the next, in my opinion. Gold 9 (orange 12) is fine on the orange layout but is just a transition hole that I don't feel like really fits on the gold layout. None of these are terrible, there's just nothing remarkable about them, and in orange 15/16's case, they're nearly identical, with one just having a tighter tunnel. They work for what they are.

The roads running throughout the course do come in to play, but it's almost not a con. It is used as a design element on a few. The island hole is there, of course, plus playing off the road to go big on holes like gold 8 and 10. I mention it anyway because technically it's not ideal, but I've only seen a handful of cars in a half dozen rounds at this property.

Maintenance can be an issue. Sometimes the course has been well groomed, other times it was in serious need of a haircut. If the grass is tall, the inconvenience can be exacerbated by the fact that this course is in a flood zone, so when it is both overgrown and wet, it turns into a marsh. Not the most fun to play in. I would probably knock the score down a half disc for maintenance and poor terrain, if it was always the way it was when I was there in May, but I think it was the exception and not the rule. It's not too bad, especially when freshly manicured.

I've heard of people being panhandled or solicited, but have hardly seen other people, much less been bothered. It could be because I'm a bigger, middle aged man. I would not discount these experiences from other people just because I did not have them. Based on stories, I couldn't recommend someone of vulnerable nature or nervous disposition to play alone, since it is secluded, and nobody could really help you in a pinch.

I always look forward to a round at Sunset. To me, this is simple, no frills, high quality disc golf. There's a lot of other courses up and down I-95 that I enjoy, but I stop here whenever I have the opportunity because I know it'll be a great time. Isn't that what it's all about?

There are two wholly separate layouts/courses here, an older short Orange and a newer now-permanent very-long Gold layout. Sometimes they share a teepad but aim for different baskets, sometimes the teepads differ but the basket is shared, and sometimes they're entirely different. Navigation is generally okay, with large color-coded tee signs and basket bands.

I nearly always play the Gold layout, as I think it's one of the more unique and fascinating courses in NC. Risk/reward decisions abound, as aggressive birdie/eagle plays are possible on most holes but also bring OB into play, while safer par plays can reward consistent and accurate players. Many greens are closely guarded by trees, or by rough/OB on one side, that also reward careful approach play or even risky drives. Again on the risk/reward theme, many holes also have multiple available routes, often a short-but-tight route vs. a roundabout-but-clearer route. In casual rounds, I like to take a shot at everything, but tournament play brings out some fascinating decision-making for all players.

In comparison, the short Orange course is much more straightforward, but is still a decent course.

Both courses are relatively open, in a nicely manicured park-like setting, but still require very careful shot-shaping around large trees or woodlines, to accurately hit precise landing zones or greens. The back 9 features a few shorter slightly-wooded holes.

Focusing on the gold layout, highlights for me are:
- Hole 2, a beautiful par 4 that follows a curving street and large trees on each side into a challenging low-ceiling approach.
- Hole 5, an epic 900-ft. z-shaped par 5, that requires incredibly precise shots to make the corners. Birdies are rare and very well-deserved.
- Hole 8, an incredibly challenging par 4 where your drive must carefully position you to make a window/gap that's halfway down the fairway. Alternatively, wide hyzers that skip off the OB street are an alluring siren call to distance throwers. From there, the basket is guarded by a massive thick tree, that requires an extremely wide and/or an up-and-over approach. Birdies on this hole are the stuff of legend.
- Hole 11, a par 4 that follows another curving street. Distance throwers can go for the eagle off the tee, but must carry OB nearly the entire way, risking an almost immediate bogey or worse. But even the safer drive will still risk OB on the approach to the green.
- Hole 18, a par 4 with a thick wall of brush blocking you halfway down the fairway. There's a tight gap through on the right, or a blind up-and-over play on the middle/left.

For me, these are some of the more memorable disc golf holes in NC, and would probably make my NC 18, which is remarkable for a course with this low of a rating.

- Considering that two wholly separate layouts are present, and the mixing of baskets and tees, navigation is bound to be an issue, though it could be a lot worse. I find the color-coded tee signs and basket bands to be quite clear, but hole-to-hole navigation is occasionally an issue, particularly on some long walks. For the gold layout in particular, use the uDisc app's map.
- The course is criss-crossed by streets that play as OB. Quick history, this used to be a residential neighborhood, but was abandoned after Hurricane Floyd in the late 1990's, and redeveloped into the park (a few holdout residents do remain). Generally, these streets are entirely empty, and so there are few worries about hitting cars, having OB discs getting run over, etc. But, those do occasionally happen, as they remain public streets.
- Two holes actually tee off from roads, with painted markers on the pavement. Even if they are generally empty streets, this doesn't feel entirely safe, as the occasional car still comes through.
- I've heard some stories of shady dealings on those quiet streets. I haven't encountered that at all in my 20+ times playing this course, but have heard it often enough that it's worth mentioning here.
- As much as I adore the gold course for its risk/reward options, those fascinating challenges are truthfully only available for players with comfortable 300+ ft. of distance. For players with less distance, there may only be one reasonable option to go with, and the course becomes much less interesting then, more like a tortuous version of the orange course.
- The infamous island hole, with the basket in a street median, is becoming more and more difficult to attack as some tree limbs grow out and take the hyzer shot wider and wider.

Quietly, this is one of my favorite courses in the state. The low ratings on this site mostly ascribe to the older Orange layout, but the newer Gold layout is really where the course shines. No course rating would be complete without trying the Golds.

Quick note on misc. amenities: nice concrete tees, good baskets, good tee signs, scattered benches, no restroom.

As a player who lives in the Raleigh area, venturing outside the Triangle does not happen much for casual rounds. I did however end up playing the Spike Hyzer Finale this weekend at Farmington, Sports Complex, and Sunset. Man, I was pleasantly surprised with how amazing Sunset is. Word on the street is that the tournament layout is permanent now, and I sincerely hope that is the case. NC disc golf is very old, with many courses outdated due to new disc technology. This layout at Sunset is amazing and rivals Barnett in Kinston as the 2nd best course East of I-95 (Behind The Castle of course).

Pros -

1) Great starting hole, not too hard and not too easy
2) Fantastic Par 4 that is not an easy birdie with many obstacles and OB
3) Great straight shot with a few options
4) Another tough Par 4 (a welcomed theme on this course). The opening to the basket could get cleaned up a bit. If those power lines weren't hanging over the road it would be a lot better, but some things you cannot change.
5) Fantastic Par 5 with the requirement of two good placement shots for a birdie chance.
6) Traffic island hole
7) Great left to right shot downhill between trees.
8) Another great Par 4, this one is a borderline "tweener" Par 5, if the middle openings of the fairway were cleaned up a bit it would be much better. Great hole.
9) Great downhill midrange shot.
10) I don't see the need for the elevated basket on this hole, kinda meh.
11) Great Par 4 with two options: BH hyzer over the road or turnover shot down the middle. Interesting basket placement next to the road now.
12) Solid hole
13) Solid 350' downhill shot at a protected basket location. Again, an over the road option or straight up the gut.
14) This one is kind of a fluky Par 3, super low ceiling with random tree and bush placements. There are a couple of lanes but it could be improved with some cleanup. Not bad.
15) Pretty solid Par 4 with a straight shot off the tee.
16) Nothing special, straight with a right finish about 285'.
17) Super tight line to hit for the park job, a good changeup type hole.
18) Great finishing Par 4, you can throw straight down the fairway or cut it just outside the mando tree and play the left side of the fairway for an easier second shot. Again, it's great to have options.

Significant damage from Hurricane Matthew that still needs to be cleaned up. I am sure in time it will be looking fantastic.

Benches and tee signs with corrected distances at every hole would be fantastic. Currently there are not many of these.

A decent amount of Rocky Mount residents like to park on the streets next to 15/16 for illicit drug use, which is always interesting...

The lack of a parking lot is also kinda of a bummer, park on the street by Hole 1's teepad to play the course.

Again, this tournament layout is great and I really do hope it is made permanent as I heard over the weekend from a couple locals. Farmington is a great shorter course, and when paired with Sunset could make for a great 1/2 combo for a day trip. Keep up the progress RM because the course is something special!

Our second time out and a much better experience. The course is much better maintained than our very first round of disk golf at the Rocky Mount Sports Complex which left us feeling quite discouraged over the sport itself.

Sunset is very well maintained. The tees are well marked and the holes are fun to play. We are not comfortable with parking on the side of the road, but were fine with parking over by the tennis courts or by the ball field.

I can definitely see us playing this one again.

Beautiful old forest to play in. Nice mix of open and wooded holes. Big concrete pads and good baskets.

Could use a touch more variety, but that's really the only thing keeping it from being a really top tier course.

Parking was a bit weird, as we weren't sure if we could park on the road. Otherwise had a really nice day playing the course.

- Once you find Tee 1 this course is very easy to navigate.
- Very well kept after, the grass is mowed, leaves (where it matters) are raked up.
- Covers a lot of ground, Got some good long shots on this course.
- Not much opportunity to lose a disc on this course

- Bathrooms and Drinking fountain, I could not find it, I didn't adventure through the whole park looking but they should be easy to find if they are there.

- My favorite course out of Rocky Mounts 4 courses hands down.

HOLE # 1 is located On Dawson Street about 100 yds up on the right. HOLE # 18 basket is right across the street from that.

Great parking. The #9 island hole and a mix of long-ish and short holes. It's never crowded so the odds of you waiting on another group is rare. And if it's crowded you can drive less than 2 miles to Englewood or Farmington.

Course is well kept and the city does a great job of cutting the grass and trimming weeds around the holes.

Tees are not marked correctly. So if you are not familiar it's impossible to know where the basket is---since it doesn't exist. And it's a bit worse now since they are moving things around for the PDGA tournament this May (2011).

They moved #2's basket back around that small tree again.

They removed the basket and poured a blue t-box on #4. So you shoot at #5's basket and by-pass #5 all together. They also moved #14 to the other block. So after #13 you walk across the street past that house and tee off in the street. You have to throw straight on the same side of the street then throw across the street to land inside the OB box they put up. If you have a strong arm you could throw in the box from the T...problem is there are 2 pine trees you have to shoot through at an angle.

They also poured a new blue T-box on 18 so no more easy birdies.

very clean well maintained course. brand new concrete tee pads. hole 9 id what i always consider being rocky mounts signiture hole is a hyzer shot onto an triangle shaped island road all around, it will make you are break you! alot of nice long open holes and a good mix of wooded holes. also some good intense blind shots that will make you listen for that ching-a-ling we all love to hear! really nice tee signs too

needs trash cans, and some limb trimming.

This course is clean and beautiful, well maintained, and is in a great area with few people around you also has an amazing island green hole

Only a few holes is it not clear where to go after completing them

I had the opportunity to play this course with its founders this course is great it has obstacles, distance holes and accuracy throughout

Extremely fun course set in a beautiful location playing mostly in the open. Quite a few Ace/Birdie oppurtunities can be found in the first 5 holes.

The layout plays on flat open land so elevation would appear to not be a factor. However, some of the better lines to take you to the Baskets require height on your throws in order to make it over 8-12 foot bushes. You can literally invent different lines every time you play. I threw a majority of the holes differently, switching from forehand to backhand quite often.

There are a couple of tight fairways with options of taking huge Anhyzers or backdoor hyzers with height to avoid tress. Some holes play blind and provide a more natural feel to the course. Sunset Park ROCKS.

Only negative for this course would be the lack of concrete tees. I talked to a local that explained the fact that this course is on FEMA land so therefore concrete tees might never be cast, stupid government.

The layout can confuse you the first time out. I would refer to the course pictures to help navigate. It plays back forth over a few streets.

This course is clearly a work in progress and will eventually be one of the best in the area. I drove an hour to get to this course and I plan on driving it again quite often

Very well designed. Some challenging holes as well as a few birdie holes mixed in. Very beautiful course my wife says!

Long pads need to be concrete. Needs trash cans.

Fun course and very clean. You can shoot a very low score from white tees.