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Swain Course reviews
9
0
A flawed course with much potential
Reviewed:
Updated:
Played on:May 16, 2023
Played the course:once
Pros:
The water holes (3, 11, 16-18) are immensely fun shots to throw and provide a reasonable element of risk with 11 playing the hardest.
The back 9 features some challenging but fair wooded holes and rewarding gaps to hit.
16-18 is such an awesome stretch of finishing holes, the tightest hole on the course at 16, a risk/reward hole where you'll have to play out over the water to reach the green with an elevated basket on 17, and a nice, fairly open putter shot to a basket surrounded by creeks to finish.
Decent variety of shots here. 1,3, 5, 9, 13, 15 are all fairly open to contrast with some of the tighter woods holes.
Ample parking in this massive lot. You could conceivably park by 1/18, 3, or 9 depending on how crowded the course is and where you want to start.
Looks like a practice basket just got put in. Fairly open field for field work and warm ups.
The campus of the church is beautiful and picturesque to play on.
Brand new baskets, tee signs and tee pads make this course feel fresh.
No litter to speak of.
The back 9 features some challenging but fair wooded holes and rewarding gaps to hit.
16-18 is such an awesome stretch of finishing holes, the tightest hole on the course at 16, a risk/reward hole where you'll have to play out over the water to reach the green with an elevated basket on 17, and a nice, fairly open putter shot to a basket surrounded by creeks to finish.
Decent variety of shots here. 1,3, 5, 9, 13, 15 are all fairly open to contrast with some of the tighter woods holes.
Ample parking in this massive lot. You could conceivably park by 1/18, 3, or 9 depending on how crowded the course is and where you want to start.
Looks like a practice basket just got put in. Fairly open field for field work and warm ups.
The campus of the church is beautiful and picturesque to play on.
Brand new baskets, tee signs and tee pads make this course feel fresh.
No litter to speak of.
Cons:
Holes 1, 4, and 5 play directly adjacent to roads and the forehand lines all require you to throw out over where cars and pedestrians might be with no mandos preventing that
Holes 8 through 10 feature terrain of mostly rocks, gravel and dirt. It turns into a quite a mud pit when wet and can really chew up a disc.
Hole 7 butts right up against a couple of backyards with no fence or markers delineating where the private property begins.
The walks from holes 2 to 3 and 18 back to the parking lot are longer than you'd like, with the 2 to 3 walk through an active parking lot/entrance to the main part of the church.
Holes 1, 5, 9, and 15 all feel a bit filler with no real obstacles or tight lines to hit. Some OB peppered in and an elevated basket on 5 don't quite bring these to the level of the other holes.
13's basket is about 20' away from 14's tee box. There isn't perfect visibility to the green when you're throwing on 13 as well so this is a bit dangerous.
The backhand line to the basket on 9 brings you very close to 10's teepad.
There is a fair amount of poison ivy on this course, especially close to the water. I recommend wearing pants.
There is no water or bathroom accessible on the course.
With this layout so close to the roads and it being located at a church with a fairly active community, I can't imagine a weekend tournament here being possible. Pedestrians would be everywhere, backups would be long, and the tee pad safety issues would really come into play.
Holes 8 through 10 feature terrain of mostly rocks, gravel and dirt. It turns into a quite a mud pit when wet and can really chew up a disc.
Hole 7 butts right up against a couple of backyards with no fence or markers delineating where the private property begins.
The walks from holes 2 to 3 and 18 back to the parking lot are longer than you'd like, with the 2 to 3 walk through an active parking lot/entrance to the main part of the church.
Holes 1, 5, 9, and 15 all feel a bit filler with no real obstacles or tight lines to hit. Some OB peppered in and an elevated basket on 5 don't quite bring these to the level of the other holes.
13's basket is about 20' away from 14's tee box. There isn't perfect visibility to the green when you're throwing on 13 as well so this is a bit dangerous.
The backhand line to the basket on 9 brings you very close to 10's teepad.
There is a fair amount of poison ivy on this course, especially close to the water. I recommend wearing pants.
There is no water or bathroom accessible on the course.
With this layout so close to the roads and it being located at a church with a fairly active community, I can't imagine a weekend tournament here being possible. Pedestrians would be everywhere, backups would be long, and the tee pad safety issues would really come into play.
Other Thoughts:
It's very exciting to have a new 18 hole course in this part of Nashville. There's a lot to love here and I can't stop playing this course since it's opened, despite some of its flaws.
There are definitely a few layout issues, mostly for safety and not necessarily for playability. But this layout has maximized the hole quality for sure. With this amount of woods, pavement, and water I think there is space for about 9 quality holes and 9 passable ones.
The potential is here though. I would take my review as high as a four if
- Grass grows in on holes 8-10 mitigating the gravel
- Tee pad safety issues are solved on 10 and 14
- Mandos are added on holes 4 and 5 to add to shot shaping difficulty and prevent risky shots over the road
I also think a change that would increase hole quality and help with the walk back from 18 would be to have Hole 2 act as hole 1. Then flip hole 1 around, lengthening it and putting the tee box on the other side of the row of trees behind 1's basket. Then have the new hole 18 play as a longer reverse of hole 1, finishing the round back at the center of the parking lot.
There are definitely a few layout issues, mostly for safety and not necessarily for playability. But this layout has maximized the hole quality for sure. With this amount of woods, pavement, and water I think there is space for about 9 quality holes and 9 passable ones.
The potential is here though. I would take my review as high as a four if
- Grass grows in on holes 8-10 mitigating the gravel
- Tee pad safety issues are solved on 10 and 14
- Mandos are added on holes 4 and 5 to add to shot shaping difficulty and prevent risky shots over the road
I also think a change that would increase hole quality and help with the walk back from 18 would be to have Hole 2 act as hole 1. Then flip hole 1 around, lengthening it and putting the tee box on the other side of the row of trees behind 1's basket. Then have the new hole 18 play as a longer reverse of hole 1, finishing the round back at the center of the parking lot.
