Pros:
- Fantastic course design
- Nice use of the available trees
- Lots of variety, will use every shot you've got
- Good use of elevation, including some cool "top of the world" type holes
- Beautiful views of the lake from some of the holes
Cons:
- No map or tee signs
- Course is really hard to navigate due to previous
- No tee pads, just little flags in the ground with numbers on them
- No real baskets, just "tones" (either posts with cylinders over them or large hanging cylinders)
- Tall grass on the back 9 with lots of little burrs that get stuck all over your socks/shoes/legs; I would suggest wearing long pants or possibly boots
Other Thoughts:
This is a fantastic course that could easily be a 4.5 if it just had tee pads, real baskets, and a map. The course designers did a great job of using the property and creating holes that are challenging, but also fair and rewarding. There's a little bit of everything here, including uphills, downhills, big open shots, and tight fairways.
The biggest downside to this course is the lack of any sort of navigational device (map, tee signs, etc.). I found my way around the first 10 holes thanks to a run in with a couple locals who were way ahead of me, but gave me a couple pointers. However, after that, it really just fell apart. The tee pads are mostly just little flags in the ground with the hole number written on them. There are some blind holes and a couple holes where you can see a couple different tones and it's not clear which one you're throwing to unless you walk all the way to them and check. I found hole 11 after a lot of searching. Eventually I found the tone for 12 and traced the path back to where I thought the tee should be, even though I never did find the flags. I ended up skipping 13 and 14, even though after a lot of wondering around I did go past the tones for them later. I believe I played 15, 16 (did not find the flags), 17, and 18. Anyway, my point is that navigation is not obvious for these holes. I wish I could have come back here with a good GPS and spent some time making a map, but I was only in Ashland a couple days, so this wasn't possible.
There is lots of tall grass on the back 9, so the little flags can be hard to see even if they do exist for some of those holes. Thankfully the tall grass isn't actually thick enough to hide discs too much. I didn't actually have to spend any significant time looking for a single disc, which is great considering I was by myself.
As far as the actual pads go, mostly the lack of concrete wasn't a problem. It is hard packed earth on some holes, and some had old bits of carpet pegged down. In both cases, I didn't have too many problems with getting decent footing for throws. I also didn't mind playing on the tone baskets. You just have to hit the tone cylinder, whether it's hanging from a tree or sitting on a post. This is at once both harder and easier than a real basket, but it didn't detract from the experience for me.
Some of the views of the lake, such as the one from hole 9 were fantastic too. This course is well worth a visit if you are in the area. Just know that you may have to spend some time walking around the property to figure out where a lot of the holes are, especially for the back 9. This course would be a lot more accessible if someone would just create a map for it.