Pros:
- good mix of hole length variety
- a few wooded shots mixed with several open shots
- multiple water hazards in middle of course
- brand new MVP baskets
- decent elevation change incorporated on several holes
- nice restrooms on site
- in the process of being expanded to 18 holes
- full color tee signs with maps
- next tee arrows under baskets are nice, although a few have shifted to point the wrong direction
- practice basket and garbage cans at beginning of course
- picnic tables and benches in various places throughout course
- rough is very forgiving in terms of finding discs
Cons:
- turf tee pads are fine, but could be slippery in wet conditions
- some of this course seemed overly cut back to the point there weren't many obstacles on the more open, field-type holes
- seems like some areas may be perennially muddy, especially on holes by water hazards
- hole 2 has a completely unrealistic fairway
- some more navigation aids could be helpful
- dead tree in middle of fairway on 8 should be removed
- long walk from 9 back to parking through rough, tall grass
Other Thoughts:
The Glades as Meshach Run is an interesting course. It wasn't my personal favorite, but it has a lot of features that many may find appealing. First, while flat on many holes, it does incorporate some good elevation change, with a few nice downhill shots. Holes 6 and 7 have multiple pond hazards which up the difficulty level, and while there are some muddy spots here, there is a huge area devoted to disc golf which is really cool.
There is a donation box for the course and I encourage anyone who can to leave a few dollars, in part because - as I had seen some indications of - they are clearly expanding this course to 18 holes. Some of the tee pads had already been installed for hole 10 and beyond, but were not ready to play yet. One of my cons was going to be not using some of the wooded property for some more technical holes, but guess what... they're already working on it!
I think once this course is 18 holes, it likely will be a 3.0 course, mayyyybe even a 3.5 but I'm not sure about that. All of the equipment is a new and pretty top notch; the turf tee pads are just ok, but not a significant detractor. They are level and very serviceable for now.
Hole 1 starts you off with some good technical challenge - it demands a good, straight shot, but it is fair. Hole 2, in my opinion, could use a bit of thinning. While you can throw through all the trees, there's no discernable fairway and for me it falls into the "luck" category, which I don't particularly care for. My other main note was that on hole 8, an otherwise defined fairway has a dead tree right in the middle of it - on a pretty narrow fairway. Sure, this could stay in place to up the challenge, but I think this should be removed in keeping with the feel of the rest of the course and the fact this fairway is already pretty narrow.
The other frustrating part was that hole 9 spits you out way off away from where you park, and the trek back is through woods and rough, tall grasses just asking to hand over some ticks to you - not cool. Hopefully once 10+ are installed, it will loop back to the parking lot a bit more. It's nice, however, when these phased courses can make a couple of loops so the interim 9 go back to the beginning a bit.
One thing I really like about Meshach Run is that while it's still probably targeted more towards the beginner half of disc golf, it adds some technical wooded challenge, some elevation change, some water hazards - it's not punishing, but it's a great challenge for newer players looking to push outside of that "flat city park" scene. It's still interesting enough to keep intermediate players engaged, so it's a nice compromise in that respect.
I don't think this course will generally be very busy. The overall length of the course isn't too significant, but it's probably more like 45 minutes solo than a really short 30 minute 9 hole. If you happen to be in Accident, MD (it is really close to the Interstate, one of the reasons I ended up here), I think it's worth a quick round for most players. There also aren't many other courses nearby, so if you are trying to bag Maryland, this may be the one for you.