Pros:
Location. Quiet, scenic, beautiful, and remote. You'll feel good as soon as you turn off Cty A.
Good balance of left/right/straight and many holes with multiple routes (2, 8, 6, 9, 16, 17).
Some slight elevation brought in on a few holes (8, 13, 16), but nothing huge and no sharp drastic dropoffs.
Hole #2 starts you off quickly with a hole that offers multiple routes to the green. I love options and the needed to carefully contemplate your drive based on which fairway you'd like to attempt. When you finally get to the pin, there is a gorgeous lake in the background (but not in play whatsoever).
Hole #12 has a nice tee that is "framed" under a canopy of low spruce/fir branches. It offers a bit longer distance (290') and a nice drawn out anhyzer (RHBH).
Red tape on the basket wire shows the direction of the next tee nicely.
A new PRO of mine - no garbage cans on the course! In a time of budget cuts and economic concerns, why can't you pack out your own trash and not have to pay for a parks personnel to spend their time collecting trash, or moreso, volunteers wasting their time on your trash instead of course improvements!
Cons:
Single tee. The front 9 tees are framed in and filled with gravel. Yes, loose gravel. The fact that they are framed it means they are elevated and although the back is not framed in, you still need to take a step up if you have longer footwork on your drives, because the sides are 8' long lumber. Looks like the back 9 will also be getting framed in, but they're not right now and are lumpier than the front 9, although not as loose. Adding a longer tee does not look feasible in the layout.
Single pin position. The greens are pretty wide open and level, but some offer a little bit of guarding by trees and some slight slopes for rollaways (risky and protected greens are a PRO in my book). Having alternate pin locations could introduce some riskier greens and also add some distance.
Poor balance of open/wooded, and long/short. This course is 100% wooded and very short.
The entire course is littered with old stumps and lumpy terrain for very uneven footing. Bring good shoes.
Hole 9 is confusing at first. It was tough to see the Mach baskets in all the gray of the late fall northwoods (the orange tape on pole was not highly visible due to 'SP' stickers). The obvious fairway is to the left but right at the next tee bench. The alternate fairway is a huge bend around the right that is actually much more of a dogleg than it looks (spot the pin BEFORE choosing a route, it may not be obvious based on the wider fairways).
The walk from 14 to 15 offers a neat up and down elevation opportunity under a great canopy of low spruce/fir branches. A hole in here would have been great, much better than lackluster RHFH #15.
On hole #16, you might need the map to know that you play back up into the jack pines and not along the road (in either direction) as you might be craving to do in order to have a bit more variety.
Hole #18 is a BS crapshoot. The 405' length is entirely pinballish through the woods. Your best bet is to plunk one onto the softball field and have a wide open upshot.
Other Thoughts:
The beautiful setting on a remote dead-end road in Tomahawk will get your heart pounding as you drive in on Pickeral Creek Rd, but that's the last time your heart will pound. This course is just mediocre, and uncharacteristically bland compared with the rest of the Point area designer's courses. There are a few holes that look really good, but overall the land available for use must have been limited. You're not really playing in a treehaven, just a jack pine plantation. Utilizing the hardwoods area, and the spruce/fir area to the right of #14, along that dropoff ridge and into the open field below would have brought some needed variety and balance to the course. The course is very short, even considering that fairways are narrow and pinballish. The layout does not appear like any additional longer tees will be incorporated. All in all, it's a 100% wooded course, in a remote area, that is quiet, scenic and beautiful. Considering Jack Lake, Buck Lake, and Black Bear Creek are all the same type of courses (solid 3-disc mainly wooded courses), you could make a trip out of these 4 to make it worth your while. IMO this course is bland compared to Buck Lake because of all the jackpines, it is not as varied as Jack Lake, and is not as unique and fun as Black Bear Creek.