#18 is a neat hole

#17 has no tee and looks either like it has been vandalized and run over by lawn maintenance. Other parts of the course are nowhere near #17 and #18. The university has let this course go and is not maintaining it. Don't waste your gas!

Bearskin Creek in Monroe is a good alternative, and not too far from here.

Wingate University DGC is set on a small college campus, with a decent mix of open holes and wooded holes.The course uses DISCatcher baskets, natural tees, and has tee signs that list the par & distance information. The course seems to have undergone another small redesign recently.There aren't really any amenities to speak of while you are on the course, though there is a great spot by a lake to sit and relax.

Somehow, in the middle of a county I always envisioned as being as flat as a countertop, Wingate manages to set up quite a few holes that bring elevation into play. Hole 5 for instance is a fun uphill shot, that actually caught me off guard by how much elevation gain there was. Hole 9, on the other hand, is a fun downhill putter toss at what is arguably the most scenic spot of the hole course.

The front nine features two technical par 4s that really make you work for your birdie. It also features what is easily my favorite hole on the course: Hole 8! It provides you with the option of trying to send a huge sweeping hyzer towards a basket, which is located on a grassy mound, or to park it by hitting through a gap with a straight shot. The only manageable way to birdie it seems to be the straight shot. Even then, the grassy knoll is just noticeable enough to let you miss your birdie putt- which I know from experience!

Here you get a great view of the lake before you start making your way back towards the main campus. Might be a great place to rest and relax before entering the back-9. The back nine features some shots that are really going to test your accuracy and distance. Hole 10, for instance, is a long straight tunnel shot that fades left at the end. The course finishes with a bang, by playing two holes near a steep creek bed through a second of trees that give you plenty of lines to throw, and plenty of ways to kick into a bad position.

Finding this course proved to be very tricky! In fact, while I was walking around with my bag of discs, I was stopped by students who asked me for directions to the course because they were interested in playing it... Never a good sign. Construction of a new building has made the course map here on DGCR out of date, as there is a building in the middle of where Hole 2 used to be. That building is East Wilson Hall. If you can find that building, you just need to walk along E Wilson St until you find Hole 1. Holes 17 & 18 are on the opposite side of the building as the rest of the course. Alternatively you can just look for the Campus Service Center, hole 1 is across the road.

After hole 2, there are also no signs for how to find the rest of the course. If it weren't for BrotherDave's review, I wouldn't have thought to walk down the gravel/dirt maintenance road to find the next hole. But that is how it is done. After this, navigation becomes less of a bear, but having a sign at Hole 2's basket directing your towards Hole 3, and maybe a sign near Holes 17 & 18 directing you towards Hole 1 would be a huge plus!

Speaking of the dirt maintenance road, I saw pictures of the course from a few years back, and it seems that the maintenance road has been extended throughout the fairways of the vast majority of holes. It makes the course look less natural, and possibly creates safety concerns depending on how often the road is traveled. The entire time you're throwing along the road, there are woods nearby that would create such a secluded feeling if it weren't for the road.

I wish the tee signs had little maps on them, because there were a few holes I was happy I had a decent drive because there was a road or a marshy area nearby that I had not noticed. Admittedly this may prove difficult to accomplish since the course seems to be somewhat redesign prone.

Hole 14 had some heavy duty trucks parked on the fairway and there seemed to be a lot of construction happening around there. The vehicles seemed far enough away that I went ahead and played, but had to play casual relief when I slid underneath one of them.

It is likely due to the newest redesign, but Holes 1 & 9 felt somewhat like filler holes. Which is really a shame, because Hole 9 has a lot of potential to be improved if it can be lengthened.

Wingate University is a course that is definitely worth checking out. If you live relatively close by, you should consider putting it into your regular course rotation. It is a fun course on a small, quiet college campus that will allow you to escape the large crowds of more popular courses. It provides a challenge that tests multiple aspects of the game. For now I will be giving it a 2.5 rating, due to the lack of navigational signage, the dirt road on most fairways, and the construction debris and vehicles parked on a few fairways. Even with a few simple fixes, this course would deserve a bump in the rating I'm giving it. Signage at Hole 18 pointing players to the start of the course, and signage at Hole 2's basket directing players towards Hole 3 would really go a long, long way! The fact that students of the university were also having struggling to find the course was not a strong selling point for me.

Favorite Holes: 8, 10, 17, & 18

Well maintained overall, generous fairways for most part, baskets in good shape, no trash to speak of was noticed and course was in very good shape. Good length for beginners to also enjoy without feeling overwhelmed and as we were only people on course we could play at very nice pace.

Could use better teeing areas (If they ever put concrete pads in would be huge plus), better signage/directional markers (spent some time finding a couple of tees, especially #10, found earlier review that really helped on that one, thanks!!), only couple areas that really needed to be trimmed (#7 was really thick grass @ basket and couple fairways in power ROW needed mowing), also think some holes on back nine would be awesome if relocated to play around lake..

We really enjoyed playing this course, would recommend to anyone to play and we will definitely be back!!

Uncrowded college campus course that offers a good mix of fairly open holes reminiscent of a city park combined with wooded holes and mixed, in&out of woods holes. So it's a smorgasbord of DG hole types. The distances range from fairly long, legitimate par 4 distances to fairly deuce-able for most DGers. The woods are very nice and natural plus a swamp comes a bit into play to spice things up.

You've got fairly descriptive tee signs and Innova baskets that are holding up.

There's a handful of really fun or clever holes here, like 1 is a nice starter hole, 18 is a really pretty, wooded par 3 finishing hole through some old trees and along a little creek and hole 16 is a gap hitter's dream playing in and out of the woods with a nice green alongside the swamp tucked around the corner.

The rest is not much to toot horns about. Finding holes can be a bear, even with the map (biggest bugaboo for us was finding hole 4, head down the dirt maintenance road that goes around the swamp until you see an obvious gap in the woods on the left). Then you've got some long walks between holes that dampen the fun.

The wooded holes are really disappointing. Hole 4 is enjoyable but hole 5 is a goofy angled short hole that seems like a misuse of elevation. Hole 6 is decent but again, really short. Then hole 7 solidly disappoints by giving you no discernible fairway to begin your wooded Par 4. Poke and pray straight through the trees or upshot something up to that maintenance road and use it for the fairway? Then the green consists of thick, knee-high weeds in the open. Hmm. Seems like using the 5, 6, 7 stretch to make two higher quality holes like hole 4 would've been better than two blah holes and a hole that's a Par 4 to make up for a lack of proper fairway.

Hole 8 is...something. You immediately throw over a bridge, okay, through a tight tunnel of woods, uphill. This is another Par 4 but there really isn't an adequately sized landing zone and if you don't stay dead center on the fairway, you are up the proverbial creek. To mock you, there's a wide open power line right-a-way running parallel to this crazy straw fairway and it's very tempting to try and blast through the thick schule and forego the fairway altogether.

Hole 9 is alright, has a nice green with the basket perched on this little knoll in the field and gives you a nice, open field hole of relief to air it out after you've been bouncing back and forth from poison ivy roughs the previous two holes. I think you're supposed to play a gap along the treeline in a sweeping hyzer fashion but you can easily just throw over that parked trailer and the honeysuckle as the crow flies to the basket. Even then it's still a tough deuce if you don't have a fairly big arm but it's a much less stupid angle and an actual Par 3 that way.. Finding the next hole after this one can be tough, unfortunately you may wish you never find them (take a right after the basket back towards the woods).

Holes 10 through 13 are basically more tight, crazy straws using a gravel maintenance road as a fairway. You're surrounded by thick woods and you'd think you could carve out some cool holes through them so these just seem like super lazy design. Hole 11 isn't too bad though, the FW is at least adequately wide compared to length and is a basic flick hole. But the others feel like throwing down somebody's unkempt driveway, oh joy.

Hole 14 and 15 use a power line right-of-way. Wait, this option was on the table? Then why the Hell does hole 8 exist?! Hole 14 is an open deuce or die hole, kind of fun. Hole 15 is longer but what the hell is the tee sign doing over there off to the right side? Who wants to tee at a 45 degree angle to the fairway? I thought the tee sign locale of hole 2 was a mistake but now there's a trend. This smacks of Schwarz. More unused power line right-of-way that could've been used to make a proper dogleg just sitting here, curiously.

This course has natural tees. This isn't a huge con on the holes that are basically on flat lawns. All of the wooded holes however means ruddy, uneven, root covered ground, possibly muddy, with generally no place to do a run-up. At least none of the stupid tee locations are permanent.

If this is the redesign I'm glad I missed the original. By the by it's not a terrible course at all but it should definitely not be mentioned in the same breath with hardly anything in nearby Charlotte. Widen some fairways here and there, suss out proper tee locations for some, beat Nature back a bit so that the immediate rough gives some recovery options and you'd have a generally fun course. This course needs a dedicated group of locals that know what they're doing to tweak and maintain it before it can be moderately close to a 3-star course or better. Worth a round or need a change of pace if you somehow have played everything nearby to death, sure.

Same as previous 2 reviews

As jbrian & heelboycraig have already stated, navigation is (was) a very big problem with this course. This problem has now been rectified as I added a map of the course layout in the links section. I hope this solves the problem. Maybe heelboycraig can up his review to a 4 now.

Also, even though there was not a lot of trash on the course (the staff at Wingate obviously keep the course clean), a few strategically placed trash cans may not be such a bad idea.

I only posted this review to call attention to the course map I have posted to the course listing.

This is a very nice course for those of us that cannot bomb a disc 400' with regularity. This is a much less frustrating course than say Nevin.

I will play this course again.

This course has 18 holes of varying difficulty. It does require you to use a variety of shots. Course is very well maintained and has clear fairways on the holes that are wooded or have rough. It is located on a beautiful section of Wingates campus mostly away from any other activities that may be going on. Playing in July myself there were very few people around. I will be adding some pictures to give other players a little more insight this nice course.

This course has natural tees, which is a con to me, but maybe a positive to you. There is no course kiosk with a course map or any direction. The tee signs only contain hole number and distance. There is no indication of basket placement, though this is only an issue on a few holes. This course could benefit from some "next tee" directional signage, especially for holes 4 and 10.

Just a few helpful directions for future first timers. From the parking lot that the directions lead you to the first tee is near the road where you entered the lot. After you finish hole 3, make a right and go past the gate and you will find hole 4's tee. After you finish hole 9 look right and back from basket. You will see a path into the woods, take this to find hole 10.

Wingate? More like Win-great!
I've seen courses undergo changes - remaking a couple holes or adding new ones to an existing layout. I can't recall a course turning an average 9-hole layout into a great 18-hole design. That's what I stumbled upon at Wingate.
- If you ever played the old layout, block that out of your memory. If you didn't play the old layout, you've now got a reason to head this way.
- Course has a solid, wide-ranging variety of holes - open and wooded holes; tight gaps and open, bomber layouts; doglegs and even some water. It also somehow manages to be the only course in Union County that has elevation.
- Course starts out with a couple open holes - #1 - 3. #3 can be tricky with the OB road being hidden from the tee and water along the right side of the fairway. From there, holes #4 - 8 are a fantastic series holes that flow through a stretch of woods that seem to exist simply for disc golf. This stretch of holes should be the envy of most courses, showing the potential this course offers.
- Hole #9 was a fantastic change of pace. An open, uphill, bomber hole at 372 feet. To top it off, there are some fantastic views of a pond and all this unused, rolling fields and wooded area circling the water. If the course could incorporate the land around the pond, and make this parking lot the beginning & end of the disc golf course, you would have an absolute gem of a course. It'd be so easy to chop off 4-6 holes from the existing layout and create a stretch around the pond instead.
- Course is almost completely isolated from the rest of the campus. I played on a Saturday in February. Other than watching the baseball team across the street, the course feels removed from all college activities.
- Overall, the course is tough, but fair. There are a couple junk holes (#10 - 12) that play along a path that could easily be removed for an improved layout (see above comments). Outside of those holes, it's nice that most of the wooded holes have enough room to allow you to recover from a less-than-perfect tee shot.

The course ends on a dud. #17 is the most wide-open hole on the course; the only one without any trees in play. Then you close with #18, which in and of itself, is an acceptable hole. It's just 'off' because it's the complete opposite direction (from the parking lot) of the rest of the course. You play holes #1-16, on one side of the parking lot; play #17 which runs alongside half of the parking lot; then walk past the far side of the lot to #18. You play #18, then turn right back around heading back the opposite way.
- I hate the feel of #10-12. There are other holes on the back 9 that use a path as a fairway. #10, especially, is such a downer after such a great stretch of holes, that it's the first cold water thrown onto a hot course. What makes these paths-are-fairways holes is that you're travelling through wooded, hills. If only someone could find a way to put a basket or 6 in the woods.
- I never saw a trash can or bench on the course. **possibly one by the shelter near #9 or the softball field behind #16, but that's technically off the course, so I'd still be right**
- Why start and stop the course with the easiest stretch of holes? Even if no holes changed, if the course started and finished in the parking lot by #9 (off Zeb Goodman Road), you have your open stretch of holes in the middle of the round.
- Navigation needs to be improved at times. There are confusing transitions, with multiple paths/directions you can travel between #3 & 4, #9 & 10 and #14 & 15. Of those three transitions, I picked the right direction once (#3/4), walked all around until I found the next tee (#9/10), walked down a fairway trying to determine if I was looking at the correct hole (#15/16). Arrows/signs are so simple, but without them, it can be very aggravating.
- Course also is a long, long loop of 9 holes out. 9 holes back. There's no real bail-out point, so don't think you can get a quick 9 in and/or a fast round.

I was shocked just how good this course has become. It was a fun 9-hole layout before; the type of layout you'll only see on a 9-hole course. This is movie cliche' of the ugly, unassuming girl suddenly turning into the knockout. And I was one of the jaw-dropping guys standing there, staring in disbelief.
- Course is right up there at the same level as Dry Creek for Union County courses. It had lots of similarities to Goose Landing, another solid layout 45 minutes north of here.
- So, here's what I'd do to make this the best course in the County. Move the course's starting point to the parking lot by hole #9. Get rid of the existing holes 1-2, 17-18 and several of the path-fairway holes on the back 9 (say 10 & 11). After the current #9, head left of the shelter, play 6 holes around the pond (to replace the six holes I just nixed), and you've not got an outstanding layout. Of course, if that land isn't part of the campus, it's a moot point. In that case, put a couple holes in the woods and it's still an improvement.
- Holes #7 & 8 were the highlight of the course in terms of challenge and layout. Two 400-foot plus, par 4 holes. Both offering a solid risk/reward factor. #7 is the easier of the two, but a 4 on both isn't a bad thing.
- This is an easy 3.5 in my book. It's a classic 3.75 rating. I just couldn't go up to a 4 with a couple issues - mainly navigation - needing to be addressed. With a few tweaks, this could be a 4.0 or 4.5 course someday.

The course has recently been changed and tee signs added. The course is mainly straight with a few tight fairways and water hazards. Great course for midrange practice, with a few opportunities to bomb it down the fairway. Good for a quick round when in the area.

The course does not have tee pad markers and the signs do not indicate where the basket is located. Can be tough to navigate if never played before.

Initially this course can be challenging to navigate, especially if you have played it before the basket locations were changed.

Hole 1: Straight open shot to the basket with a single tree in front of the basket.
Hole 2: Woods/water hazards on the right and a woods/water hazard behind the basket. Otherwise the hole is open field to and to the left of the basket.
Hole 3: Water hazard near the basket, straight shot with no hazards down the fairway.
Hole 4: lightly wooded, short <200' shot.
Hole 5: Low canopy down the fairway, wooded on the left and open on the right, on the side of a hill.
Hole 6: Tunnel shot about 350-400' .
Hole 7: Water hazard on the right with low canopy over fairway. Lightly wooded on the left.
Hole 8: Short hole 150' with a single tree in front of the basket, water hazard on the right, open to the left.
Hole 9: Bomb it down the open field fairway. Change in elevation about 250' up the fairway. Basket is on top of the hill.

not bad for a 9 hole course, 2 holes were over 400ft. the layout was easy to follow and it was not crowded. nice baskets and good use of land available

no tee pads, hole #1 i couldnt find a tee sign for, so i threw from the parking lot. hole# 3 , i didnt see the basket at first and threw towards #6, not too challenging for the most part. the tees were pretty close to the last holes baskets, so if it was crowded it may be a problem, but idont see this course getting a ton of play.

for a 9 hole it wasnt bad at all, it took me about 20 minutes to play. with the exception of two holes a driver never came out of the bag. a roc was about all i needed to throw. there seemed to be enough space to add 9 more holes in the future. good course to practice on.

The course is set in a well kept field. It utilizes the trees, hill and one creek that runs through the course. Most holes are out in the open, but have branches blocking the easiest flight path. They also used the one hill for 3 holes to give you some elevation. The creek comes into play on 2 holes, and behind another if you go long. Tee signs are new, baskets new. The course was easy to follow and loops back to the 1st hole.

No benches, no garbage cans. Grass tees. This is a newer course and these things may get worked out. There is also a design danger problem with 7 and 8. The basket for 7 is in the fairway for the 8th hole. I've yet to see anybody but me playing out there. But if you had more players you would surely want to watch out when putting on 7.

This course plays a tad tougher in the summer due to the trees having leaves.
-Hole 1 is across a field with no obstacles. Unless you put your drive left, then you will have a tree to putt around.
-Hole 2 was one of my favorites. It's only 177 long, but crosses a creek. The creek has thick brush. You have one small opening to get your disc in between 2 trees set about 20 feet apart. And you can't go in high because of the branches. If you hit either tree your disc will likely get wet.
-Hole 3 is an uphill shot that would be dead on, but if you try to make a run at the basket from the tee you will have to go right and bring your disc back left.
-Hole 4 is a downhill run that has tree branches in your way. I threw low and got a skip to leave me with a decent putt. If you happen to go long the creek sits about 15-20' behind the basket.
-Hole 5 is back up a hill. The branches are not as much of a problem here, it's just a tighter hole to the basket.
-Hole 6 is just a 400' shot across a field. If you go long on your first or second shot you could have trees to putt around.
-Hole 7 is pretty straight, but you'll need to keep your drive low.
-Hole 8 is fairly straight, maybe one tree to deal with. But don't hit the 7 basket.
-Hole 9 was the most interesting other than 2. It's over the creek with the thick brush. But I'm not sure I ever found the intended flight path. I think they want you to tee from the right of the tee sign, but it's hard to get your disc out of there with a lot of power. It's tight and about the point where your disc starts to rise are branches. If you tee from the left side of the sign good luck, it's real tight.

All in all I enjoyed my rounds here. I travel this road weekly and I know I'll play here more.