I'm writing this review from a fairly unique perspective, as I was a UNCG student from 2010 until 2017. This course existed the entire time I was a student, and I had been playing disc golf for years before attending school there.

Piney Lake is a course owned by UNCG on a small piece of property they own a short distance from their main campus. The property is mainly used by their Outdoor Rec program for various functions, but was historically used for their team building programs. The course has natural tees (that are marked fairly well), baskets in good shape (Mach III I believe), and decent tee signs. The course is mostly wooded with a couple of open holes.

The fairways are tight and technical, requiring accuracy to score well. The holes with the view of the "lake" were very pretty. Despite being on a small piece of property, the course felt secluded at times.

There is a decent variance in the length of the holes. The shortest hole is around 175' long, while the longest hole is about 350' long.

I really enjoyed Hole 5. It is only 300' long, but it is a fairly nervy 300' hole. The hole plays across the dam, so there is water on both sides of the fairway. There are trees on the dam as well, so just throwing a RHBH out over the lake to simply clear the distance isn't really an option.

When I was going through my orientation, the fact that the school had a disc golf course for their students was being used as a selling point. However, the only time as a student I was ever able (read allowed) to play the course was one day, in 2016, during a two round tournament held by a friend who was a Grad Student. Every other time, the course wasn't even open to students because the land was used by an outdoor rec group known as Team QUEST who wouldn't allow anyone on the property, even with a Student ID, unless they were taking part in the Team Quest program. The most frustrating aspect of all of this, was that even when I was employed by the sister program, Outdoor Adventures (which has since absorbed both programs) as a route setter for their climbing wall, I still was not given the chance to play the course. I talked recently to a current staff member and it doesn't seem like anything has really changed. Needless to say, access has ALWAYS been an issue. Even for students currently enrolled at UNCG.

The back nine have been pulled, leaving only a 9 hole course. Which is disappointing, because I felt like the back 9 was the better half of the course. Three of the holes on the back 9 probably would have made my favorite holes list for this course.

The fairways are extremely tight, and to make the course more approachable the Par was fairly soft. If the hole is at least 200' then it is probably listed as a Par 4. Which honestly was kind of nice at times because the rough was extremely punishing!

It honestly seems like the school just doesn't have any real interest in the course. During the doubles tournament I played in, back in 2016, the course was probably in the best shape it's ever been in, and it was still fairly rough around the edges. Since then the maintenance has only gotten worse. Which is a shame because this could be a fun, technical course if it were maintained.

I am going to give Piney Lake a 1.0 rating. When I first got the chance to play Piney Lake, I thought the course probably deserved a 2.0 rating, but felt the course would score even higher if a bit more work went into improving the tees, opening up the fairways, and/or thinning out the rough. The friend I had mentioned was making a big push for all of these things, including increased access to play the course. Clearly when she graduated, all of that energy dried up immediately. The course is shorter now, and friends I have that still go to UNCG mentioned that access is still an issue.

Favorite Hole: 5

If you like walking through nature preserves and stopping every 200 feet to throw a disc, you're in luck. Piney Lake is the place for you. Bonus points for the added search time when your disc misses the five-foot wide fairways.
The disc golf course here is an afterthought. That worked in my favor. Nobody noticed I was on the disc golf course. It also helped I was playing the week of Christmas.
Scenery is great. The first several holes play through a series of magnolias and other trees. Your fairways are nature trails and as such are narrow. One step off the fairways, and you're stepping in ivy taller than your boots. So, prepare for searching for discs several feet off the fairway that get swallowed by the ivy.
In case you think I'm exaggerating about fairways being nature trails, notice the sign on the transition between #3 and 4. It has an arrow on it, pointing walkers to the nature trail. It takes you directly to #4's tee.
Hole #5 plays on a trail between two portions of the lake. This fairway is at least wider than the nature trail, but is still narrower than most fairways, especially ones playing alongside water. There are trees running alongside the fairway on both sides, which may help save any errant throws. But it also takes away the views of the lake.
#6 is actually a nice wooded layout. Compared to other holes, this is closest to being ready were this course revised.
#7 is a decent uphill shot. Simple, but on this course, it's one of the better holes by default.
#9 is the other good-ish hole. A raised tee shot starting in the woods, throwing through gaps to an open fairway. It was the first tee shot I felt I could somewhat relax on....and in turn smacked a tree and had to search for my disc.
I never had to spend more than three minutes searching for a disc. I consider that a moral victory. Or, I was smart playing in the winter when the foliage was as thinned out as possible.

Everything else.
It's amazing a course is here. Based on the fact 8 baskets on the back are gone, I think the course is an afterthought. It wouldn't surprise me if most people using this area didn't even know there is/was a course.
Upkeep is non-existent.
Course would be unnavigable without a map/UDisc. Good luck trying to find the next tee without assistance.
#8's basket is up against a fence. Making a wild assumption, I would not dare to retrieve a disc from the other side. Didn't get good vibes from that house.
Course's general availability. Based on other's comments, it seems the gate isn't always (usually?) open. I was in Greensboro and had some time. So wasn't an issue for me to make a slight detour to chance it.

Piney Lake seemingly has many other activities going on here throughout the year. Good luck being the disc golfer when other activity is taking place. I'd reckon you'll get the judgmental stares.
Once I got used to the first four holes, I enjoyed them for the aesthetics they offered. I ended up just throwing putter for each shot, trying to advance 150 - 175 feet each throw. Much easier to keep it in the fairway or at least pinpoint where the disc landed in the ivy.
The back 9 still has 'fairways' in place. I threw on #10 only to realize there was no basket. Walking up #11's fairway, I stumbled on a basket.
Already being there, I thought 'why not' and walked the remaining fairways in hopes of any additional baskets. Nope!
I bagged a baggers course. I really don't see a reason there should be a course here. Maybe if they found more wooded space, they could make a decent 9-holer. In its current state, no need to play this layout.
Based on the website, the lake seems to get a lot of use during warmer months. If you're a student, you're coming here to enjoy the lake. Not disc golf.
I think the course is almost impossible to play during the busy months if you're not a student. They seem pretty diligent about requiring IDs. Trust me, you are not missing anything. You'll be ok if you don't play this course.

This is a super difficult course to get onto. You have to be either a UNCG student or a guest of one. UNCG seemingly forgot about this property for a few years and didn't do much with it but lately there's scuttlebutt that they're doing more with it and that includes making the disc golf course accessible to the public more often. Hence why I got to play it during a tourney.

It's actually got the bones to be a very decent course. I'd certainly play it regularly not just b/c it's the closest course to me but b/c it is a fun course to play. Holes 1-4 are tight, magnolia tree-lined fairways with more ivy than Wrigley if you leave the fairway. I mean walls of magnolia trees, super impenetrable foliage that instantly adds a stroke when you go into the rough. They play a little up or downhill depending on the hole.

Hole 5 is a neat, tree-lined dam between the two lakes. So it's a water hole but it feels more like a tunnel hole. Holes 6-9 are probably my favorite stretch. The holes are wooded as usual but the fairway contours are much more navigable. Hole 8 is kind of the exception with a very poke and pray fairway but would be a nice hole if trimmed up a bit.

Holes 10-12 are kind of filler-esque but there's a nice creek running through them and the terrain is lush and green since it's below the lake. 10 is a severe dogleg left is only easily deuced if you hit a small gap in the foliage as the crow flies but you'll pay dearly if you miss it. Hole 13 is a very short, extreme right-turning hole.

Holes 14 through 18 are mostly within the "piney" portion of Piney Lake but like the first 4 holes has plenty of magnolias and tight, treacherous lines. More tunnels to pure from start to finish until you get to hole 18 which ends in a wide open lawn in front of the private residence on the property.

Overall the fairways are there, just unruly and wild. I thought most of the greens were good locations. Most of the holes if not all of them had a tee sign somewhere that did a decent job of illustrating the fairway shape. The lake is really nice but doesn't effect play much so it's mostly aesthetic. But it does give the course a sense of variety that is better than most courses.

There are bathrooms between the first and last hole.

Baskets are in pretty good shape overall, a couple looked like they had been a little bent by a falling tree perhaps. They are non-banded types, DGA Mach III's would be my guess.

The tees are basically just marked off natural spots. A lot of them could stand to be improved vastly, in terms of both location and flatness. The TD said they are looking towards putting in concrete tees so that would boost the rating considerably. I opted for a gazillion forehands b/c the combo of technical fairways and bad footing made backhands dicey.

The roughness of the rough is the other major con, which you can expect with a course that is hardly played. Lots of ivy, probably the poisonous kind also in the warm months (I saw warning signs for it) and tons of tree debris that needs to be picked up. To be honest I was expecting much worse. It's playable but you need to be eagle-eyed at all times.

I'm not going to be too critical with the design b/c without clean, well-traveled fairways it's kind of difficult to really judge. I will say that it seems very lefty friendly. If it wasn't a "lefty hole" it was a nobody-friendly hole. A big part of why I was also opting for so many forehands. The two guys in my division that finished better than me? Yeah, they had the Devil's handedness. But even they were struggling occasionally. Some of the fairways just seemed to jump-cut at hard angles like a RB that didn't trust his O-line. Most if not all the holes were par 3 distances but b/c the fairways were so jagged and tight they made getting deuces highly implausible.

Some of the greens and tees were close enough to each other that you ought to wait if there's a group in front of you.

I played a layout for the tourney that I believe shortened some of the holes so keep that in mind. Specifically, holes 10, 11, and 18 from memory. This course is seemingly in the middle of nowhere; even though it's very close to hwy 421 you have to get off on a country road and take a circuitous route to get there.

I really do hope that this place gets opened to the public more often and that UNCG disc golfers are able to improve upon it b/c it is definitely worth keeping up and improving. I just want to thank UNCG and Jacob Barrera for running the tourney out there and giving me and others the opportunity to play it.

I aced hole 14 with a C-PD flick. Perhaps the only ace ever recorded?

Though overwhelmingly primarily a wooded course, which, of course, is not my favorite style of course, Piney Lake is at least a reasonably well designed course, offering variety of lengths, up and down elevation differentials and directional variances. It also offers several holes with water hazards, which can be quite hazardous, like the hole short shooting across a relatively narrow dam between two lakes.
There are tee signs and solid, Chainstar baskets. The course is easily navigable, once you find the first tee, which is a bit hidden away.
Though the Piney Lake Field Campus is a multi-use property, there is no discernible crossover between the course and other activities.
All in all, Piney Lake is a nice walk through the forest and around the lakes, with holes that will test the mettle of even the best, while not being disheartening or discouraging for or to lesser skilled players. The day I played with one of the curators/caretakers and a group of first time beginners, fun was generally had by all.

Though Piney Lake has been in the ground for several years, it is only recently that the curators have begun to look at really promoting the course, even to its primary target audience of UNCG students, staff and faculty, and possibly making it available for play to the general public.
One of my personal pet peeves is dirt tees, which can turn to rutted mud bogs, i.e. Barber Park, or are of insufficient space, levelness, and/or marking, i.e. Northeast Park. But these are at least signed and marked with painted markers and provide adequacy of necessity.
The hugest con, is that alongside most of the well defined fairways, is ungodly undergrowth, brush, briers, etc., as previously mentioned. The curators seemed genuinely appreciative of my input in that regard, maybe because I'm a funny, friendly old man, with 40+ years of playing experience and some design and development background, or maybe because I am an ancient alumnus of the university. Either or neither way, they appeared to appreciate the suggestion of getting some of the university's Recreation majors out there to clear the course of that menace.

As the field campus and outdoor recreation area for a state university, I can see the description of combination hippie commune/kids Summer camp. My best and biggest impression from the curators is that they are genuinely dedicated to making Piney Lake a truly good and playable disc golf course.
I'm rating Piney Lake at 2.5, which is perhaps a little higher than it presently deserves, but which is not as high as I feel certain that it will be in the near future, following some brush clearing and maybe installation of rubber mat pads. Most any course with defined and discernible fairways between 18 good baskets and signed and serviceable tee areas, with no conflictual safety issues with other activity areas is better than poor, as earlier reviewed.

Close to downtown Greensboro. That's about it.

If you have been looking for a course that is very poorly designed and you like losing discs in 2 feet tall kudzu then this is the course for you. At first glance I thought this place had some potential. I had trouble finding it because it is just a driveway with a sign on the gate that says Piney lake in tiny font.

Pulling into the place was odd. There are several houses around and it is kind of like a mix between a hippie commune and a kids summer camp. Couldn't find hole one right away. The tee for hole 2 is by the parking lot so I just walked down the "fairway" to find the "tee " for hole one. Everything is over grown and even seeing the basket from the "tees" is a challenge. I am not a big fan of multiple s curves to get to the basket on short holes. It seems like the took a nature trail and threw some baskets in the ground and called it a day. Don't waste your time until they do some work out here to get this place playable.