It's going to be a good one. Otter gave me a tour this past weekend and I'm pretty stoked. The vegetation/terrain is unlike any course I've ever seen and the trees are just really neat, it's like regular trees got buried up to the point where they just start branching out, like dwarfed trees. Lots of neat moss everywhere too, I hope foot traffic doesn't trample too much of it away. The course really makes great use of the elevation and it's in a top-notch park. As far as design, you can tell it's being designed by a FH thrower with more than a few baskets squirreled away to the right but it's pretty balanced and should be a great change of pace to the Castle. Lots of winding, s-curving holes, pretty good variety. The difficulty looks like it will really pick up on the last 3-4 holes that are within the more typical pine treed area. There are a few natural sand traps you get to avoid too, big holes of white sand. Hole #5's view from the tee will undoubtedly be the signature hole, with the Dr. Seuss trees and the big buoy. As it appears to be now, it's a huge circle of a hole, it's going to require at least two mandos to be played as it's supposed to. If it was me, I'd make it more of a big L shaped hole rather such a severe horseshoe b/c A: it's less crazy, B: it wouldn't need an extra mando, and C: it wouldn't have people holing out so close to the tee (noise). An alternate basket would go a long way with that hole IMO. Also, I can almost guarantee some whining about the tree in the middle of the fairway for hole #18, the one on the left that leans in and makes the gap (~75-100' from the tee) harder to hit than the achilles heel of the Death Star. We ran into 'Spider Man' out there (one of, if not the course designer) and he said it's about 5600' total, with a proposed par of 60. It's going to super fun, I just hope the chiggers, sand fleas, and other nastys aren't too bad in the Summer.
