Pros:
A hilly course with plenty of opportunity to drive and occasional good patches.
-Elevation: The "hill" in the title of the course isn't misleading. Most of these holes play with significant up, down, or side-slopes. Keeps it fresh.
-Scenery: One or two holes have interesting views leading down towards the river. The couple of true woods holes are lush.
-Shot Shaping/Gameplay: A segmented mix of overly open, middle ground, and great woods challenge. I consider (1)-(5) and (18)-(19) to be the "middle ground", as they play through scattered mature hardwoods that aren't trivial but are extremely scrambleable. (6), (8)-(9) are the woods holes, which are all very fun par 3's requiring finesse in the shapes. (10)-(12) are quirky, with scattered trees in awkward spots and a fenced-off compound that gets in your mind. (7) and (13)-(17) are the open portion, which just really isn't very interesting. With more woods, Naval Hill could be a much better course.
-Ambience: For an urban park, Naval Hill feels very safe and inviting.
-Navigation: Pretty intuitive except the awkward (12)-(13) transition mentioned by several other reviewers.
Cons:
-Open Holes: The (13)-(17) stretch are a letdown. No real challenge other than distance and wind. Even some of the middle ground holes are a bit dull.
-Exposure: Playing along the side of a hill, this course is very susceptible to strong wind. It's all fun and games until you throw into an enclosed area or thick rough.
-Rough: Mostly disc finding is no problem, but the (6)-(10) range is not well kept-up and can thoroughly hide a disc.
-Enclosures: Fenced-in areas are a thing on (11)-(12) and (14). If on the former, your disc is gone. On the latter, I believe you can crawl through a hole in the fence if you're more adventurous.
-No Signature: Naval Hill doesn't have a signature hole. Sure, I like (5) and (6) and (16), but none of them are special enough to pull this course up that much. It's squarely typical-feeling.
-Signage: Has fallen into disrepair just in between the 3 times I've played it. This course doesn't look like it gets much love other than the basic mowing.
-Mud: I can say from experience that due to the slopes it can be treacherous to play after rain. I emerged from one round covered in mud due to a slip and fall near the tee of (4). If you're at risk for injury from a fall, definitely don't try to play while it's slick.
Other Thoughts:
Naval Hill is one of those courses where you say, "Yeah, that's there." I'm sure it's great for residents of East Nashville, but it lacks sparkle to be broadly appealing, mainly due to the lack of intriguing design on the medium and open portions of the course. The elevation and three wooded holes are clearly the best portions, but on the whole it falls short and lands on the higher end of Typical.