Disc Golf Course Review

At the back of a neighborhood apartment complex in the shadow of Signal Mountain and near the iconic W Road, the Ascent Apartment disc golf course stays fairly hidden though it's a solid little beginner course.

Despite being in existence for nearly three years, the Ascent Apartment course has received minimal attention and even less play due to it being obscured from public view. But it has some decent bones for a neighborhood course, and I was pleasantly surprised at the neatness of the layout.

The course is fairly easy to find and to traverse with a map. The signage is attractive and while the teepads are a hard rubber mat with wooded planks on either side, they provide adequate footing.

A majority of the holes are fairly open on a lovely lawn. However, there's a bit of diversity with two holes in the woods, plus one hole that starts in the open and goes into an opening in the woods, and another hole that starts in the woods and requires hitting a narrow gap to reach the opening.

The holes are all about 200 feet in length and mostly straight and flat, which is ideal for novices. And even though the fairways are behind the apartments, there's enough of a buffer to not bring the residences into play.

One of the biggest drawbacks to the Ascent Apartments course is that's it's not exactly open to the public. There's a sign at the front of the apartment complex that states "No Trespassing" and "No Soliciting."

The rubber teepads were covered with grass clippings in spots.

While the holes were fairly straight, a few of the baskets were placed just out of view of the teepad. There are some briars on the left side of Hole #1. And the wooded holes were a bit overgrown off the fairway paths.

The course crisscrosses a few times, and with a couple holes hiding in the woods, navigation isn't exactly instinctual, as it would be easy to miss a hole.

I played the course at 7 a.m. on a weekend morning. I drove past the "No Trespassing" sign, parked near Hole #1, grabbed three discs, dashed through the nine holes of fugitive-like disc golf in 18 minutes, and got the hell out of there.

However, it seemed like a peaceful neighborhood and a course that could be quietly bagged without too much trouble. As another user said, the course is "private but not unplayable."

These people built a gem. They used the land great. Trees and pond are in play. It is kept so well. Everything is marked and easy to follow. They even had a button for lights if you were out at night. They have a First aid kit. Bug spray. It really is such a nice course.

Only 9

If you are any where close to this course you should play. You can tell they spent some time and energy to set this up and every disc golfer will appreciate it!

The church has spent a lot to make this a very good course. Every hole has 2 baskets to play through twice. They have great signs. EVERYWHERE. Everything is numbered and layed out super easy. They cleared so much land for this course that everyone should give it a go. Most everything par is in play.

With clearing trees most everything on back is forest shots. No obstacles and no shade. Everyone has a preference but no shade can be hot in summer. Final two hills are brutal if you play through twice to get every basket in the summer.

This is a really long good course. If you have all day try to play through both sets of baskets.

The pads and baskets are nice. They tried to use the land available. Tries to use an island type set up with bridges back and forth. It is really something different.

Needs signs pretty bad and the trees need cut back a little.

Baskets in a clean park. Poles for tees.

This is private and the leasing office is allways around. Wanting only resident to play. This is through a play park and is very short flat and boring. It really is not worth it.

I would have skipped this one if I had know it was boring.

New baskets signs and tee pads. Every whole on this course you can par. A few one can birdie. But its not super easy on the back. If you throw bad some bogies could be in play. This is a good course for most players. The forest wholes on the back are the best. It is easy to follow. They used every inch of the park. And I really like the layout. The use of trees and water is good. They even used the tiny hills when they could.

Some long walks (to use the complete park) and the front can be sunny or windy.

Well maintained baskets in a public park

No tee signs or tee pads.
Used online Udisc map to guide myself round.
Park was being used for football coaching so had to be very aware of young children

Hole 1: From the corner of the carpark, a nice throw to the corner of the trees. Basket is slightly hidden in the undergrowth so ace run not possible

Hole 2: A very tricky, short hole as the basket is tucked away behind 3 substantal trees. Throw out to the left for the best angle into the basket

Hole 3: The longest on the course and a nice hole to be able to open up on. Long throwers will have no problem reaching this basket in 2

Hole 4: A short, easy hole to an unprotected basket. Ace run every time on this hole

Hole 5: A difficult hole to end. The park has an opening to the right where users will just appear from no where and straight into the middle of the hole. Check before you throw as this could be dangerous to park users. Basket is well protected

A new 9-holer in Hendersonville area. The area is slowly putting together a disc golf scene.
- This brand-new course has solid bones. It's a major work in progress, but it has the making of being a quality 9-hole layout.
- Course has a good flow through the back portion of the park. It's removed from other park activities.
- Course makes great use of the terrain. Multiple holes have elevation factors, with #4 & 5 being most notable.
- Layouts range from lightly wooded on #1, 4, & 5 to significantly wooded on #7 & 8. Other holes have fairways between the trees, so hit your lines.
- Course rewards good shot making. Birdies can easily be had with good tee shots. I enjoyed the tee shots on #3 (slightly uphill, slight dogleg right) and #6 (another dogleg right).
- Course has a long and short layout. Short layout averages 199 feet; long averages 352 feet. At this point, the short layout has gotten a little more attention.
- Concrete tees. Quality baskets.
- Three practice baskets.

Course is a work in progress. In the week after I played, designer & volunteers did another major round of trimming and clearing on the course.
- The entire area around #8's basket was covered in a foot (or more) of leaves. Watch your footing. Watch for snakes. Be prepared to clean out your shoes.
- Lots of areas on fairways that need leveling. Mini dirt/debris piles in spots.
- A better path across the creek will be needed.
- Some of the info on UDisc was already wrong when I played. I possibly attribute that to decisions to move baskets and/or tees on some holes.
- Signage was lacking.
- Hole #6 had two baskets. Not sure why. Nor an indication as to why. Was told one is an alternative. So, not sure why this is the only hole with an alternative.
- Going from #8's basket to 9's tee, you're walking of #9's fairway backwards. Just push #8's basket further back.
- No tee signs at the time of my round.

EFRP will be a fun layout once it's finished. Pair it with Flat Rock Middle School 5 minutes away and you have a full 18.
- That said, I like the variety and entire layout at Flat Rock Middle more than here.
- #5 is a fun downhill hole. Control your distance as you don't want to go long. There is some thick growth/bamboo and a fence. So, coming in fast and/or too high could easily result in a lost disc.
- #1 was another fun, slightly downhill hole. Fun start to your round.
- #7 is a tight fairway. Most accurate tee shot needed on the entire course.
- This is a small parking lot. If there's a soccer game or other event going on here, it may be an issue. On the Saturday afternoon I was here, park seemed to have a typical amount of foot traffic. Only one other group of disc golfers, and there were only a few parking spaces were available.
- I'll consider this a fairly average nine-hole layout. Hopefully, when all is said and done, it'll be above average if everything goes according to plan.

Decently accurate tee signs
Concrete tees
Baskets are in good repair

Small tee pads
Some of the front holes are pretty tight together
Not very long of a course

This is honestly just a great wooded course with a few open placement shots. If you like wooded fairways this is your course!

(3.448 Rating) A course with solid variety and charm.
- GAMEPLAY - I found the Preserve to be a very entertaining and varied mix of holes. There are five par 4s mixed throughout. Some long open shots, some pockets, raised placements, sweeps, short threads and some technical moving lines. None of the holes were bombshell looking gauntlets to me, but I found it to be great golf overall. Since Pecan has been decimated by a colossal tree loss, I think the gameplay feel here at Preserve is currently superior.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - Although there are a couple plain parts, the overall beauty of the parcel is well up there. I slotted it at around 75 percentile among the 668 courses I've thrown as of this review. The first ten holes sparkle noticeably more than the remaining holes. My favorites looks wise were (3), (9) and (10) which are all heavily wooded threads. I did like the pyramid on (12) which spiced up in what could have been an extra bland hole.
- AMENITIES - Like Prairie and Pecan, Preserve has a two tee layout. The White shorts will appeal to MA3s and MA2s, while the Blues should appeal to MA1s. Both sets of tees are concrete and are of good size. Baskets are MachVs and signage was adequate. Benches are present at a vast majority of the tees.
- NAVIGATION - I had a guide, so I wasn't paying super close attention. There are colored coded posts at every pad. I recall a few navigational cues after tapping out. The other two courses I played here I did solo and did fine, thus I sort of assume that the tools are here enough to be able to figure out. The course plays in a clockwise loop starting at 9 o'clock.
- 4 COURSES - With the recent addition of Pitcher Plant, Graham Creek now has 4 courses. I was able to hit 3 of them, excluding the noted new addition. If we rated places instead of courses, Graham creek is an easy 4.0 rating on my ledger.

A solid course all away around.
- TEE SIGNAGE - The tee signage from the Whites do not show an artistic description of the hole which is too basic for course this good and this complex. I didn't pay attention to the blues signage, but I think it was similar. Also no course map posted.
- TIME PLAY - Not a quickie, My threesome was here almost 2 hours. Time play has zero effect on my ratings.

To me, the Preserve is currently the Crown Jewel of Graham Creek. Had I visited here prior to the vast tree removal at Pecan, I may have had that one a quarter point ahead of this one. Preserve scores with positive marks in all the key areas. Great variety, robust challenges, good looks and proper amenities. Solid 3.5 level course to me. Normally I wouldn't say 3.5s are destination worthy outside 90 minutes, but the 4 course aspect makes this place much more worthy of a long drive. Reminds me of courses like Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Oregon Park in Atlanta, Jacobson in Kentucky and Kiekhaefer Park in Wisconsin. I highly recommend checking it out to the I10 disc golf adventurers.
- THANK YOU - I joined an awesome twosome right away on tee (1). Thank you Eli and Chad for being my guide and for the delightful round.