Pros:
Bailey Road Park offers a short, 21 hole Disc Golf Course that has a very unique layout, which makes it very different from other courses in the surrounding Charlotte area.
-The main thing that stood out to me was the variety of land used for the course. There is a perfect mix of wide open holes, partially open holes, and wooded holes.
-Great elevation for what is offered. Because the course is very short, I can understand that it could've been hard to design holes with very noticeable elevation changes. However, there are many holes at Bailey that are uphill and downhill, which helps add some challenge and fun factor
-Speaking of fun factor, I think Bailey is the perfect course to visit if you're looking for a fun outing. A majority of the holes have something about them that is just fun. #9 is a perfect example of this. Throwing a disc downhill and under/around a power line is the definition of a fun disc golf hole.
-If you take the best group of holes from Bailey and add them to a course with some longer holes, you've got yourself one hell of a course.
-Course maintenance is great. The grassy areas are cut to a nice height, the wooded fairways are clear with very little rough, and there was no trash and litter. It's a great vibe out here.
-Easy and straightforward navigation. The practice baskets and kiosk are in sight from the parking lot, as to the first tee. There were many next tee arrows when navigation could have gotten confusing.
-Although the course doesn't loop back to the parking lot halfway through, there are multiple ways where you could play a quick 9 holes by skipping some holes. There are a couple baskets that sit close to multiple tee pads.
-Great for some ace runs. There are multiple holes that I could spend hours on trying to ace. The distances of the holes are perfect for this.
-#13 has a nice wooden barrier for its green, and there are some wooded stairs that help prevent erosion. This is a great feature that I feel like all courses should add, and Bailey executed this perfectly on #13.
-Signature holes. It is very easy to identify the best holes. I already mentioned #9 & 13, but #12 is also a great hole. It's incredibly butt-clenching with the thick stuff/wet marsh on the right.
-Baskets, tee pads, and tee signs are all standard for CDGC courses, which is a good thing if you've played any of them.
-EDIT 12/12/2023: The CDGC has completely scrapped #17 and replaced it with a new, wooded layout. It has an incredibly difficult tee shot, almost unfair with how many trees are still in the way of the fairway. Once this hole gets broken into, it will be a great hole.
-The area that is marked OB behind #7 and to the right of #9's basket has been cleared out, thankfully. However, the thick stuff still remains behind #9 & 12's basket.
Cons:
-The main issue for me is the lack of length. Sure, a nice short course will be really fun, but it's sort of disappointing leaving the course without playing any longer par 3's or par 4/5's. This is really all because of the filler holes.
-I would say about 1/3 of the course is filler. The majority of this chunk belongs to the first 5 holes of the course. In my opinion, each and every one of these holes are short (even to this course's standards), flat, and have no meaning to them. Once you finish #5, there are only a couple questionable holes for the rest of your round.
-With the course having 21 holes, I can imagine that there is enough land to remove some holes and add some par 4's to make an 18 hole layout. If that were to ever be the case, this course would be getting a near perfect score from me!
-Although I mentioned how the rough was pretty clear on the wooded holes, the wide open/partially open holes have rough that is incredibly thick. I can't imagine someone being able to retrieve their disc if it lands into these areas. #9, 12, & 20 are the three that come to mind.
-With the amount of elevation, there are a lot of unfair roll-away opportunities, mainly toward the area next to the basket. Adding some leveled out greens would help this issue I suppose.
-There were a handful of holes that had blind tee shots. Not saying that it is necessarily a bad thing, but I walked the fairways for these holes just to make sure, which was kinda frustrating.
-Alright, enough nitpicking. Just come out and play the course.
Other Thoughts:
I am very pleased with Bailey, and my rating of 3.0 may seem low. Without that much challenge, a course cannot really get a much higher rating from me. The park is very beautiful, with soccer fields and multiple playgrounds. There are also tennis and basketball courts near the course. I will mention this again, if you are looking for a course that is pure fun, Bailey is your best option.