Pros:
The most positive pro about this course is its close proximity to my farm and to my primary playing partner's house. Beyond that, Barber has the vista viewing, expansively open green grass fairways that I most appreciate and enjoy. It also has some very well designed and defined wooded holes for variety. #14 is perhaps the best conceived hole I've ever played, though it could and should be better, making better use of the available land, so as to be a magnificent par 4, or maybe even 5.
Cons:
The cons are so numerous, in terms of design flaws. 1 and 4 need to be altogether eliminated, as they fly over the audience area of the amphitheatre at either side, with #4 also crossing through two picnic spots. Not necessarily a design flaw as much as an aesthetic error, #5' s basket should have been placed on top of the hill, rather than behind it. And to have only two holes in that grandly expansive open area behind the amphitheatre is beyond flawed to the point of sinfulness. The traverse between 8 and 9 is perhaps the worst, most dangerous design flaw I've ever encountered. I am amazed that no one has gotten hurt or even killed making that trip. Unlike the course's other wooded holes, #11's fairway is anything but fair. In 15 years of playing Barber, I've managed to hit the green once. #12's basket is poorly placed, so that you are pretty much forced to navigate the ball field's parking lot and a walkway into/out of the park. #16 is overly short, out of character with the rest of the course. It is isolated and almost unfindable and shoots over a paved sidewalk. It is the hole where I scored perhaps my oddest ace; the double ricochet, blind, silent ace. It is eliminated in my redesign of the course as part of my proposed master plan for the park.
The tees. what can be said of the tees except that they suck. This site lists them as grass, but they are, at best, dirt ruts and exposed roots. They are mostly mud slicks. I think that I'll edit that as soon as I finish this. And there's only one tee per hole, making this layout geared toward pro and advanced level players. Those pitiable little cylinders should be painted blue, rather than white.
The biggest con about Greensboro's only course is the city's disdain, disregard and disrespect for our sport. This course has experienced no improvements, changes or upgrades, except for new #18, which was moved in deference to other park activities. Oh yeah; there were those ridiculous little plastic numbered signs that were about as prominent as the cylinders that lasted about a week and a half. And the only reason that this course exists is the local players, who spent the time, effort and money to make it a reality.
Despite its specific negatives, I still rate Barber as generally a good course, rather than typical, because it is not typical to find a course with such open air through which to let them fly.
Other Thoughts:
7 or so years ago, city voters approved a $10 million dollar bond referendum for Barber Park improvements, which included $39,900 for the disc golf course. How could that much money be spent on a course that already has its baskets, you ask? We asked the same question then. By spending millions on a new community center/memorial museum and putting it where it will destroy holes 13 and 14 and the baseball practice field, not to mention so many tremendous trees. By spending millions more building a highfalutin new office/maintenance building where 2 and 3 are, so a handful of park employees can have fancy new digs in which to hang out. That is the area where the community center/memorial museum should be placed. Modest modernization of the presently located office building/maintenance area is completely in line, but what they're planning to do with way too many taxpayer dollars is waaaay out of line and will be an overt eyesore right at the park's main entrance/exit. I have recently learned that the reason for all of that is due to dumb mass Dummycrap flood plane rules and regs, governing much of the park's land, as it falls into what is referred to as a 100 year flood plane, meaning that Buffalo Creek will spill over it banks once every century or so. Against those expenditures, $39,900 is butt wiping money.
So, the course will be thrown into and relegated to the swampy stench filled forest bordering the cesspool that is Buffalo Creek, Greensboro's septic tank, so to speak, killing untold numbers of majestic, mature, old growth trees. while killing what character Barber Park DGC has with its beautiful, green grass open fairways. Of course many more trees than that are going to be felled to make room for a new YMCA with soccer pitches and parking lot slated for the woods next to the lawn where 2 & 3 are now. Or maybe, they'll do with it as they did with their Bryan Park DGC some thirty years ago....bulldoze the Chainstars right up out of the ground and push them over the bank of Buffalo Creek, since there isn't a cliff over which to push them as there was at Bryan Park. .