Pros:
Beth Schmidt is a nine-holer that needs to be reworked or moved to another part of the park. Until then, there are major issues with the first five holes.
- Course is split into 2 parts, separated by park road. First five holes are in the open, playing in, and around the garden area. Last four holes are in the woods, tougher, and longer (on average) than first five.
- Great neighborhood park, and very family friendly with good amenities: large playground, nice garden, rec center, restrooms, walking trail. My favorite aspect of the park, and my round, was the old-timey looking building near #7 & 8.
- Course is aimed at beginners, not advanced players. Seven of 9 holes are less than 200 feet, with three at 101 or shorter. You can easily play the 9 holes in 15 - 20 minutes.
- There's a mailbox on #1 that has tons of pencils & scorecards/maps.
Cons:
There's a major problem with the layout, and it has nothing to do with the road construction. From holes # 2 - 5, as stated above, they play in and around the garden area. The basket for #2, is within arms length of the garden's fence and a large shrub. I was feeling weird throwing towards/through parts of the garden for these holes. That may have had to do with the weird looks I was getting throwing a disc, and walking, through the area. Seemed like the mulched area, where #4 & 5 play, would be off limits to people.
- As the note on the course's main page states, the road construction has impacted the first 6 holes. Hopefully, this means holes will be moved.
- Course has a lack of challenge and creativity. You don't (or shouldn't) want to be aggressive on the "garden holes" and hit flowers, shrubs, trees, etc, so that takes a lot of the fun out of things. Only holes with some challenge are #6 - 8.
- On the wooded holes, #6 - 9, people use the DG holes as walking trails. Be careful before throwing.
Other Thoughts:
If they moved all nine holes to the far side of the park road, there seems to be enough room back to build a fun 9-hole course. If you can have 9 holes the quality of #6 & 7, this would be a good neighborhood course.
- Between the layout and road construction, this course doesn't offer much. Even if road construction weren't affecting some holes, the course would still be lacking.
- The amount of TLC that was given to the rest of the park clearly wasn't given to the disc golf course. If they can clear out plenty of room in the woods for nice walking trails, you'd hope they could clear out room for some DG holes.
- It's only a couple minutes off I-85, but unless you're a local, or padding your 'courses played' stats, it's not worth playing. It will be worth checking out after the road construction to see if they've improved the course.