Pros:
I half expect to get reamed for giving this course a 3.0, but before you judge, read the justification... let's start with the good: elevation. Elevation. ELEVATION. Pretty much every shot on this course plays up or down a hill, sometimes some very steep hills. I love elevation shots, so this is a huge plus in my book. It's great fun to empty a bag on some of these shots and just watch the discs float through the air. The fun factor is pretty high in that regard...
The course flows pretty well from hole to hole without a lot of long walks, the rock walls throughout the grounds are beautiful and are a nice change of pace from just trees and streams as obstacles. There are several places where the walls are put to good use and force elevated putts, create fast greens and mandate arced putts (hole 9).
The streams are clean and clear (at least when I was there), but are pretty fastmoving, so watch discs that might get washed downstream... but risk of losing a disc is pretty low.
This is an amazing place to watch the sky, since you're elevated on a lot of the holes and have so few trees in the way.
There is good parking, the printed maps available on this site are very helpful in navigating. When the wind picks up, this course is an amazing place -- one of the best courses in the country -- to practice wind shots, especially wind on hills.
With all the open air, it would be tempting to recommend this course to beginners who are learning the game, but with the frequent gusts at "Brandywind" it is likely to be frustrating to new players unless they are there on a calm day. Poor disc control + wind + lots of elevation = epically awful shots.
For players with a little more experience under their belts, this is a great training course, since you're not likely to lose much and can throw a lot of shots and watch their unhindered flights through the air. You can practice elevation, you can practice wind, you can see how all of your discs -- drivers, putters, mids -- really fly. And there is so much elevation that its tricky to get footing on some of the approach shot runups, so it also encourages practicing stand-and-deliver shots from uneven terrain. The training potential here is probably, to me, the biggest strength and best reason to play this course.
Cons:
This course, for all of its elevation, feels pretty repetitive. I like elevation, but I also like obstacles -- at least every few holes -- and this course lacks much to get in your way. The few trees are mostly short enough to throw over, or spindly enough to throw around. There are only a couple of holes that require any sort of gap to be hit on the tee shot. This makes for a lot of the same. In a competitive round, most people would take their driver and thrown 18 hyzer hucks off the box. Done. Very little shot variety is forced, and this weakens the course significantly in my opinion.
The course is also showing its age -- teesigns are lose and not entirely helpful -- there are various tees marked, but with some holes playing blind, there needs to be some indication of which basket position is in play. It would also be very helpful to have elevation change marked on the signs. Teepads are aging as well, tilted and crumbling at the corners.
The rock walls -- while great -- also get in the way on a couple of the teeboxes (hole 1 stands out), where the wall is in the way off the box -- it's not a matter of throwing over the wall -- its a low wall -- it's a matter of having the teebox pressed directly against the wall, framed by two large trees -- its dangerous to get any follow through without risk of hurting yourself. I'm all for obstacles, but tee areas should have enough clear space for runups, throws, and follow-through that injury should never be a concern when driving. Safety should always be a top concern in course design, and there are places this is ignored at Brandywine.
Perhaps the biggest deterrent of the course is the nasty grass/weeds/thorns that cover the hills. A shot in the middle of the fairway can be stuck in low-lying thorns with no-possible runup, and thorns and nasty-dry-prickly grass is pretty much ubiquitous on the course. If you land in a fairway, you shouldn't have to worry about scrub tripping you or thorns slicing into you. The course gets better towards the end, but on the front 9 especially, the sheer ugliness and animosity of the groundcover takes away from the enjoyment of the game.
And, as should be mentioned before, it hurts a little to have to pay $3 instate and $6 out of state in park fees to play a so-so course. FWIW, the night I was there, the park ranger did come around, empty the self-serve paybox and checked cars against their receipts, so even if no one is around, I advise paying the $6 on the honor system just to avoid a potential ticket. Try to have exact change in the event you have to pay the honor system like we did.
Other Thoughts:
At some point in the past, I think Brandywine might have been a more impressive course. If the grass were lush and green and freshly mowed and the tees were level and you were there on a perfect day with an epic swath of clouds painted across the sky, you could mistake this for a paradise...
However, it just doesn't hold up today, especially with the new duo of Iron Hill and Carousel practically in its backyard. Carousel offers a lot of the same elevation, but has amazing grass and a mix of open and treed shots, lots of OB, and much better course design and variety (albeit no signs or permanent tees yet). Iron Hill has a challenge, beauty and attention to design detail virtually unmatched anywhere. With these two courses as options -- and both free -- it's hard to find a compelling reason to head to Brandywine for anything other than some good practice throws and the relative solitude that exists there.
In short: Brandywine is a great place to PRACTICE disc golf, but a mediocre place to PLAY disc golf.