Pros:
Castle Hayne. The name says it all. The lore of this place precedes it before even stepping foot onto the course. Another Harold Duvall beauty that the NC coast deserved!
Now that that's out of the way, let's dig down into the details. Upon arriving at the park you'll find the beauty of the place inspiring. It's located a stone's throw from the beach but you could be fooled into thinking you're hundreds of miles away.
The park is very well maintained with bathrooms and other park amenities at the park center. Driving past hole one (and seeing hole 10 perched up overlooking the fork in the road) has a way of building you up for the upcoming round.
The course is technically challenging. Most holes are heavily wooded with tight fairways to traverse. There were many right/left/straight shots, however the vast majority were pretty long (standard Duvall affair, not a bad thing in my opinion). So for those looking for a short shot here and there, there aren't many to be had here.(Head up the road to Arrowhead park)
The signs are well made and there aren't any major hiccups with navigation, apart from finding hole 10. The front and the back 9 both come back to the center of the park, allowing you to easily start on the back.
Challenge! This course will require your game to be on its best. Like I stated previously, there aren't many places to air one out, but if you can snap off a long drive that is also very precise, you'll be greatly rewarded! Am's might find the challenging aspect frustrating at times, but it should inspire them to improve their skills. Hole 12 is a unique little devil. Rip a drive, but not too far or you'll go in the creek. Then rip another drive down the fairway, parallel to the creek and hope you don't dive left. Then finish back up to the right (yes, that's a U shape) for a challenging and unique hole. I like to think of it as the moat for the Castle [Hayne]. Luckily I was able to grab a 3 on this hole but others are not so lucky I'm sure.
Despite being heavily wooded, the course doesn't seem to have many trouble spots for losing discs. If you find yourself really far off the fairway it is certainly possible, but probably fairly rare. The water hazard on 12 is sure to have claimed some plastic over the years, but what's a good course without the fear of drowning?!
One unique thing that Castle Hayne has that I had never seen before were fairway distance markers. You'll see these all day long on a ball golf course, colored spikes in the ground in the middle of the fairway to mark the remaining distance to the hole(basket), but this is the first I've seen in the dg world. Not sure what the overall consensus is regarding these but I thought they were pretty neat.
Cons:
There is virtually zero elevation change, but we are at the beach after all, so you can't really fault the designer for not incorporating any, it simply doesn't exist. Nevertheless, a con compared to courses nationwide.
There is also a lack many open holes. Apart from hole 1, which still has ample amounts of trees to hit, every hole requires a precise wooded shot in some manner. Hole 18 is mostly open, but starts and finishes in a wooded alcove. If you're looking for a good mix of open and wooded, you won't find it here.
The biggest con for me was the time in which I played it. We played after a brief thunderstorm (which is sure to occur often at the beach) and nearly all of the fairways on the back 9 were unplayable. I say unplayable, but we played them. What I should have said was, you won't come out of the woods very dry! The course holds water like you wouldn't believe. Several of the holes had standing pools across a 50-60 ft fairway. I only played once and this may indeed be a rare occurrence, however I'm free to speculate that a course at the beach is bound to get a lot of rain and in the case of Castle Hayne, this doesn't bode well for a dry round...
Other Thoughts:
Pros should (and do) enjoy this course. It requires the utmost precision on most holes in order to post a good round. Amateurs will love it for the challenge as well, but please have this in mind when going to play for the first time.
It's easily the best in the area and conveniently located to Wilmington and the beach. You shouldn't hesitate to play this course, and even drive out of the way to play it if necessary, but I'd advise trying to time it for a dry spell or you'll need to bring some rain boots and maybe a snorkel! (This is a slight hyperbole)