Pros:
- Course design was done very well. You start off by throwing from the driveway up a giant hill and then the second tee is a very fun downhill shot with two pin placements. Great way to start a course. It only gets more challenging from there as the course snakes along the ridge then you find yourself in the woods with a ridge drop on your left the entire time. I get some serious Justin Trails vibes from this course.
- The baskets were mostly Dynamic Veterans but there were also some MVP Black Hole baskets. The MVP ones were mostly used for the alternate pins but I do believe the owner of the course was planning on getting all Veterans eventually. Either way, the equipment was nice and new and caught great.
- Dual pin placement on some of the holes. I believe there will be two pins per hole in the future.
- The area this course is in is one of the most out of the world areas that definitely does not feel like you're in south western Wisconsin. The limestone bluffs make for some cool views that will have you want to take your time and enjoy the scenery before you tee off.
- Great mix of distance shots that you have to be absolutely careful with your placement or you will end up in some nasty rough. Mostly talking about the last 3 holes. Hole 16 there is rough on your right and left and hole 17 ramps it up even more. Holes 5-14 are a good mix of short technical wooded shots and longer tight fairway wooded shots. They will definitely test your angle control and placement to say the least. A bad kick to the left and you are going down the ridge. Again, very reminiscent of the Big Brother course.
- This could possibly be a con to some but this course is obviously private and not really close to anything major. The good news is you will more than likely have this one all to yourself and Ed is also more than happy to play along or walk the course with you. He met up with me around hole 9 which was good because I definitely needed help locating the pins for some of the longer holes. Otherwise I would've had to walk down some of the fairway to see it.
Cons:
- Not. Cart. Friendly. The course is extremely hilly and if you are not in shape, you might want to play this one with caution. I was pretty winded by the 9th hole and I'd like to think I'm in decent shape. Definitely gave my legs a good workout today that I will more than likely be feeling tomorrow.
- No tee signs as of yet but I know he (owner of the course) mentioned eventually getting them put in and I'm sure they will be done nicely given the amount of effort that was clearly put into this private course.
- Some of the holes didn't have teepads but again, they will be eventually putting in rubber teepads on the holes that didn't have the wood deck ones.
Other Thoughts:
This one surprised the hell out of me. I saw pictures of it on uDisc and I could tell it was definitely one of the nicer private courses. The drive to the course will have you staring out your window thinking "Man, I wish someone would build a course out here." Soon as I pulled into the property I got a huge smile on my face because I knew this was something special.
In it's current state, I'd rate it a 3.80. What keeps it from 4.0 status is the lack of tee signs and the lack of tee pads on a few holes but as I mentioned before these will be coming down the pipeline in the near future. It's pretty rare to play a private course that could easily host higher level tourneys and I truly feel like this is one of them. I highly recommend checking this one out in the early spring or fall because I can guarantee if you attempt to play this one in the dead of the summer, you will probably regret it after the first 5 holes.