Pros:
While most of us never thought about Stanwood needing a course, it did. Why? Because there wasn't one anywhere near there. It's a trek from Seattle, but if you were a disc golfer living in Stanwood you could never get a quick round in because the nearest course was half an hour away. Well, that's been fixed with the addition of Church Creek. It's not a challenging course for anyone but a beginner, but it gives locals a place to play and a reasonable course to introduce new players to the game.
Equipment: The baskets are brand new, beautiful, deep Mach V's. I'm 100% against theft and vandalism, but I wanted to steal all nine of them. The orange band around the top with the course name was a wonderful touch (and made me want to steal them even more).
The teepads are concrete, which was a very pleasant surprise. An out of the way and wooded course like this would normally have a worn in dirt patch for a tee, or possibly a bit of gravel (Fredericksen, Howling Coyote, etc). But whoever did this course secured sponsors and then actually USED them. Well done.
Navigation: Each pad has a nice metal sign on it that shows distance and one possible path to take. Very nice. There's also a nice sign with a map overview and an introduction to disc golf right before the Hole 1 teepad. My inner editor was quite bummed at the typo in the very first sentence, but I won't let that affect my rating...
Design: I found myself wondering how designers do it by the time I was halfway through my opening round. That's a good thing. They took a little used and slightly wooded area of a random park by the high school and somehow designed a golf course. It looks like the number of trees they had to take out was relatively minimal too. They utilized every bit of the area they were given. There are semi-technical shots and fairly open ones, right and left turning, uphill and downhill, and even a short shot across a ravine that is just threatening to steal your disc and/or shoes. Screw you ravine. I'll just overshoot the basket by a country mile like I did both times through.
Amenities: I could care less about amenities, but if you do? There's a trash can in the pavilion by the 1 pad, and there are bathrooms between the 9 basket and the parking lot.
Cons:
Equipment: The teepads are a bit short. Every hole except for 9 is laughably short for any players who are intermediate and above, but they still felt short. That's the only equipment con though, which is amazing for a niner in the middle of nowhere.
Navigation/flow: The navigation is hurting. Most of the baskets are relatively close to the following tee, but they didn't even bother to tape the baskets. An easy fix, but considering the time and effort they put into this course? I'm surprised they missed it. The flow is a bit off in areas too. The worst areas are the walk from the 7 pad to the basket (due to the ravine), and the walkouts from 8 to 9 and 9 to the parking lot.
Design: It's pretty clear that the 3 and 4 fairways are going to be treacherous mud pits for most (if not all) of the year. They're natural runoff areas to the creek, and if they're anything like hole 2 over at Blyth Park they won't dry out for more than a month or so each year. They're fun holes that the course would suffer without (especially 4), but they're still gross.
It also seems like hole 9 was tacked on as an afterthought. They threw eight decent holes together, and then had to find somewhere for the 9th. So it kind of feels like they slapped a tee down by the baseball diamond and just said, "I don't know. Throw it that way a few times. Wherever it lands, put in a basket. Who cares if that basket is in a prime location for basket theft?" I did like that that hole made me think though, and I saved par (or birdie according to the tee sign) both times through with insane shots that shouldn't have worked... So I guess I can't fault the designer TOO much...
Other Thoughts:
Don't trust the GPS coordinates on this site. They'll take you to a port-a-potty by the high school. Once you've turned off of the main highway into town, ignore your GPS. Just look for the park on your right.
This course is what it is. It was designed for families and rec players, but that's kind of where it falls short. Who wants to take their family out into the woods to dodge random buried trash/broken glass and slide around in the mud for nine holes? The ease of play is there for new players with the exception of hole 4, but if they take 4 out then they might as well take the course out. That's probably the best hole here. So the course isn't spectacular for new players, and it's too easy for more seasoned players.
That said, it's a fun little course and is great for putt and approach practice for those more seasoned players. I highly doubt it will ever be too crowded, and it's absolutely worth a stop if you're driving from Seattle to points north and don't feel like battling the summer crowds at Silver Lake.