Pros:
Challenging, mostly wooded course. It's all about accuracy here. Throwing a driver could do more harm than good.
- Plenty of birdie chances, as long as you keep it in the fairway.
- Higher amount of LHBH holes than most courses. Good change of pace for an often ignored/disliked throw for most players.
- Great scene having it on a college campus. Nice wooded scenery, yet walking distance from campus. It's a great small town, complete with all of the college atmosphere.
- Other than #1 & 18, the rest of the course is isolated from the rest of the campus. It's great being so close to the campus, yet not being disturbed by students.
- Course starts and stops at the same spot. It takes you on a long loop, but it does finish up right where it started. #10 is on the far back of that loop, so no way of just getting in a quick 9 without a long walk.
Cons:
- Course needs a lot of the underbrush trimmed back or cleared away. The underbrush was growing over on some paths. On some holes, it's extremely thick, narrowing the fairways. It will grab discs, leaving margin for error.
- Poor signage/direction between some holes. As mentioned #1 & 18 are in the grassy area between the frat houses, across the street from the rest of the course. There's not a true path from #9 to #10. After finishing #9, you're walking along the road, until you finally see an opening in the woods again for #10. Several other holes like this as well.
- Tee areas are only marked by small tee signs in ground. On several holes, these markers were mostly covered by dirt, making them hard to find. Also, without true tee pads, or tee areas, you can take liberties with interpreting where the tee pad actually is. See the photo for #6 to get a sense of how teeing off 10 feet to the left of the tee sign gives you a straighter/easier shot than if you teed off right on top of the marker.
- Too many straight, unimaginative holes. #9 was the quintessential example of this.
- Hole #8 runs alongside town's main road. Any shot that sails too far left may find itself in the road. Throw with extreme caution on the hole.
Other Thoughts:
I had marked down this course back in '09 because overall maintance was severely lacking. Playing there again in the summer of '10, most of those problem have been fixed, leading me to improve my rating by a 1/2 point.
- Course didn't have anything really good, or memorable, that stood out about it. Even though there was a decent variety of holes, they all felt the same - throw a mid-range disc in the fairway, maybe have a birdie chance, if not, an easy up and down for par. I just felt the course was missing a true, signature hole; something that would stand out and leave DGers coming back for more.
- My favorite hole was #16. 240 foot shot with 2 paths- a shorter, direct line or longer path that allows your disc to curve back close to the hole. Very good risk/reward hole. Depending on how bad you need a birdie, or how confident you're feeling, probably will determine which path you choose.
It's a college course, obviously not meant for the serious players. I enjoyed the course. It teases you in that if it weren't a private, college course, some of the holes could be lengthened making them truly special.
- I've only played when school wasn't in (summer or spring break), so I've never had a problem with parking and/or anyone questioning me about playing. The best place to park is out of the way of students where you're less likely to be questioned. Before getting to the frat houses (they'll be on your right), there's a small parking lot on the left (it's almost straight ahead because the road curves) that has a bunch of 18-wheeler trailers parked in it. If you park there, you're next to #2, so you can avoid students altogether if you don't play #1 or #18.
- When school is in, there are probably times when you'll have to avoid #1 & 18 because of students being in the grass. You're actually not missing a whole lot on those holes, so you can be fairly confident in giving yourself 3s on them.
- The course is worth checking out to give your mid-range game a good workout. It reminded me of a shorter version of the wooded holes at Sugaw or a flatter version of Reedy.