Pros:
Eastway isn't your typical Charlotte disc golf course. There's an abundance of open holes here, giving people a real chance to air it out and be aggressive.
- Forget what you've heard about Charlotte course being heavily wooded and tight when you're playing here. This is actually a solid change of pace, with some pretty good layouts.
- Nice hole designs. The long stretch of true open hole (#7 - 14, plus others) all offer a decent variety of layouts with variables of elevation, slight use of trees, rocks and other obstacles. Of all the open holes, I'd say #10 is the only dud amongst the group. It's a 402 foot, pretty flat hole with no challenge at all. Big arms will be able to be in birdie or easy layup range. Regular, 300-foot range throwers will be throwing in the 100-foot range for their second shot, so essentially a ho-hum par 3.
- Yes, there are wooded holes here too, and they offer good challenges as well. For me, #5 is one of the best laid-out DG holes around. It has just about everything you could ask for in a DG hole - elevation change, water, trees that come into play, variety of ways to throw, fairness to both right and left-handed players, and the proverbial risk/reward factor. The tee shot offers a chance to be putting for birdie, hitting a tree and ending up in the fairway (or deep in the woods with a bad bounce), ending up in the creek, or having an easy lay-up. It's far from the most challenging hole here, but it just seems to have that something.
- There are a bunch of other good holes, holes with big fun factors to them. #2 short is the classic downhill, be-agressive hole. #3 short plays right back up the same hill. Both are potential ace runs. #8 plays to a basket on top of a rock hill. #16 is another classic with a great risk/reward factor. To the right of the fairway are trees and thick rough; to the left is more thick rough/tall grass. The rough/tall grass doesn't look too imposing from the tee, so first-timers will need to be careful when playing. The basket for #17 is on the edge of a big drop-off. You come at the basket from below from the long tee, and from above from the short tee, so you get two different looks for the hole.
- Good course for beginners. You also don't need a big arm to play well here with only 2 holes longer than 400 feet (from the short tees), with #12 being the longest at 439 feet. There are plenty of birdie chances here as well, even with nothing being less than 200 feet. And because so many holes are open, you can still score well if accurate tee shots aren't your thing.
- Course has adequate amenities with some benches, trash cans/bags throughout. Holes have decent tee signs. There are restrooms and a water fountain in the parking lot.
- #6 winds up back at the parking lot, so it gives you the option to easily play 24, or start at #7 for a change of pace.
- Location, location, location. In terms of disc golf real estate, this might be one of the most centralized courses around. You're less than 10 minutes from the Kilborne and Sugaw courses; 15 minutes from Reedy & Nevin, 20 minutes from Hornets Nest, Renaissance, Idlewild Park & Robert L. Smith. So yeah, pretty much you'll be able to play anywhere else once your round is over here.
Cons:
The biggest, and most obvious issue, for anyone who plays here is the abundance of holes that play along the park road. #7 - 12 run alongside the park road (or over as in the case for #8), with the park road also possibly coming into play for #6, 16 & 17. At this point the park doesn't get much traffic, so that aspect isn't much of an issue. It may be as more gets done to the park in the future. It does, however, cause an issue in the aesthetics, (who wants to see the road), lack of creativity or privacy/isolation, plus whatever damage may be caused if you keep throwing discs in the road. As I said, once the park gets busier/more traffic, this will be a much bigger issue, possibly causing hole to be changed or moved.
- Repetitiveness, or at least the feeling of it. As mentioned in the pros, I think the open holes do a good job of all being somewhat different from each other. Now for some people, essentially those who with big arms (in the 400 foot range), these subtle difference are neutralized by the fact you're going to be able to throw near the pin (on the short holes) with every tee shot. In that case, yes, I can see how the course might get boring, and seem unchallenging.
- #9 is far away from #1. The course isn't split up evenly (9 out, 9 in). With #6 back near the parking lot, the course is pretty much divided up in a 6-hole and 12-hole section. Now, you could get creative and play #1 - 8 & 17 - 18 for a 10-hole stretch, but that's not completely the same as playing the front or back 9.
- There are a couple of parts of the course that need to be cleaned up and/smoothed out. Several holes still have areas of trash/concrete/fences on them. Some of ok, like seeing the concrete from torn-down houses on #14. But the rest has a neglected, littering feel to it. Some more TLC will go a long way.
- There's an inordinately high lost-disc factor for such a relatively open course. A lot of holes have tall grass, thick underbrush on them (be careful on #12, 15 & 16) or woods that come into play. Even on the open holes that run along the park road (#7 - 12) have trees along one side of the fairway (and the road on the other). On #9 & 11, especially, this can be an issue.
Other Thoughts:
I'm a big fan of Eastway for what it offers. It is a great change of pace to have a mostly open course in Charlotte.
- Don't expect to be wowed by Eastway. It's far from the best course in Charlotte, and it's far from the best open course too. It has more good to great holes than it has bad ones. And in the end, that's what you want with any course.
- I really like that this course begs you to be aggressive. There are plenty of birdie chances, and some ace runs, on the course, so there's a real chance to shoot a low score. And just like any well designed course, there's that solid risk/reward factor you're looking for. Even for the regular player, the first five holes are all birdie-able, so you should be going to #6 under par.
- I've already mentioned how much I like #5, but there are several other solid holes as well. #2, from the shorts, is fun to throw several discs, for the ace possibility. #16 & 17 are really good for the risk/reward factor they offer. On #17, you have the challenge of putting with a big drop-off five feet behind the basket.
- Compared to other Charlotte-area open courses, Eastway reminds me of a light version of the front 9 of Hornets Nest. I think it's a little better than Sugaw (even though I ranked them both a 3.0). I think it's on par with Winthrop Lakefront, minus the beauty and the water.
- You should definitely check this course out, and if you don't like it, there are plenty of other courses close by.