Pros:
- 9 well mounted Mach V's all in good shape.
- Natural grass tees marked with ground stakes for tees. Not terrible.
- Course plays though a well maintained neighborhood park in the Elk Grove subdivision. Grass gets mowed. A couple of the holes have nice big trees in play. Not much trash. It's a fairly upscale neighborhood so nothing sketchy to report.
- Hole 3's tee shot plays over the pond.
- There's a good variation in hole length for what seems to target intermediate players. Distances range between ~240' and 530' with a couple par 4's to mix it up.
- Gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains ranges.
- Free to play
Cons:
- Other than Holes 3 & 4, trees don't come into play without wild shot way off course. Not a design flaw but rather a work with what you've got issue. This results in a complete lack of shot shot shaping requirements for most of the course.
- User conflicts abound. It's a mixed use park with swimmers and anglers at the pond, a baseball Diamond and walking paths. The "best" hole, #3, is a soft par 4 over the pond and into a row of trees. A wall of bushes prevents the throwers from seeing a portion of the walking path that runs the entire 2nd half of the fairway and the road by the park is right in the RHBH n00b hyzer out zone. This and another road are very in play a couple other holes as well. While this is certainly nowhere near the most dangerous course I've played, golfers will have some watching out and waiting to do on most nice days.
- Nearly a complete lack of elevation change. Hole 1 plays up a modest slope and Hole 2 plays across the same slope. After that it's pretty well flat.
- The course doesn't have much for infrastructure. No tee surface or signs, directional aids, and the course map is a small laminated sheet of office paper which is slowly fading into nothingness. There's certainly room for a proper course map on the park kiosk but at a couple years in without a real course sign, I'd be shocked if it were in the HOA's plans.
- Hole 9 kind of confuses/disappoints me. After 8 manageable intermediate level par 3/4's you find your finishing hole to be a ~460' wide open par 3 that "doglegs" left with the main subdivision road. Par 3.5's are bad holes and having this as the finisher just leaves you with a flat feeling after what was likely an underwhelming play already.
- The west edge of the park by holes 5-8 is bordered by a little drainage that makes mowing too far that way impossible. Losing discs off of these fairways is a serious possibility.
Other Thoughts:
Another neighborhood course put in because there "was room". It's clear that a casual frolfer with connections to the HOA designed it without any insight from a more experienced designer/golfer. Not that it could have been a masterpiece but there are a few tweaks that would make it safer and more enjoyable. But really, the piece of land and existing park put a pretty low ceiling on this one. It serves its purpose just fine as an overflow for the generally crowded 12 Holer in Bozeman proper, Rose Park. With no actual quality courses in Bozeman, it's better than not a course. Travelers shouldn't go out do their way but if you're driving 191 between Bozeman and Big Sky, it's a minute off the road and a quick spin. I think I've played it 6 times in the 2 years it's been in. Once to bag it, 4 more times to play with various friends that were bagging, and one birthday glow round for a buddy. If you're not into adding pelts to your list, you can feel free to drive right on by.