Pros:
BEAUTIFUL course. I just kept taking pictures because every time I turned around there was a picturesque view. Rolling hills, vineyards, trees, flowers, everything looked great. This course is well designed for the most part. Placement on tee shots is demanded and the longer holes require at least 2 good shots to earn the birdie. There is plenty of elevation change throughout the course to keep things interesting.
I love the MachX baskets. The long tee boxes were concrete and the short tee boxes were rubber. Both sets of tees played great, although some of the short tees were very short. The signage was great with diagrams of the hole, par, and distance. Course map was posted behind the pro shop. Scorecards are available at the pro shop with a map on it, along with distance, and pars.
Trash cans placed throughout course.
The course figure eights back at the parking area/pro shop between the front 9 and back 9. That makes for a great opportunity to pit stop for water, snacks, and restrooms in the air conditioned wine tasting room.
There is a pro shop with a small supply of discs for sale. They have their own logo stamped on a few discs that you can purchase. They also have discs for rent for those that don't have their own discs to play with. You lose it, you buy it, is the policy though. There are a few opportunities to lose discs too. The pro shop also manages a lost and found, so you could potentially get any lost discs back eventually.
The biggest "pro" is that you can bring your lady friend to a vineyard/winery AND you get to play some disc golf too!
Cons:
The first time I played here it was overcast so the heat wasn't too big of a problem. The 2nd time, was a sunny, 90+ degree day and the heat was a major negative factor. Much of the course is out in the open without shade to stay cool under.
There were several short holes, especially on the short tees/short pins layout. They were fun and made for several ace runs, but they were a bit out of place amongst all of the par 4's and 5's. I'd prefer to see more challenging 2's on this course and not so many easy 2's.
You can't bring in any outside alcoholic beverages since they have wine for sale.
For me, I'll only play here once in a blue moon since it is about 4 hours from home. Because of that, the $15 charge ($20 if you aren't a PDGA member) isn't bad for me. That would be too high of a price to play here often, in my opinion. They do offer a $60 annual membership to receive unlimited play for one calendar year. If you knew you were going to play here enough, the membership would be an awesome option! Members also receive discounted tickets to select events throughout the year and 5% off wine by the bottle.
The grass was taller on holes 15-17 than the rest of the course when I played. I narrowly avoided stepping on a snake on hole 17 because it blended in so well to the taller grass.
I typically throw several forehands in a disc golf rounds on the courses that I'm used to. I found myself only throwing a handful of forehands in the 3 rounds that I played (shorts and longs). More often a long turnover shot was more conducive for the distance needed and the shape of the shot. I think that would translate to a lack of lefty shots, but I wasn't looking for the lefty shots either.
A few baskets are placed precariously close to drop offs that lead to water or are placed very near water, so there are multiple places where putting a disc in the drink is a possible outcome. However, I didn't lose any discs and never felt like I was put in a situation where I didn't have the option to keep my disc safe and still score well. The water was very clear and shallow in some places, so getting your disc back wouldn't be too difficult.
UPDATE:
I played this course in June of 2017 when I initially wrote this review. Upon playing again in July of 2018, my opinion of it has changed slightly. I gave it a 4.5 initially. Updating that to a 4, but really, I'd go with about 3.75 if that was an option. The course was not as well maintained this summer and the water that was there last summer is mostly all dried up. The rough was very ROUGH and there are places you can easily lose a disc unless you are willing to go rummaging through dense foliage laced with bull nettle and poison ivy.
Last summer my wife just walked along with me and threw a few shots along the way. This summer, she played from the short "tees", at least that was the plan. We had forgotten that several holes don't have a short tee, but rather a short basket position. That left us playing to different areas and not able to enjoy the round fully together. We had to separate and meet back up at certain places. I wasn't a big fan of changing up the layout midway through from short and long tees, to short and long baskets, even last year when I played it for the first time. I was definitely not a fan of it this time through with having to separate from my wife on several occasions. This is defintely a glaring design flaw in a course that I would imagine many couples play together as it is on a winery.
The heat, combined with the rough, unkept places on the course, and having to split up on several occasions, made this 2nd experience here much unlike the first great experience the previous summer.
Other Thoughts:
My wife and I played here on the way back up to Fort Worth from Austin. So glad that we did! This course is beautiful, challenging, and fun! My wife loves vineyards and wine tasting, so this was the best of both worlds for us both. We took advantage of the "Wine and Disc" package, that was only $15 for PDGA members. That got me greens fees for the day and got my wife a wine tasting. We ended up buying 3 bottles of wine which got us another free wine tasting so we both were able to sample the award-winning wines. There was also a $35 dollar option that included greens fees, a pizza, and a wine flight.
I played one round from the shorts and one round from the longs; and played them on the same go around to get the full feel for what the course had to offer.
We actually ran into John Houck after we finished the front 9 and got to talk with him for a little while about the course. He just happened to be there at the time that we were playing which was a fortunate coincidence. John introduced us to the owner who was a very nice guy.
You want to go to the 2nd entrance to park for disc golf.