Pros:
Fontana Village has a surprisingly high quality and well maintained course laid out on the Fontana Dam Resort property. I've always loved the Southern Appalachians, so playing disc golf in this kind of terrain is a real treat. The mountain views, the pleasant weather (at least this time of year), and the lush green mountain foliage, combine for a lovely environment to throw in. Given the mountainous setting, there is a lot of elevation to keep things interesting throughout the course, including many holes with elevated tee pads either playing long, sailing, downhill drives or drives across a valley. There are also a number of holes that play uphill the whole way. There is no chance of getting bored on this course.
You will need to pay careful attention to your drive placement here, not just because of elevation, but because of the high-risk shule just beyond the well-maintained grassy fairways. The fairways are plenty wide and clear on every hole to reward good shots with good lies, but if you miss the fairway, prepare to be punished. This course is long and open enough to reward long, powerful throws, but only if they are well controlled. If you can't throw over 400', there are a limited number of birdie opportunities from the long tee pads, but a player throwing 300' to the choice landing spot is going to beat a big arm who doesn't keep it in the fairways. This is the kind of thinking man's risk/reward tradeoff that we should see on a disc golf course.
There are several holes that might be considered "signature" holes, but probably my favorite is #2. It is a looong, steep, downhill hole that I could probably reach with a driver, simply because of the steepness of the hillside, but my preferred shot is to sail a midrange or slow fairway driver down to a landing spot that gives me a comfortable approach to the basket for a 3. This course will really show off the flight of a disc, especially on this hole. #16 is a similar hole, but its fairway has a bunch of trees down the middle, so you really have to think about placing your drive before running down to the basket. 16 is probably the toughest hole on the course.
Another favorite of mine is #13, about 350' across the crest of a hill. The fairway slopes away sharply to the left, with terrible shule below it. There is also big danger on the right, with the hillside dropping even more steeply towards the road below. With these dangers on either side of the fairway, which itself narrows to a point near the basket, you have a decision that matters: how close to the basket can I risk throwing my disc? Getting to within a putt is a legitimate, fair option, but the closer you try to put your drive, the riskier the shot gets. Once you're safely in the fairway, the approach and putt is no problem, so it all rests on the accuracy of your drive.
Pardon me while I try to rein in my long-windedness. The only underwhelming hole on this course is #1. Clearly the designer is a disc golfer and knew what he was doing, though as another reviewer commented, it looks like they laid out 17 holes and oops, they needed one more. There is a lot of room for creativity, but you'll be playing real disc golf lines to real landing spots, not pitch-and-putt, poke-and-pray, or boring flat upshot after boring flat heave. I could almost give this course a 4.5, but for the cons below.
Cons:
The most significant downside to this course is related to one of its best features, the terrain. While I love throwing from elevated tee pads or up long slopes to a creatively set putting zone, I don't so much like some of the walking paths that get you from tee pad to fairway. There are several places where I would have liked to have had my trekking poles with me, or at least a good walking stick. I didn't fall, but I slid or nearly slipped several times, and that was in the fairways. The rough shule would be even worse in many places. To graduate towards a 4.5, this course would need to get some steps or better trails installed in a number of places.
While the rubber tee pads are well installed and level, I played on a rainy Friday and the following sunny Saturday. Not only are the rubber pads dangerously slippery when wet, but many of them seem to take a couple of days to dry out. In the Smokies, you may be waiting a long time for a fully dry, safe set of tee pads. Brushed concrete pads may have been a better choice here, or perhaps some kind of rough or astroturf-like surface on the rubber pads. The tee signs also listed distances for two tee pads at every hole, but I only found the "long" ones where the rubber pads are. Eventually I figured out that the "short" pads are supposed to be natural pads marked by a couple of Innova brand stakes in the ground, but many of these have gone missing or have been misplaced. With this situation, you'll basically only have one option on the course. That shows a bit of neglect, even though the fairways themselves are generally very well cut and maintained, and the baskets are in good condition.
Other Thoughts:
Walking this course is a workout, but you may be able to mitigate the effort of walking by renting a golf cart on site at the resort. You can do a 5-hour rental or an all-day rental of the cart, which will get you all over the resort property, as well as into most of the disc golf course, since there are roads and cart paths snaking throughout it. It won't take you right up to every tee pad, but would get you close to most. There is also a pretty good restaurant on the property, so you can break for lunch if you're here all day. You can also rent discs with a bag at their rental building. The fee for renting equipment is $5, and is good for a full day of playing, but if you bring your own equipment, nobody is going to charge you $5 to play here. I literally had the course entirely to myself for two days.
There is a lot of other stuff to do here besides play disc golf. In addition to the nearby hiking and site-seeing, the resort itself hosts a miniature golf course, features a couple of game rooms, and has daily activities to keep your whole family entertained. If you're staying overnight with family or significant other, you might give these activies a try.