Pros:
-Course is well maintained. It's nicely groomed and well kept. Long concrete pads. Nice tee signs on the short pads. Construction is good too. There are many benches throughout the course.
-Family friendly! There are tennis courts, a playground, a baseball field? Also a 13ft deep pool.
-Practice basket beside the field and past the building. Hole 1 is down in the woods. Course is easy to navigate pretty much the entire way.
-Course starts off pretty straightforward. The first hole is downhill and to the right side of the fairway. It's tight so it takes good accuracy to birdie this one but it's not that hard to arrange. #2 short is only 162' and 260' from the long, but plays along a rolling hill. Still a pretty easy birdie from the short. The long is tougher because the long pad faces a cluster of trees but still very manageable and fair.
-Gets interesting with holes 3 and 4. Both are out in the open and are all distance holes from the long pads and are both over 400' long. From the shorts they are much easier. #3 is a downhill putter shot. A big hill is behind the basket so you don't want to go long. #4 is still a tough hole from the short. But is a really fair one. It's a right to left par 3 with some trees in the fairway but gives more than enough room to get it there.
-Many brilliantly designed holes. #7 is simply a great hole from both sets of tees. It's plays along a tight, straight fairway. It gives just enough space to throw a driver. There is danger all along the right side but you are more than likely bound to get a good kick to the left side or to the fairway. A 2 on the short pad would be a memorable birdie. The long pad is about 519' long and plays as a par 4 but isn't much different aside from the distance. #9 is an awesome par 3 from the short pad. The pad is angled toward the left so you need to throw pretty late. The hole is straight downhill down an interesting shaped fairway. Birdies do happen but if you go left, you could lose a few strokes. #12! Great narrow hole that plays along a fairway sloping to the left. If you are a righty like me, you would probably decide to flick, which would be the favorable way to play this hole but I decided to backhand it and I went like 50' past the basket. At 344' and narrow, it seems tough to get down there on a hole like this one but you could, and you don't want to go too far. There is sloping downhill down deep woods past the basket. Challenging, but very fun!
-Course ends grand with an awesome hole 18. It's another challenging hole that plays through a 20' gap and goes into the deep woods slightly to the right. I had an eagle opportunity on this one but missed due to being blocked by trees. The green is guarded by many trees. It's better to be slightly right than left.
Cons:
-Could use a few more trashcans throughout the course. It's clean for the most part but it still wouldn't hurt to add a few more.
-If you come from 485 and merge onto 49 and then onto 52. You may have a hard time finding the course at first. The old address it said on the media was wrong but I think they fixed it. The old address took me to a man's house. Great guy, he drove to the park and allowed me to follow him there. It says to turn left on Knollwood but Knollwood Circle is more than one "street." Turn left on the third one, NOT THE FIRST TIME YOU SEE KNOLLWOOD. This did not affect my rating.
-Imaginary fairways. A few fairways are undefined and require luck to hit. Hole 8 is just irritating to say at the best. It's a huge uphill dogleg left up a fairway that is practically impossible to hit if you don't hit a tree. You have to get lucky on this one. #15 is also silly, it has two really skinny routes, nearly impossible for even a RHBH thrower like me to hit! Leaves you scratching you head saying "Come on Schwarz! Ever thrown a disc that flies like that?"
-If you play the longs, you will probably not agree with holes #4, #6, #9, and #16 being par 3's. They are just too hard to birdie. They are all over 400' and they are very technical and not straightforward. If you have played #12 at Eastway in Charlotte. You know that it's like 440' long but is straight and wide open, it's not hard for me to deuce. These holes, I can't birdie! They can't really be birdied unless you make a long approach shot, which would feel like an eagle. I think it should be a par 62 on the longs, instead of 58. A 58 on the longs has to be at least 980 rated!
Other Thoughts:
-My cons aren't that big of a deal in my book. It gives many opportunities for redemption so you really want to do you best to seize those opportunities. Aside from hole 8, every hole is fair and can easily be birdied with a well placed shot. But it takes critical thinking. This course will make or break you. It broke me, and will bring down my PDGA rating! If I took the time to think harder and watch where I was releasing, I probably would've shot at least even. But I didn't! I had many terrible kicks that got me in trouble. Even on the shorts would be about 935 rated and from the longs about 980.
-#6 is probably the "love it or hate it." It plays along a casual creek with OB to the left side of the rope. There is death all along the right side because of the clusters of trees. As a righty, I usually throw an understable driver really hard and get it to roll. I have that.
-Signature holes. #5. Very cool putter shot that goes downhill. Creek is about 15' past the basket. #18. Just an all around great ending to the course. From both pads it is a par 4. It's a lot tougher from the long pad because it takes a more precise shot but still demands some distance. The gap is about 300' from the long pad and about 170' from the short. It's a little bit more forgiving from the short pad because there aren't as many trees to face and as long as you hit the gap, you should be fine.
-I've played here many more times. It's a good course with great elevation change and hole diversity, but it is somewhat overrated in my opinion. The rough gets pretty bad, some holes need to be updated on their par, and some tee shots expect you to hit small window gaps (#13).