Pros:
1) Initial impressions as you pull into this quaint rural sports complex just down the road from Evansville, IN is a flat featureless course with multiple softball and soccer fields, BUT... as you continue to wind up the road towards the parking lot adjacent to Hole #1 you are pleasantly surprised to see tons of thick woods, creeks, lots of abrupt elevation and baskets dotted throughout. Your initial sigh of expecting a bland course is quickly replaced by excitement for a technical wooded course and was worth noting.
2) This course was utilized for the women's side of AM worlds in 2022 and you can tell that a lot of work went into making this course ready for that honor. Large textured tee-pads, New Prodigy baskets, Great Course signage with all relevant info and photo of the hole, clean fairways, a beautiful bridge over one of the creeks. Outside of the shelter house (which may or may not be locked) there are no restrooms available in the main parking lot. There is usually a set of port-o-potties down by the softball fields (near holes 11-13) so plan accordingly.
3) Course is what I would consider mostly densely wooded and technical. (There are a few holes (11,13, and 18) that are wide open get you to the next hole designs that feel very out of place in both design and distance which I will discuss in Cons.)
4) From the very first tee shot, (a daunting 300 ft narrow gap dead straight tunnel shot from tee pad to basket through dense trees with jail thick underbrush on either side), to Hole #9, (a tight double Mando question mark shaped 350 ft uphill tunnel shot with jail thick underbrush on the left and a large OB creek on the right) the front 9 of this course can be extremely punishing requiring multiple angle control shots at various lengths. The variety and difficulty on this front 9 is tremendous.
5) Holes 10, 14, 15, 16, 17 continue the theme from the front 9 and ratchet up both the tightness of the gaps, the vastness of elevation change, and the punishment for missing your line. It also introduces the real chance to lose you disc in a deep muddy creek with swift moving water. I love the escalation of difficulty as you progress through this course. It's like honing your skill and preparing for a final battle at the end.
6) For the most part, this is not a big arm required course. Power is for naught on 80% of the holes and is traded for distance control and gap hitting. This makes this course wonderful for lower arms speeds and lower level skill players to get in some work learning gaps. Additionally, if you want to beat in a disc or two quickly, play a single disc round with it here. Trees abound.
7) Most of the course is putter reachable for the more skilled players and is an excellent course for working on your putter game from all different shot shapes and angles.
8) This course squeezed every drop out of the available woods to make some excellent holes, unfortunately, it wasn't enough property to make 18 of them and some filler had to be added.
9) This course has multiple ace runs, tons of photo worthy tee shots and a very tranquil feel to it, especially when your are deep in the woods. Although it can be very frustrating if you aren't throwing well, I always enjoy playing my way around this track. It is quite calming.
Cons:
1) I have to address the elephant in the room first. Anyone who plays here will almost always immediately point to Hole #18 (and to some extent Holes #11 and #13) as their most hated holes and how they do not fit this course at all. Hole #18 is probably the most egregious error in course design I've seen (on a course with otherwise amazing designed holes). It is an uphill 475 ft Par 3 that is mostly wide open. Dead center in the fairway is a paved basketball court that you must throw over. Left side of the fairway is the main parking lot, right side of the fairway is a subdivision only separated by a small 4 foot tall fence. The distance to par ratio makes no sense (compared to the rest of the course), and even if it was a Par 4 that would not excuse the inherent danger that the parking lot, basketball court, and houses bring into play. I'm a big fan of a courses Hole #1 and Hole #18 being memorable and showcases of a course, and the vast difference in quality between this courses Hole #1 and Hole #18 is very disappointing.
2) Holes #11 and #13 seem very forced and out of place as they are both 375 foot righty hyzers around the perimeter fence of two softball fields, with the scoreboards to the fields acting as Mando right ofs. Both wide open, no trees to speak of, no wind protection, and I can see both of these holes being problematic if there are games going on on either of these fields.
3) Because of the small wooded footprint this course has to work with, the fairways, baskets, and tee pads are very close to each other. Though protected by walls of trees for the most part, you will be at risk of errant shots, especially in tournament play.
4) While Hole #16 is beautiful to look at and somewhat fun to play, it feels very gimicky. Directly in front of the tee pad is a giant tree which forces you to choose left or right. The left gap is tight wooded uphill path that snakes left to right between a very tight tunnel of trees to get to the pin. The right gap is a full water carry over a deep creek through an initial narrow gap from the tee and must carry water the entire flight and enter through a gap in the trees on the right side of the green. The tee pad in both cases does not set up well for either shot as the tee pad sits in bowl shape and is only pointed directly at a tree just a few feet in front of it. This hole routinely causes backups as there is no good way to get down the side of the steep cliff to get your disc back if hit anything and kick right.
5) The underbrush and piles of debris. While this course has fairways that are pretty clear, that's where the maintenance stops. Thorn bushes, poison ivy, stacks of limbs and old barbed wire are abound here if you get a bad kick deep off the fairway. This compounded with the safety concerns of close proximity, holes that throw at and over roads, fields, and courts, plus multiple blind tee shots make this course one that requires you to pay a lot of attention when both throwing and waiting to throw.
Other Thoughts:
Overall a wonderful use of the small space provided and if you were to just play the front 9, it would be an Excellent wooded course. While the back 9 is definitely harder and has some of the better wooded holes on the course, the damage the open holes do to its image brings my course rating down. I still play this course any chance I get, even tournaments, because it's one of the few truly technical wooded courses in the area that all skill levels can play so I can bring my more casual friends along. Not a destination course by itself, BUT if you are traveling to Evansville to play Mesker (woods and park courses), I suggest adding this to your trip along the route.