Pros:
Hildebran is a beginner friendly, pitch-n-putt nine hole course. For those looking for a challenge, the good news is that Glenn Hilton is only 10 minutes away.
- This is pretty simple layout, meaning what you see is what you get. For such a small piece of land, you do get a decent variety of holes: a couple uphillers (#2 & 6), a good downhill hole (#7 - the best hole on the course), a couple of dog legs and straight ones as well. As is this case with most simple courses, the biggest obstacle is to place a basket behind, or close to, trees, which you see on #4, 7 & 8.
- Nice, brand new baskets.
- Very beginner and kid-friendly. With no holes longer than 131 feet (although #6 at 125 plays longer because it's uphill), even if someone has never thrown a disc before, length will not be an issue. Even beginners should see some 2s and 3s on their scorecards.
- Good practice course for more seasoned players. I don't see this course getting a lot of traffic, so it would probably be pretty easy to pick any spot on the course and throw to almost any hole you want.
- Nice, clean neighborhood park. There isn't a lot here - playground, picnic area and restrooms - but it's all new. There is also a course map next to the main parking lot; however, there's a small lot with a couple spots by hole #1, so you might not see it. Not that you really need a course map.
Cons:
There aren't many cons at this course, at weird as that may seem.
- Course needs to be cleaned up and, well, finished. There are a lot of small shrubs, roots, plants that need to be cleared away. On #4 &6, especially, these plants are all around the baskets, so if you land in it, you might spend an extra 30 seconds searching for a disc. It also and perhaps more importantly, limits possible skip shots.
- Navigation needs to be improved. Yes, there are arrows pointing to the next tee; however, there aren't clearly defined tee areas. So, if you're a perfectionist, and need to find the precise tee spot based on hole length, it'll drive you crazy. If you see an area around where the tee should be, and decide that's good enough, you'll be fine. Even simple flags or brick markers would solve this problem.
- Along the lines of navigation, some holes play on top of each other. You pass #4's basket to get to (the general area) of #3's tee. On other holes a stray shot is going to land in a different hole's fairway. And as others have mentioned, #2's basket is way too close to someone's yard.
Other Thoughts:
To its credit, Hildebran manages to squeeze 9 holes in a tiny piece of land. Even if they tried, I don't see how any hole could be more than 200 feet at this course. So for that, they did a decent job. To see a bad version of squeezing 9 holes into no land, visit Marion DGC, 40 minutes to the west.
- As mentioned already, yes, this course was clearly aimed at beginners and the most casual of players. If you come to this course carrying more than two discs, you're bringing too many.
- The course is less than 3 minutes from I-40, so you can stop here for a quick round. If you're here alone, you should be able to play through twice in about 25 - 30 minutes.
- If I was rating this course in a vacuum, it did a good job in achieving its goal, so I might give it a B or C grade. But, comparing it to all courses, this course is essentially a mini-golf version of a real course. If I lived across the street, I'd practice here all the time. It reminds me a little of Fewell Park in Rock Hill (around the corner from Winthrop), in that they offer some fun in the pitch-n-putt, one or two disc needed variety. You'll enjoy the ace chances, and that's the extent of it.