Pros:
Indian Riffle Park is a wonderful community attraction, ranging widely alongside a school, a Rec Center, and an Arts center, that features a water park, playgrounds, sports fields, beautiful park shelters, a lake, and numerous walking paths. The park goes from mature and stately trees to open fields to woods, and is a busy, well-enjoyed feature in Kettering, Ohio. The disc golf course here is incorporated around the other activities, usually steering clear of them, which makes for an, er, 'interesting' layout. Three of the holes were redone between my two visits here (June, 2012 and May, 2013) in order to separate the flying discs from the pedestrians who stroll along the path by the lake.
Hole 5 has been shortened as the basket is now to the right, and not near the pond/path. #17 has been repositioned at the foot of the mound, and is a short ace run alongside the little ball field, #18 was moved from pond side to the woods behind the two bigger ball fields, finishing at its original basket position through a break in the wood line, and leads nicely back to hole 1.
The course itself has adequately sized, level, concrete tee pads, DGA baskets (oddly in better repair and relatively less rusty in the woods than those out in the open), and variable signage that probably needs updating and re-measuring for hole lengths, now that there have been some changes.
The course seems to slightly favor hyzer lines (for rhbh throwers), but has a little variety, and uses the elevation available fairly well, particularly in the woods, and up on the mound on #16. There is variety here in that you have to play Park-style, as well as open shots and woods/technical lines as you go around. The course lengths are geared toward Recreational to Intermediate arms, with only three holes over 350'.
Cons:
The course essentially runs around the perimeter of the park, which means there are some long walks between holes. The one ridiculously LONG walk between the #5 basket and the #6 tee means that, even if you parked on the Rec Center side, you'll have nearly a half mile of your circuit that is just walking, and NOT engaged playing disc golf.
The changed holes do increase safety for park patrons, but eliminate what were a couple of waterside shots that formerly added that gut-check challenge (but I guess the other plus is that it takes your discs away from the duck- and goose-check challenge, too!)
There are no benches on the disc golf course, despite it probably being a good two mile loop to walk. There is no sign at the #6 basket (which might be a logical place to start, if they ever wanted to re-number the holes). There are three or four trash cans on the course, but I thought it odd to see one of them essentially IN the #7 fairway. I suspect that means there are hiking trails used through the woods, so it is important that all disc golfers be on the lookout for other park patrons at ALL times at Indian Riffle.
Other Thoughts:
This a really nice park, and a fun disc golf course to play, but it does give the feeling that that the disc golf is being (or was originally) pushed out to the perimeter so folks could enjoy the rest of the park's amenities. I'm not saying this is wrong, or even a problem, but should be kept in mind by players who might be used to playing courses where disc golf is the central focus.