Pros:
As on of the many volenteers at Iron I'm very biased (no hiding that). Yet I'll be honest as possible to give a fair review. Iron is finally nearly completed, and has 2 full sets of baskets and two full sets of tees.
Iron Hill is a pro par 72, designed for Gold to Gold, with A tier tournaments in mind. Gold to long(Gold baskets/Innova yellow bands) is a TRUE par 72 (SSA is very close to 72).
Over the first 8 years, holes have been lengthened (and some shortened) to get each hole close to its stated par, and tournament SSA on each hole as possible. Not kidding, baskets have been moved 20-50-100 feet, some even moved only 5 feet for looks and sight lines - lots of thought and adjustments have happened over the last 8 years.
Awesome large concrete pads, great grip and some surrounded by natural rocks/gravel for erosion and beauty. Fairly accurate tee signs with footage to both pins (as stated, some pins have moved and signs are close but not perfect at this time). Signs have a nice touch of including elevation changes.
Tee pad markers - Gold/White painted rocks to designate what player level that tee is designed for - AND the hole plays to that level player PAR as stated on the signage!
Directional markers - Every hole has painted sign (or rock) in white with arrows pointing towards next Tee (addition and improvement based early review comments). Each tee is a safe distance from the previous pin, no waiting for the next group to tee; also no long hikes between holes.
Fairway Markers - some of the longest/blind holes have white signs pointing up the fairway in the direction of the long pins to help navigate and guide those monster drives. These white markers are 12-15 ft up trees and visible from the long Tees
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1st Tee is off the top parking lot in the park, Hole 4 Tee is at the lower parking lot. Old bottom entrance to the park is now closed, as the park opened a new entrance directly off Old Baltimore Pike.
Very long and tight with a lots of elevation changes. Designed to separate scores and skill levels - and it accomplishes that well(See results of any tournament played there for examples).
Players must decide aggressive or safe throws every time you address your lie. This is where skill separates the men from boys, and your lack of skill/consistency will eventually get punished. To many this is the beauty of Iron Hill, she can crush you one hole and reward you handsomely the next.
In the last year or so the volunteers have done a wonderful job in completing short tees with pavers, polishing the rough stone walkways around tee pads by leveling them, removing stones and making small rock walls, adding in mulch and giving several tees a much easier walk around and looking better ascetically.
Additional efforts to prevent erosion have begun, adding in water diversion, mulching areas that had heavy runoff, digging small trenches to allow runoff, etc. Lots of hard work that gets little notice, unless it never happened and then it would be muddy in places... Great job guys!
The back 9 has changed significantly over the last 8 years, and was a cause for some of the repetitive comments and just pure beat downs on players - that is not the case any longer and the course is fantastic on every hole. Wonderful to see a course grow with time, improve with time, and get polished by hard work and attention to detail.
Two practice baskets about 150/175 ft apart near top parking lot. Great to warm up!
Cons:
Difficulty - To some, this is where they just can't man up and subsequently hate the course.
Mental strength is a must for multi-round tournaments here based on above comments.
Am players that falter will be chewed up and spit out. I've played with a lot of Ams that love the challenge, and some that just went home in tears... But they always seem to come back for more. Even seen some total Noobs cut their teeth here, and have become good players. But the Hill is often rough on the Ego...
Since the entire back 9 is heavily wooded and long, some percieve repitition from hole to hole. It offers the Gold players different shots, but a shorter thrower will have similar 250ft lines on many holes because they simply can't reach the doglegs from the tee...
Iron lacks the natural beauty of Nockamixon's streams and lake view, lacks fields and lake of Carousel, and lacks the city skyscape view of Wickham, (yet it has shade all summer long) and the lack of those natural features may keep it from being 5 rated course by some - and that's a shame as the golf is the best there is anywhere.
Other Thoughts:
Playing from the correct tees will help each skill level appriciate what has been designed. Friends of mine - (good open player and his girlfriend) play from Gold/white tees and shoot similar round scores. The course was designed to playing par 72 for everyone.
Gold tees first went in first to work with the land and improve the overall course layout. The white tees are being finalized and will make the course play more Am friendly. We have even dug up some of the original short tees (wood frame & stone base) and moved those shorter tees to accomplish the "play to your level par" idea of Iron Hill. Work in progress.
Great dog park, child playground, pavilion with grills. Portapotties and running water in season. Overall nice park that the county has improved greatly since 2008.
This course was designed, and built to use the land available and incorporate great aspects of other parks. Tyler length and fairways, Morraine lines in the woods, stonework from Nockamixon and Borderland. The "Stairway To Heaven" on Hole 17 was inspired from seeing Borderland in MA specifically. Additional stone work has improved the look and feel of the course, like the slightly elevated basket on 16, the path and rock wall around 12s basket, and cleaning up around 9s tee.
This course's overall rating is just a shame - other courses in the area are a 4.4 that are not where near the course Iron Hill is - is despicable that a 1.5 and 2.0 rating are given to this course. Those reviews are dragging down the overall rating, and are no where near an accurate review of the course, just a review of the lack of ability to play Iron.
Iron Hill should easily be a top 25 overall course, easily... It my personal #2 course behind Maple Hill, and fairly equal to Deer Lakes which is rated as a 4.63 - - This course is easily a 4.5 and deserves a better overall rating, period.
Enjoy the Hill!