Tee signs, concrete tee pads, some benches on some of the holes. Several short, technical holes and a couple of +500 foot holes, the rest of the holes play 350 to 450 feet, with trees to deal with. Separate temporary directional signs between holes, a necessity for first time players, especially from hole 1 to tee pad 2, hole 11 to tee pad 12. There was no directional sign between hole 13 and tee pad 14, but this was talked about in a previous review and that helped a lot.
This course has wonderful terrain variety, starting in an open grassy field, then moving up into dense wooded areas with tight and hilly fairways. After a couple of holes it then breaks out into more open space with mature trees, and grassy fairways, still with elevation changes to deal with. The course has a creek running the length of the course but only comes into play on hole eleven when the pin placement is in the short position. The final two holes are played in the dense wooded area again, and will challenge you to finish your round at the same level as you played the rest of the course. In other words, 17 and 18 are not "feel good" holes, their level of difficulty being the highest on the whole course. Which is what the course designers wanted (Tim Keith, and Joe Thacker), the final holes a chance to make or break a tournament round when everything is on the line. Overall the course design is very well thought out, making the players execute a variety of shots - hyzer, annhyzer, tight controlled midrange tee shots, uphill and downhill shots. Every tee shot has trees to deal with, not unfairly, there are preferred flight paths that you will need hit to get your par, or have a chance at birdie. The heavily wooded fairways (holes 2 , 3, 17, and 18), have opened up compared to how it was a couple of years ago, still very technical though.
This park is user friendly, a solid, well balanced course all levels of ability will enjoy. Beginners wont like hole eighteen, but the pros will love it. Pros probably wont be challenged on hole 11, if its in the short position near the water, but beginners will. After talking to Sam the local, who was gracious enough to show me the course, he said there arent a lot of people who play this course compared to the George Ward course in Birmingham, just south of this course. If you want to avoid crowds and play a very fun and challenging course, this is probably the one to go to in the Birmingham area.
Last thoughts, which has nothing to do with the course, is when leaving the freeway to get to the course, or going back to the freeway during rush hour traffic, allow for extra time as the surface streets can get to be bumper to bumper and will feel like the longest mile you've ever crawled, which may be the case. You could certainly walk it faster. That section of road really needs to be upgraded. Once again, this is not a negative for the course, its just something you should be aware of and account for.