Pros:
The Newest of the four courses at Lemon Lake is designed specifically for beginners, and those with less D.
However, thats not the same as saying its easy or not fun. Quite the opposite.
The tee pads are a mix between rubber and concrete, with one or two grass ones still. However, they are planning on pouring concrete for all the pads, and have the molds ready to go at the tees they havent done yet.
The tee signs (up on most of the holes) are the usual for Lemon Lake, hole map and distance, printed on that plastic cardboard stuff. Good maps, ok distances, but easy to replace and update as holes change and evolve.
This course has a wonderful variety of short, but very wonderful technical holes. Many blind baskets off the tee, and many tight fairways with ceilings.
This course has several really cool holes on it, and makes especially good use of a ravine in the woods on three holes, two playing across it, one playing alongside it. The ravine has a tiny trickle running through it, not enough to worry about it eating discs though.
This course is full of holes less than 300 ft. Quite a few of them keep big arms honest with ceilings and tight curves, including a mean 200 ft sharp left curve that makes pros and ams alike sweat (my cohorts, all superior players, took 4's, my lefty sidearm magic parked it for 2). Many of the holes at least force accuracy off the tee, with fairly punishing shrub shule. Waht few holes have no trees in play (1, 2 & 4), bring terrain into play, with hill baskets that add the danger of rollaways.
Also realize, as one of the course designers (who joined us for a round) explained, jsut because this is a beginner course doesnt mean its full of beginner holes. Hole 17 is a 300 ft beast through the woods, a downhill tunnel, with abrupt curve right. Quite difficult, probably the signature hole, though many on this course are pretty cool, so that's a tough call after only one round.
A joy to play, even if you dont bust out the big drivers much, you WILL have to have a good mid game to do well on this course. Though I shot under par, I really enjoyed the experience, and would play this one again in a heartbeat, especially once its a little older.
PS, OFFICIAL COURSE RULE- If you land in the bathtub off the tee, everyone else in your group has to buy you a beer. Yes, I did say bathtub, and you'll know it when you see it.
Cons:
This course is still pretty rough in places, as it is brand new, and many of hte cons stem from there. Some of the teepads were a bit soggy, as we played the day after several inches of rain. Also, the rubber mats are not the best at times, and we longed for concrete on all the holes, as well as teesigns.
Even the tee signs that were there, some didnt seem extremely accurate, mainly in the distance department, since they changed the pin location btween when the signs were made and when pins went in.
One or two of the open holes (holes 1 & 2 in particular) are quite vanilla, not too long, seem kinda like filler holes on an otherwise solid course. More ravine, less vanilla, I say!!
The drainage o nthis course is ok, but several fairways were soggy in points. Of the 4 courses, this one probably rates 3rd best in drainage, better than blue, but not quite as good as red or silver. So, if you plan on playing Lemon Lake after a rain, wear Goretex on the White course, or pick one of the other courses. A few rubber mats were under a bit of water.
Also, some of the shule shrubs here can hide discs quite well, so a spotter is not a bad idea.
Some of the ravine holes were downright treacherous with slick mud, so there are place where terraces are needed for safety as well as erosion, IMO.
However, these are things that will happen with time, as the parks dept here is committed to work hand in hand with the local DG club to make these courses amazing, and keep them that way. Do your part to maintain this special relationship when you visit here by keeping this course clean and leaving the trees in the ground.
Other Thoughts:
Though this is the shortest and easiest course at Lemon Lake, it has some very cool holes in it, and is interesting and fun for players of all skill levels. I played these courses with two very skilled 20+ year DG veterans, and one of them liked this course the best of the four, for its tightly wooded technical challenges. I liked it 3rd best of the four.
I realize this course is in a rough state now because this and silver course were both built in less than 2 yrs, and White is brand spankin new. When this course is ready to go for Worlds, it will be a 4.0, no doubt in my mind