Pros:
-beautiful park! (I'll upload some pictures at a later date. timg's are great but this course was much greener--with tighter lines to hit--than those pictures show)
-impeccable course "hygiene" w/ fairways and golf lines in good shape
-concrete tees, decent custom signs, good course flow overall with some arrows and such
-hole 17 is as much of a signature hole as I've ever played
-port-a-potty near parking area
Favorite holes: 1, 5, 8-15, 17!
Cons:
-at least two of the first 4 holes feel like "filler," maybe because you know the best is still ahead
-I'm 80% certain I got some chiggers and poison ivy here (it was a long day of disc golf, so it could have been somewhere else)
-navigation isn't perfect, especially finding tees for 10 and 11
-one set of tees (fine by me)
Other Thoughts:
This is the kind of no-frills "au naturale" disc golf that I've come to love and even prefer. At the same time, the lines aren't exceedingly raw or undeveloped. Lester Lorch is a beautiful nature preserve with a nice mix of terrain: denser woods plus more open fields with large trees, as well as some decent ups and downs. It lacks some features that seem ubiquitous at most great courses, such as multiple tees or fancy signs, but it makes up for that with multiple (and challenging) pin placements. More importantly, it manages not to sacrifice the park's natural beauty while offering a great disc golf experience. Instead of hacking away to carve a course out of this property, it feels like the designers simply followed the park's features in creating two courses full of unique and interesting holes while leaving the inherent beauty intact.
When we played here, all the holes on Coyote and Beaver were in long positions. I tend to view that kind of challenge as a positive. The holes also struck me as very fair and consistently fun. On Beaver, hole 1 starts off a pretty nice long 480' with mature trees in the fairway. Holes 2-4 were somewhat underwhelming, but the course started to pick up quickly from there. 5 was memorable for its green. 8 was a nice shot over/around the pond. 9-13 were a very nice collection of tighter woods shots (some of which were still quite long) with challenging but manageable lines to hit. I'm surprised most of the reviews have not mentioned hole 17, and that makes me think it's been recently improved upon. As it was when we played, this was one of the most interesting and memorable holes I've played recently (and we played Selah/Trey/Harry Myers earlier in the same trip). The basket was placed in an elevated position across the park's beautiful pond, and the tree canopy had a nice opening to tempt some risky but fun lines over the water. As I had already lost plenty of plastic on the trip, I played a cautious shot to a lay up zone and had a relatively simple uphill approach for par. But shots to that kind of basket placement are the stuff disc golf dreams are made of.
I made it to Lester Lorch while in the DFW area after visiting Selah and Trey Ranch. It was hot and humid and we had already played two difficult rounds in Rockwall/Fate, so exhaustion was definitely an issue. My only regret is that I played Coyote and Beaver but once, and neither course got my A-game like they deserved.
Rating discussion: I was between 4.0 and 4.5 on this one, and would give it a 4.25 if that were an option. Nevertheless, both courses at Lester Lorch were in perfect condition when we played, and we had a great time, so I'll go with the more generous 4.5. The whole course (minus holes 2-4) was quite memorable, and 17 was a blast. It's definitely worth going out of the way for this one.
***As always, please let me know if you have feedback or suggestions on how to improve my reviews!***