Pros:
Lowe Warner Park was an enigma to me. There's the making of a very good to great nine hole layout; however; due to poor execution and lack of upkeep, this course offered too much frustration that it left a bad taste in my mouth. Or, that bad taste might have just come from the massive lumberyard next door.
- On the positive, I enjoyed the majority of the holes I played. The problem, which I dive into later, is that the signage is terrible, navigation is difficult and many of the pavers marking the tees are broken or missing. I spent close to the same amount of time looking for the next tee as I did actually playing holes. Once I did find the paver, or at least one of the three, I really did enjoy the course.
- There are some fun and/or challenging hole layouts. I really enjoyed holes #1, 3, 4 & 9. There were only two bad holes - #2 (could be good with minimal work) and #5 (felt like one of those 9-holer course filler holes). The other holes were all suitable, without anything standing out. A quick recap of the four good holes:
- #1 - It took a while to find the tee, but this is a very good, diverse opening hole. 290 foot from the blue (long tee), throwing downhill over the park road and trees. Very nice way to start.
- #3 - The toughest, and best, hole on the course. The hole has a narrow, low ceiling fairway making accuracy important. Or just hope your shot goes so far left that you actually have a second shot. Just don't go right. The pics on this site give a great sense of the fairway. This is a great risk/reward hole.
- #4 - I could never find the blue tee, so I played from the white. What a great hole layout. You start in the open, throw over the tall stuff to an uphill basket in the woods. It's not overly challenging - I parked my tee shot for a tap in birdie - but it's still an enjoyable layout nonetheless. Again, the picture on here does a great job showing the layout.
- #9 -It's 400 feet from the blue tee. Tee shot is through a tight gap. From there it opens up to a dogleg left. You can either be aggressive off the tee, increasing the chance you might miss the gap, or sacrifice distance to ensure you have a well place second shot. This is a solid closing hole, especially for a nine-hole course.
- Bizarre observation - this park has the most horseshoe pits I've ever seen at any one park. There are 16 sets of pits, with a large sign at the front of the playing area. Apparently, Troy is a hotbed for horseshoes, or it must be popular among the lumberyard workers to have that much space and upkeep dedicated to the game. I've seen disc golf get overlooked for mainstream sports and activities at parks before, but never at the hand of horseshoe. Go figure.
Cons:
This just seems to be a course that gets neglected and is in need of some serious attention. The thing is, it would only take a handful of locals one work day to clean up the course, improve signage and markers. You do that, and this course becomes more playable.
- You would think with a massive lumberyard next door, this course would be able to have good tee signs, or at least, stakes in the ground. And by next door, I mean there are stacks of trees on the back of the lot, one throw from the tees on #3. From the time I turned on Page Street (the road is park is on), you smell sawdust and fresh wood the entire time. If you have allergies, like me, be prepared to be bothered during your time here.
- Tee markers are a complete disaster. As mentioned above, I spent more time searching for the tees on holes #1 & 2 than I did actually playing those two holes. On #1, for example, from the pictures and map on this site, I could tell the blue tee would be on top of a hill. Even with that, it took a while to find the blue-colored paver.
- For the entire course, I could only easily find all three pavers on holes #1, 8 & 9, the three true open holes on the course. Granted, I didn't try to find the markers on every hole. On holes #2 & 3, I found broken fragments of pavers that I guess indicated where the tee was located. I couldn't find the blue markers on holes #3 & 7 either. Like I said, it won't take much to fix this problem.
- There will be frustrations of wasted time and navigation for first time players. Not only are tee markers missing, there are a couple of awkward transitions. The baskets for #1 & 2 are relatively close to each other, but you're throwing from complete opposite directions. So, after you finish hole #1, you essentially walk hole #2 backwards to get up to the tee, throw, then walk back the general direction you came from. Also, without tee signs, it could be very easy to throw to the wrong tee, especially in the stretch of #6 - 8.
- The map for this course is hand drawn, and in turn, not completely accurate nor drawn to scale. That said, there's no way I could have navigated this course without printing out the map first. I would have had no clue whatsoever where the tees for holes, 1 - 3 would be. After that, I probably would have given up and just left.
- The park as a whole wasn't in outstanding shape. The only bathrooms in the park were locked when I played at lunchtime on a Friday. Other than the horseshoe pits, the whole thing had a worn-down, neglected feel.
- Holes overlap/interfere with each other. This will only be an issue when there are others playing, but it is something to be aware of.
Other Thoughts:
I had a roller coaster of feelings about this course. Pulling into the parking lot and wasting so much time trying to find the first tee, my first impression wasn't positive, and I hadn't even thrown a shot. After each good hole, I was ready to overlook the problems, only to then have more issues trying to find tees. All that said, there really is the making of a solid course here.
- The course should follow the 'less is more' adage. I appreciate that they're trying to get three distinct tee pads/layouts for each hole, but that's only creating clutter and confusion. If a hole can realistically benefit from having three different layouts, go ahead. It would make more sense to focus on the one absolute best layout, then see how you can add a shorter or easier layout for beginners. The best layout for hole #4 isn't the blue (long) layout. It's the white (middle) layout. Focus on your one best layout, instead of three average ones.
- Hole #3 was my favorite. There's challenge, length and shot making involved to get a 3. This hole reminded me off #5 at Timmons in Greenville with its design and approach. This was a hole I felt was a well-earned three on.
- Course did have more 'good' holes than most small-town/neighborhood parks. You could see a lot of these holes on more challenging 18 hole courses (unlike King's Mountain Point, which had no holes good enough for a better course), and they would hold their own. It actually makes me intrigued about what an 18-hole layout would be like here.
- The course layout itself, at least the one I played - 7 blue tees, 2 white ones - would be a very good, above average course. It'd be a solid 2.0 - 2.5 in my book. Depending on the conditions when you play, the quality/rating could be all over the book.