Pros:
1. Variety. While the course is primarily open, shot shaping is required around trees and wood-lined fairways, and a decent mix of straight holes with righty- and lefty-friendly designs. The few wooded holes in particular were pretty cool, with elevation coming into play as well as tight fairways. Hole #1 is a reachable blind hole with a large conifer dead-center in the fairway, so it's a good opener hole in that it's conducive to righty or lefty shots. Hole #12 is a cool downhill hole requiring a big RHBH hyzer, easy to end up in the woods if your hyzer line isn't executed properly.
2. Maintenance. This course just opened, but it's clear that in this county park setting it is well cared for and receives plenty of funding. Didn't see many trash cans on the course, though I'm certain those will be coming, especially with Manitowoc's biggest tourney (with one round now played here, the other at Silver Creek) right around the corner. No litter problems yet.
3. Dual concrete tees. This is always nice to see, especially since a lot of courses have limited funding and usually choose to do just one set of tees in concrete, leaving (usually) the shorter tees natural/woodchip/etc. It's clear the Manitowoc crew wanted to kick things off right with their newest course, and all of the tees were level, and even while playing a round in the rain I didn't see any water pooling, so they are draining excellently.
4. Multi-use park setting. If the wife and kids don't want to play a round from the shorts, there's a nice little playground, or they could head down to the falls and do some fishing, or have a picnic.
5. Nice handcrafted benches at every hole. Not a physically exhausting course, so benches at every hole may seem a bit superfluous, but on a busy day and being in the open (i.e. hot sun), these will be much appreciated.
6. Putting practice basket near parking lot.
7. Bulletin board near parking lot. No info posted yet, but I'm sure this board will get used with the upcoming tourney.
8. Next tee signs where appropriate. Still recommend printing a course map (in the links section above) for first-timers out here until permanent navigational aides are in place.
Cons:
1. The first few holes are pretty bland, lots of wide open shot followed by wide open shot to an unprotected basket, albeit with gently rolling fairways (but not enough elevation change to really affect your shot or lie). Holes #1-5 and #10 all play AROUND little wooded islands instead of going into or through them, which would make this course much tougher (and enjoyable if you're into that kind of wooded punishment). Most of the Front 9 is very reminescent of Indian Creek, and it's not until Hole #14 that you actually get the chance to shoot into some woods, and it IS a blast once you get to these holes and get to finish out your round with some real finesse shots and narrow fairways. I'd suggest playing the Back 9 twice, but there's no real 9-hole loop design here where you can easily just play the Front or Back.
2. I noticed on numerous occasions where pin positions were lackluster when observing the surrounding terrain that could have been utilized (a sharp dropoff in the woods just behind the pin, a small clearing in the woods, etc.). Just simply relocating some of the baskets could drastically change some of these bland holes and add some real risk. But, this is a county park and I'm sure there were severe limitations on where they could install baskets, how much brush they were allowed to clear, etc.
3. No permanent tee signs yet, but I'm not knocking any points off for this. There's a sample sign at Hole #1, and throughout the rest of the course you're greeted with "Course Under Construction" signs, so obviously this is still a work in progress.
4. The long tees aren't much different than the shorts, just longer. Most of the longs are just stuck 40-100 feet behind the shorts, maybe just off to the side, without changing the feel of the holes that much. I like when a course tantalizes me with short tee locations that make me want to play another round from short tees just to get a different experience (Tendick Nature Park suffers from this same flaw with their dual tees).
5. There are restrooms near the parking lot, but hit these up before you start your round since, like stated, the course doesn't wrap back around to this point until Hole #14. Especially keep this in mind with children -- My son had a bathroom emergency on Hole #8, which is about the furthest point AWAY FROM the restrooms! Again, not knocking points off for this; it's just quite a haul back if you "need to go" at some point in the turn.
Other Thoughts:
As stated in my review title, this course doesn't quite live up to Silver Creek. I did find it much more enjoyable than Indian Creek, although I admit I wasn't expecting much more than another Indian Creek when seeing the course installation photos. The redeeming holes are found on the Back 9, and without these I probably wouldn't have given this more than a 2.5 (in actuality it would've been more like a 2.75). The wooded holes fulfill the need for a balanced course, but Cato Falls isn't so crazy wooded that noobs/kids/casual players will get extremely frustrated. All in all this was a fun course, and with the falls nearby I can envision spending a day out there with the family, picnicking and enjoying nature with a few rounds of DG thrown in for good measure.