Pros:
- Lower Cato Falls County Park DGC offers 18 holes of a mixture of parkstyle, prairie, and wooded. Dual tees give each hole two levels of difficulty, with the longest nearing 500'. Several holes are shorter wooded ace runs (e.g., hole #14).
- The actual Falls don't come into play, but the ravine they are located within does add some major elevation changes and greatly helps to spice up this round. The ravine drops off dramatically behind hole #'s 11 & 12, with hole #12 a short dogleg right. Throw too far without making the turn on time and you're off the course into the depths...fun stuff. Most of the rest of the course is only slightly rolling, but better than flat.
- Dual concrete tees switch up distance and look pretty well, giving the course a couple of reasonable layouts to play. The shorter tees would be ideal for beginners or family, while the longer tees with tougher angles offer challenge for more experienced discers.
- Signs, routing, and navigation are sufficient. A big map at the kiosk helps smooth out any wrinkles in navigation.
- Added bonus skills challenge between hole #'s 6 & 7. Follow the signs to the skills challenge area where a plethora of fun mando challenges (also wheelchair accessible) await. Great for families, beginners working on disc control, or just to break up a round with something a bit different.
- LCF DGC provides a four-hole course loop that provides wheelchair accessibility. Wide bridges, schule cut low, broad flat tees, and manageable terrain allow the mobility challenged to crush some drives and sink some sixty footers. Awesome idea, great execution; I wish more courses would incorporate these sorts of features.
- Good bathrooms on site. Playgrounds and walking trail with observation area near the falls.
Cons:
- After finishing #1, backtrack towards the park entrance (there will be tempting-looking "routing paths" that lead you far away from #2's tees) to find the gap in the woods to the next hole. Also, hole #11 could use a routing sign at #10's basket, and its tee sign was missing. After that routing is fairly intuitive.
- No clear "signature" hole that keeps you coming back for more or elevates the course to the next level.
Other Thoughts:
-LCF DGC provides a good balance to other local courses like Rollin' Ridge (obviously a must-hit) and Silver Creek. I imagine LCF DGC could serve as a good warm up round before heading over to the Ridge or playing Silver Creek's Silver Cup layout.
- This course gets a slight bump in rating for the accessible layout and added skills challenge.