Pros:
(3.325 Rating) A heavily wooded challenging course that has had significant changes in the last couple of years.
- MODIFICATIONS IN 2019 - I'm going to start this review by going off script and start off with a descriptive narrative of the changes I noticed between my experience and what I researched by going through all the past reviews. Hole (1) is the same as before. Hole (2) starts at the old tee and ends at basket (3). Hole (2) is now a 700 foot par 5, up and down the valley, with a dogleg left at the end. IMO it's the signature hole in the city of Fayetteville having played all 4 courses in town as of this review. Hole (3) is a lengthened version of old (4). Hole (4) I think is similar to old (5). Hole (5) is completely new and is a big sweeping sky hyzer left to the basket. Hole (6) is the same. Hole (7) is completely new and is a tight technical downhill line with water beyond. Hole (8) is completely new and is a long par 4. Hole (9) has modified basket location requiring more length and more precision. Hole (10) thru (14) appear to be roughly the same. Hole (15) was lengthen into a par 4. Hole (16) I think has been modified a touch. Hole (17) and (18) appear to be the same.
- CORRECTED COMPLAINTS - All the significate complaints noted in the old reviews have been fixed. "Hole (9) is missing a bridge." Connection has been built, Check. "Hole (3) throws over a bridge." Old hole (3) got the axe, Check. "Hole (7) plays along a paved path the entire way." Old hole (7) got the axe, Check. "No tee signage." Brand new artistic colored signage, Check. "No directional cues." New directional next tee signs after every basket, Check. "Course needs better maintenance." I personally found the course to be in good shape and I played near the peak overgrowth period, Check. "No benches." Benches at every tee box, Check.
- CHALLENGING - As of this review posting, this is without question the most challenging of the four courses in Fayetteville. A plus 6,000 foot heavily wooded course requiring a ton of precision and even some length. I had 3 discs with me coming in and left with 2. I shot a plus seven 65 as an intermediate. New holes (2) and (8) are monster holes requiring shot shaping, shot planning and risk reward analysis. These two holes pummeled me. IMO, the course reads as Advanced level.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - From the tee box alone, the beauty of the lines would have been 85 percentile on my ledger. Several high-quality downhill lines including hole (18) to finish off the course. Unfortunately, there is a major detractor and I dropped my score on this category to 60 percentile overall. The lake and mini creeks dicing through the layout are heavily polluted. Trash was everywhere along the lake edge. The level of clean-up required to clean this place up would be monumental. In addition, even if the waters were cleaned, they'd probably be repolluted in a few months as the trash is coming in from off-site. The areas away from the water looked great.
- SIGNAGE AND NAVIGATION - As noted under my corrected complaints pro, this category has been greatly fixed. The new tee signs were however printed using low quality materials and might only last 2 or 3 years. But, for my round, I didn't even use a map, except to find tee (1). I did not see a course map, but I started at bonus local hole (Zero), so I may have missed it.
- HOLE VARIETY - Compared to the pre 2019 layout, I imagine this has greatly improved. Two plus 600-foot holes. Two par 4s and a dogleg par 5. Lots of elevation change in the 30 to 40-foot range. Water in play on a handful of holes. A majority of the par 3 holes do play straight, but new hole (5) is a huge sweeping exception.
- CHAINS - Adequate Chainstars. They caught all my putts on target, but none of my airballs.
- EXTRAS - Restrooms, shelters, picnic areas, playgrounds, etc.
Cons:
A couple minor things and preferential cons.
- LOST DISC POTENTIAL - There are 3 or 4 holes on this layout where a bad ricochet could result in a lost disc. I lost one on (8) where a tree kindly redirected my tee shot into the polluted abyss.
- POISON IVY AND BUGS - Pretty sure I caught glimpses of this stuff, but I wasn't particularly looking for it. A local player told me to check for ticks. I don't take off points for this.
- BEGINNER FRIENDLY - Beginners will not like this course. Don't bring them here and don't come here if you are one.
- TEES - They looked like worn down melted asphalt. Several had some modest unlevelness to them. Several I wished were larger. I've played from much worse.
- MULTI-USE HAZARDS - This is nowhere near as bad as it once was. The worse offending holes have been removed. I personally only noticed walkers or a walking path in play on holes (9), (11) and (12).
- IFFY LINES - Several holes are super tight. Players that like open course will argue that several holes are poke and hope. If the classic reviewer Redneck Machismo played here, he would have rated this one between a 0.0 and 1.0.
Other Thoughts:
I was not expecting this course to be as good as I found it. I've played all four courses in town within a 6-month time frame and this was without question my favorite. Parts of the course reminded me of my backyard course V-Rock and this is also my preferred style of course. I enjoyed the cerebral intensity of this course, especially among the new holes on the layout. For veteran players traveling to Fayetteville, this should be the target course if they like challenging wooded courses. Players that don't like woods courses, probably shouldn't come to Fayetteville as three of the four are good examples of wooded courses and the other is a bland short treeless course with safety hazards abound. Overall, a 3.25 in my books due to all the upgrades and layout tweaks.
- MAINTENANCE - Kudos to the local club and/or individuals responsible for maintaining this course. I read a lot of old reviews stating how poor this aspect was. I found the mid May conditions to be great. Unfortunately, a woods course like this one will need constant upkeep. So hopefully they can keep this going.
- FUTURE EDITS - Holes (3), (4) and (5) are apparently on the chopping block according to a local I spoke too. A tennis facility is planned in that section of the park. The new replacement holes are already roughed-in, but I did not check them out.