Pros:
Checks all the boxes for a quality New England woods course:
-Quality baskets (two per hole), well mounted, occasionally with a nice touch like "hanging" or built-up. No "gimmicks", with well defined approach lines to the baskets. The ten-meter circle marked with plastic "whiskers", nice touch.
-Turf tee boxes (One per hole, except for the first hole), well-constructed, good footing, level, generally with room for safe follow-through
-Solid mix of shot shapes and great use of elevation changes. With the two baskets per hole this course has outstanding variety.
-Several true par fours forcing some risk/reward decisions.
-Good signage and way-fairing. Easy for a first-time player to get around without a map.
-Good safety, plenty of separation between fairways. For a public park, this one is pretty dedicated to disc golf and doesn't present much chance of interference from other park activity... Maybe if someone really grip locks on the first tee if there's a soccer game going on, or a very clueless hiker wonders up a fairway.
-At least before full leaf out, there are a couple of stunning vistas overlooking the Quaboag Valley.
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-Benches on every tee, several bottle/can recycling containers throughout the course.
-Well maintained by the town and course volunteers. On the day I was playing the town was busy making improvements to the parking area.
Other Thoughts:
-Not too many years ago the only high-quality course in the southern part of Western Massachusetts was Crane Hill. In just the past few years we have Mountainside, 501, and the two courses at the New England Disc Golf Center! Great to see the growth in the sport.
-I rated this course a solid four. For this grumpy old rec player It could easily rate 4.5 with a few new "short" tee pads on a couple of the more difficult holes and an alternate par system to meet PDGA standards.
Mountainside lacks the "over the top" amenities of a 5 rated course (I think of Maple Hill) like a pro shop (tap room?). But if you play when there's a little league baseball game going on you can visit the snack shack after your round.