Pros:
WHAT TO EXPECT: A sparsely wooded, open park style course in an out of the way, quiet area roughly 25 minutes south of downtown. Well manicured park, low risk of losing discs, and a quick playthrough.
AMENITIES: Multi-use park with baseball fields, paved walking trail, multiple benches, massive neat looking playground obstacle course style in the center, pavilions, modern bathrooms and a large parking lot area.
TEES/SIGNAGE/BASKETS: Concrete Tees that are small in width but not really noticeable as the hole distances do not require many long run ups. Very few are actually level however with a few slanted downhill making some throws awkward. Simple yet new looking tee signs with hole number and distance (all par 3's). Aging yellow Discatchers that are still easy to make out in the open course design, one basket had a single broken string of chains on the left side.
DESIGN: Catered to the MA3 and lower player, this course is going to be a quick, fun, but still challenging test of your angle control and allows newer players to work on building distance. The course rides the line between being very easy and frustratingly hard for the MA3 player. Multiple mandos (to protect the bunched together fairways) force shot shapes that prevent a player from throwing the same shot over and over again. There is quite a lot of sub 250 one angle Par 3's mixed in with some top level MA3, low level MA2 distances on a handful of holes. Hole 18 as mentioned by others could very well be argued to be the only Par 4 on the course (for MA3 and lower skill players) as it requires both a ton of distance and angle control due to it's shape and large guardian trees off the tee.
EXTRAS: While very lengthy for the true beginner, this course is one a player can grow into and see their distance increase, disc control improve, and their scores lower over time. All without much if any risk of losing a disc or getting the bad beats fluky luck feeling some woods courses give. As mentioned earlier, this course is an extremely quick play. Took us about 45 minutes start to finish. As mentioned by other reviewers, the land for the disc golf course is very below average and it would have been easy to make a very below average course on it (or even a 9 holer and call it a day). The designer did a great job of maximizing the space available to make a fun and mildly challenging layout. I don't think they could have squeezed any more out of this lemon.
Cons:
WHY IS HOLE 14 NOT HOLE 1?: There's a walk between (13) and (14). The hole style even changes dramatically as 14, 16-18 are all much longer in distance than the rest of the course. If you aren't using the map or some GPS Hole 14 can be very difficult to locate your first time out as 13 ends right next to the parking lot with no clear indication where to go next. The flow of changing Hole 14 to 1 would make much more sense, although there would still remain a small hike from the parking lot to 14 tee regardless.
UNEVEN TEE PADS: One of my biggest pet peeves are concrete tee pads that are woefully unlevel, especially ones that are elevated several inches above the rest of the ground. Hole #12 is a fine example of such a travesty where you have a pretty long downhill shot with a pretty slanted downhill concrete pad that is probably 4 or 5 inches above the ground. I can see this being an issue when conditions are wet.
HOLE VARIETY: Not a major knock because of the park property limitations, but a lot of the holes and shapes feel repetitive. While there are a couple unique holes, there are others that feel like exact clones of another hole on the course with a slightly different distance.
LACK OF WOW FACTOR: Lacking aesthetically with the sparse trees, limited elevation, with no Par 4's or Par 5's, and no water features to speak of, this course has a difficult time being visually stunning or memorable. No alternate tee pads or basket locations to offer a change of pace either.
SPACING - The park is very small to house an 18 hole course along with other park amenities on top of it. This could have been a tough 9 holer but somehow shoehorned a decent 18 holer in to this tiny space. That said, the fairways are stack on top of each other almost entirely throughout. You will be throwing at or near players in other fairways most of the time. Players need to keep their heads on a swivel and do everyone a favor and yell fore when your throw goes errant.
Other Thoughts:
This was probably my most "meh" course in my visit to Huntsville. New Hope DGC was neither the best nor the worst. It just didn't inspire me to want to come back and play again in the future. This is not my style of course, but I enjoyed it for what tries to be. For those that live in the Huntsville area, regardless of skill level, I'd recommend playing this course at least once. For everyone else, especially those making long trips through the area, this course is passable. There just isn't enough wow to this course to justify choosing it over other local options. There is neither anything super grand about this course nor anything egregiously wrong with it either.