Pros:
- practice basket (particularly uncommon for a 9 hole course)
- benches at all holes, and garbage cans at many
- clean, open fairways and limited rough undergrowth in woods
- most holes have good next tee indicators
- quality baskets in good shape
- shorter but with technical challenge, a nice compliment to nearby Gator Links
- mostly good quality stone/stamped concrete tees
- course seems to generally stay dry
- tee signs have rudimentary maps, better than nothing
Cons:
- practice basket is inside track, so may interfere with other activities
- virtually no elevation change
- no advanced hazards (water, etc.)
- hole 2 tee is dirt
- hole 1 to hole 2 navigation is very unclear, and hole 1 is rather disconnected from the rest of the course
- hole 9 ends very far from hole 1
Other Thoughts:
Pirate's Cove is an enjoyable 9 hole round that can be played quickly. I'm not sure many people would go out of their way to come to this course with Gator Links on the same college campus - Gator Links is definitely superior, and I think the general intent would be to add this course on to play 27, not play it alone. That's what I did, and I enjoyed Pirate's Cove as well, even if it's a bit more basic.
In general, it's a well designed course with some medium technical challenge, although the holes are generally short enough that it isn't particularly difficult for any skill level. Holes 2 and 3 are pretty wide open, and for whatever reason hole 2 is the only one without a permanent tee, which is unfortunate. As many have pointed out, navigation from hole 1 to 2 is not straightforward at all. I had to use the map wellsbranch250 created to figure it out. It's also unfortunate this course doesn't make a loop like most courses and spits you out pretty far away from hole 1 at the end.
One of the biggest things lacking in this area is elevation change, which is hard to come by on the gulf coast. Many of the area courses are high quality, but just don't quite have that "something extra" you get a bit further north.
Technically, the signs for these holes say there are 2 tees per hole. DGCR only has one set of tee info, and I'll admit I didn't look too hard for a second set of tees, but they were not obvious. The permanent tees are the primaries.
All that said, the course has tee signs with maps, a practice basket, permanent tees, open and wooded shots, benches, garbage cans... it's very solid on amenities, and I had fun here. If you're around to play Gator Links, it's definitely worth extending your round. It's a little lower-key if you just want to have a good time, but I wouldn't drive out of my way for it like I think it's worth doing for Gator Links.