Pros:
-- Nice, large cement tees
-- Good baskets that are in good shape
-- Course map at the beginning is quite nice
-- Location. The city of Chicago really needs more courses that are fairly easy to reach via public transport. I live in the city and don't own a car so I thought that a 45 min train and bus ride was worth it to check this course out (read below to see how I was wrong). This location is reachable by multiple CTA routes depending where in the city you are
Cons:
-- This park is long and narrow and the course goes in just one direction. Aside from the inconvenience of starting and stopping at two ends of the park, there is a very busy road on your right the entire time. With the park being so narrow, the possibility of an errant shot going into the road is very real. This seemed very dangerous and I was nervous throwing on several holes. This was compounded for me as a LHBH thrower by a strong tailwind. I was afraid to actually throw hard on the one long hole (450ft) because a slight mistake and the tailwind is taking my disc into a very busy road.
-- Wide open. There is very very little in terms of obstacles on most holes. Two holes are tucked behind thick bushes and trees, but are tucked in so close in such a location that there is no line to the basket (you can't even see the basket). Everything else is just a tee, a field, and a basket straight ahead. A 125 ft hole where you can't see the basket and there is no ace run possibility isn't much fun when the only shot is to go straight and long of a bush just so you can putt back to the basket that is tucked into said bush.
-- Very short. When combined with being wide open, there is no challenge or anything interesting being offered here.
-- Walking and biking path close by many holes. On a busy summer day, I can see a lot of potential of hitting someone walking or biking
-- It was very windy when I played, and given the fact that the long park and parallel street basically create a wind corridor, I feel like the wind is likely exaggerated here most days
Other Thoughts:
At the time of this review I have played 140+ courses and can easily say I can't remember another one I disliked more than this course. A lot of this is due to the very real and dangerous road hazard along the entire park. I honestly didn't enjoy myself at all during most of the round (and I obviously LOVE playing this game) due to the road and pedestrian hazards in the back of my head. I have never played a course before that I just couldn't wait to finish and leave.
While I am all for more courses and especially more courses in Chicago, I feel this course almost shouldn't be there. The risk of hitting a person or car traveling 45 mph is just too high and such incidents would not help the reputation of our sport to the general public.