Pros:
***Update
Love the new holes, and the bright yellow signs to help with navigation! Thanks! Three years later, the trash is gone, the graffiti mostly removed, and the fairways were well cut back through the woods. Hole #5 is just as good as I remember.
--> Original Review, from 2009
Natural Terrain --- This course design made beautiful use of the natural terrain available. The first couple holes are in the woods, with solid elevation changes and plenty of mature trees in the fairways forcing you to shape your shots... Hole #5 is easily the most beautiful hole that I've ever played on. A long teeshot slightly to the left sets a player up on top of a hill overlooking a winding stream, bridge, and basket out on a bend. *Breathtaking* Other holes take you through what feel almost like an orchard of some kind... tall grass, smallish trees planted almost in straight rows. Hole #14 follows a mound to the right, and holes #16-17 let you really rip it with some nice open holes. Hole # 18 is back up the road to your left, but its >600ft provides an elevated tee, over water, out into an open landing area, a long second shot to an uphill basket right next to the shelter you started at. Again... WONDERFUL use of the varied terrain in this park.
Hole Length --- This course really takes advantage of varied hole length (ranging from <200ft to >600ft).I literally used every single disc in my bag on this course at some point, from the longest of drivers to the most technical of hyzer/anhyzer midrange shots.
Signage --- Basic hole signs at the white tees, were overshadowed by the full map by hole #1 and online map that I printed. Something that I really liked (and appreciated my first time out) was the brick showing "next tee" direction by each basket.
Cement Tees --- These are excellent long, narrow tees on every hole, located at the white tee. The blue / red tees where applicable were painted cinder blocks set into the ground, and I think are meant to simply be grass tees.
Baskets --- Yellow targets were easy to spot for a first timer. They were in good shape, with no rust or other weathering apparent.
Cons:
***Update:
Dust, dead grass and heat (101 degrees) couldn't take away from the greatness of this course.
--> Original Review, 2009
Mud --- I played when things were mostly frozen, but be ready for plenty of mud in the woods. Steep slopes, streams, and little to no grass will make about 1/3 of the holes downright treacherous after any recent rain.
Trash --- It made me really sad that there was so much trash on this course. There were probably 4-6 trash cans available throughout the course, which were 2/3 full, but there were so many beer cans, and plastic bottles strewn *everywhere* that it made made me wonder who the general player population is on this course. (*note, I have also now committed to carrying a garbage bag for trash with me on all casual rounds... if trash bothers you too, do something about it!)
Sharpie Graffiti --- Now, I'm all for noting Aces and Dates somewhere (I prefer on the bottom of the disc at hand, but could see the potential of an interesting public sharpie board added onto hole signage somewhere in the future...) but the Graffiti on this course went well past this type to include plenty of pot leaf drawings, "XYZ loves BCD" (and the seemingly requisite profanity or lewd comment that joined it soon after) or random other comments on *most* signs and baskets,... It seems that our artists got tired of their own voices partway through, because the back nine was noticeably cleaner.
Baskets --- A couple of baskets are in need of some repair work. One loose/leaning basket, and a chain single hanging down unattached, were the most noticeable.
Overall, the cons I felt were completely cosmetic... the play and course design were awesome! If I get to play this course again, and the trash is cleaned up, it will get a 4.0 or 4.5. ***Update...changed the review score!
Other Thoughts:
***Thanks for the invite back to play from Cobra165... I had a great time at this course!
(my first written review)
This course was basically within sight of the Highway Exit, and the directions from DGCR were spot on. After playing on only my local courses for so long, it felt strange to pull off the highway, drive out into the farmland and basically stumble upon this absolute *gem* of a course.
I was forced to park at the south lot, and walk up hole #18 to get to the main lot and shelter due (I think) to it being rather off season when I played (Feb-28).
Looking at the course map, I was a little mystified about the layout of holes 6-7-8... why play 7, and then walk back up the hole to #8 tee? ... however, I realized immediately upon walking up to 7 tee that the layout is set that way to force all players to throw *away* from the cemetery located outside that corner of the park. It felt very respectfully laid out when walking through it... strong cudos to the designer of the course for that fact. More people should be as considerate.
I liked this course enough that I would drive from Indianapolis to play this course again if there were a 36/54/72 hole tournament over a weekend..