Pros:
A day at Phantom Falls is an unique disc golfing experience. Paulie, the owner and designer who is primarily responsible for all the courses in this area, is a great host. This course is basically in the yard of his house, but he generously allows others to come play. It is evident how passionate he is about this course as you get a personal orientation of the course before your round where he tells you stories behind the course, the holes, and the baskets as well as tips and suggestions for navigating and playing.
His beautiful house doubles as the clubhouse and hangout porch. (special thanks to his family for being so willing to share their space with a different group of disc golfers on a daily basis!) The porch is decked out with chairs, tables, a grill, shade all close to your car. The course design brings you back to the porch at multiple times during the round so you have a chance to relax and refuel.
He basically gives you all day to play the 39 holes + the mini course. He encourages you to relax and take your time and enjoy your day. And maybe the best thing about playing here is you, and only you and your group, are the ones that will be on the course that day- you get the course all to yourself.
The course itself is solid as it sits on 15 acres of pine covered hills and valleys. It is an amazing job of putting in 39 holes on this small of an area- tremendous planning, ease in navigation, no confusion as to where the tees are or which basket to throw at. As for all his courses, he has given much thought and attention to detail in everything, down to the scorecard and hole-by-hole tip sheet he gives you.
You play over the same land in various directions and you lay to some baskets multiple times, but you would never know it. The natural tees are level. The baskets are of different varieties, but that actually helps to identify which one to throw to as he has made each one to be unique. The ground is a gravely dirt so now grass to mow and no undergrowth to hide discs- easy to find your discs and little chance to lose one.
This course is a true test in hitting lines, controlling distance, playing elevation from straight across, to steep up, steep down, and everything in between. Though the course looks to be on the short side on paper, many holes play much longer either up the steeper slopes or when you race past the basket on the downslopes. There are many ace runs here, but there are some holes where 4 is going to be a good score as well. The course is also a good test of fitness and endurance and mental toughness when you factor in having to walk up and down all day, the altitude (don't underestimate what 8000' does to the body and to disc flight for that matter), and the lucky and unlucky breaks that will inevitably happen to everyone in your group.
Cons:
Because you do play over the same type of land all day it can get a little repetitive. Though a couple holes have the basket straight across from the tee, there is absolutely no flat land on this course (except maybe 1 and 39). Not that hills are bad, and I would take elevation and trees over open and flat any day of the week, but I feel the best courses have a nice mixture and balance of all styles. There is also no water, no o.b., no rough, etc.- not that I want a course to be loaded with these either (and it was nice not worrying about losing a disc), but basically there was little punishment for errant shots as there was usually a way to get back on track for a 3 or no worse than a 4 on nearly every hole. (his goal was for it to be challenging yet fun, even for women, kids, and those with less distance like me, and he has done just that), but at the same time it lacks that really epic feel I have experienced at courses like Highbridge, Flip, IDGC, and Flyboy.
The footing is tricky sliding down the gravely hills in many places, sometimes hard to even stand on your lie, and it wears on your body after awhile. (I actually had a slight muscle pull mid-round as my legs stretched apart more than was comfortable on a slide, and then adding to it with my feet slightly sliding while teeing off the natural pads.) As a side note, Paulie prefers natural tees and of course this is his yard, so it makes no sense to put in concrete tees everywhere, but the fact is if you are looking for concrete tees, then go elsewhere.
The baskets are all different (which in one way is a cool factor and adds to the "backyard feel" here and as I mentioned helps with navigation), but some of them don't catch as good as others. And to make up for the shortness, most baskets on placed on slopes or edges where it is risky to go for longer putts. If you don't land under the basket off the tee, the smart play is to just lay up and drop in to avoid the bad rollaways- but when you do this 20-30 times it gets boring if you are not playing for anything serious.
He advertises "you will use every disc in your bag" and explained that each hole has multiple routes, you just have to look. Well, when you only play here once, you probably will take the obvious less risky straight route on most every hole. Factor in the altitude that causes discs to be way more stable, and I found myself pretty much reaching for the same disc on every single hole. Maybe if you played you a lot you could experiment, but most people are only playing here once.
Totally understandable why, but $20 a round would be a lot to pay to play on a regular basis, and you can't just show up and play whenever you want as you have to arrange a tee time. This of course has some plus side and is what makes it unique, but it is worth mentioning nonetheless.
Other Thoughts:
This course was designed to be played with nobody else playing but you, so some things that would normally be cons are not because of the intent- like crossing fairways, tees right beside baskets, shared baskets, etc.
Paulie loves the game and is very serious about having excellent courses for people to play. He is also passionate about growing the game, especially in the areas of women and children.
The reason for 36/38 holes is 10 has 1 tee to 2 baskets, and 11 has 2 tees to one basket (both a short and long). You can play them all if you want. He actually has just added a 39th hole that plays back to the signature pine basket to finish up. I approve!
So why a 4.0 to me?---well, this is tough course to rate, the course itself was very good, just not spectacular, but all the extras that make this place special and unique boost its rating. When comparing to the other 200+ courses I have played, I felt it compared to other 4.0's I have given (like Blueberry, BRP, Hudson Mills, Lemon Lake, etc.) There are not too many places where you can guarantee to have the whole course to yourself for an entire day (the only other place I know like this was Flyboy), with the difference that he has it set up where a guide is not necessary to navigate, so Paulie just turns you loose- pretty cool!
Plan on being here for several hours and be sure to bring lots of food and drinks with you.
I highly recommend coming to this area to play disc golf. You can spend a week playing all the courses here. The Rockies are beautiful and make for some fun and challenging disc golf. For me, playing in the hills of TN and the Appalachian Mtns. all the time, I was not overwhelmed with a mountain course, but anyone from the plains states are going to have to pick their jaw up off the ground when coming up here!