Pros:
- Nice and long
- Some very cool shots and placements
- Free
- Locals were helpful
- Large rubber tees
Cons:
- In serious need of upkeep
- Filler holes, particularly in the beginning
- Signs warn down/vandalized
- Navigation can be tricky
Other Thoughts:
The title of the review says it all. I played this course with a friend and his two 10 year old kids, and we were a bit discouraged at first. Holes 1, 2, 4, and 5 were boring and we felt like the course was going to suck based on them. The fairways were rough throughout the course, but the rough, particularly in the front 9, was unacceptably long and we spent a lot of time helping the kids find their discs (and they ours a few times). I can handle a little punishment for going off course, but waist high grass choked with poison ivy is not cool. Once we go to hole 6, we got our first taste of the good side of Pye Brook Park. Instead of putting the basket 300 - 375ft away on the side of the hill like the first 5 holes, 6 has you tee off from the top of the hill shooting along it, but then the hole is tucked away in a forest grove on the left about 300ft. away. Neat! After 6 the course moves away from the athletic field and into some woods and pasture where there is more variety and better grooming of the fairways. 8, 9, and 10 play across a huge gully with creative pin placements to ensure that you need more than a big arm to par or birdie. After we holed out on 10, we got stuck and had to pull up a course map on my phone to see where to go (thanks DGCR!). Some directional signs would go a long way towards making this a smoother process for first timers. We figured out that you need to follow the pasture fence to find 11, which shoots 300 ft over another huge gully, this time filled with nasty pond water (cool challenge but I wouldn't go in for a lost disc). We got a little lost again trying to find 12's blue tee. We found the red easily enough, but the blue turned out to be tucked away in the forest down a barely visible trail by the side of the dirt road. The tee area for 12 was well worth the effort to find as it was essentially a hidden garden. There were purple flowers and a roof of branches that were raining little green buds (and a lot of pollen) so the whole thing felt a bit surreal. 13 and 15 are short tight wooded holes that make for a refreshing change of pace (though the sign pointing to 15's tee was marked "this way to tee 12"). 16, 17, and 18 are grand scale holes playing with huge elevation change. 18 is the signature hole (called el signatore on the tee sign) and shoots 320ft. down a huge hill and over a big ol' pond. Given the height and threat of the pond, it's real easy to overshoot and a great challenge to end the regular 18. The "extra" hole 19 is worthless and a waste of time to play. The locals say there is a path from 18 to the "tee" (an orange cone at the back of a field sporting a no trespassing sign), but we couldn't find it at all. We walked from the 19th hole behind the 1st tee to find the tee/cone, which would be dangerous if others were trying to play the hole. The hole itself is a shot over a field, then along a paved road with thick woods on either side. It's not a very interesting line and the road tears up discs like nothing else. I would recommend disregarding the existence of this hole and simply playing the original 18 and leaving on a good note.
In general, there were some very nice touches but the confusing layout and lack of upkeep were real downers. The teeboxes are made from rubber horse pads and are both large and grippy. Wooded holes had a broom hanging near the tee to clean off leaves and deadfall. The fairways away from the athletic field (11 - 15) were well kept, but everywhere else 8 - 12" grass was the fairway norm. Being adults in decent shape, my friend and I were fine with the constant ups and downs through tall grass, but the kids were pretty wiped and we had to skip out on a second round. The red tees were the perfect length for children, but anyone that can throw 250 - 300 ft would find them way too easy. That said, those 250 - 300ft. shooters would also find several of the blue tees unbirdiable and tough to par. Despite only having a few wooded holes, this course is fairly challenging and unforgiving. It's easy to fly way off course and with all but 19 being par 3, it can be tough to save a par. If they added some signs, and organized a few people to do some mowing, they'd have a 3.5 to 4 rated course. Definitely worth a play, but not worth driving over an hour to play unless you had some other courses on the agenda.