Pros:
- Robert Morris, part of a nicely maintained multi-use park located in rural Michigan, offers 18 holes of outstanding variety. Utilizing flat open fields, tunnels of pines, wooded slopes, rolling hills dotted with brush, and twisting fairways, Robert Morris definitely covers all bases with the exception of water. Every hole type is well represented here: tight technical "thread the needle" wooded holes, long open "bomb 'em" opportunities, and just about every possible mix of up, down, left and right. A couple of under-200' ace runs, both hyzer and anhyzer, balanced nicely with several 400'+ holes.
-Great use of elevation. The rolling hills are used to great effect throughout. A couple of the pins on the more open holes are placed on slanted land to increase the threat of rollaways, with OB road behind the pin in one case.
- Protected pins are the norm on the more wooded holes, while low set baskets increase the challenge on a few of the open holes.
- Many unique holes. #1 and #2, wooded tunnel shots off the tee, threaten to start the round off on a bad foot. #10 is a long uphill trek that, once the crest of the hill is reached, turns hard left and finishes with the basket on a small downward slope. #18's fairway runs downhill with woods on both sides and the pin straight ahead at the bottom. One of the longer, open holes has a baseball backstop somewhat in the way of the hyzer route, but shouldn't affect most players.
- Concrete tees (nicely brushed). Short tees are natural and marked by a wooden plank set in the ground. Discriptive signage, benches, and trashcans at each tee. Restrooms, playgrounds, lake, et al. near parking lot.
Cons:
- Water is not utilized, despite a concrete tee whose location suggests that the lake was once used to great effect. An epic downhill shot through woods and over the lake hole seems to have once been set up, and would have been the icing on the cake to this already quite fine course.
- Some of the concrete tees were not level, having settled significantly in one or two places.
Other Thoughts:
- While there are certainly challenges throughout the entire course, the first couple of holes will often prove be the "make or break" holes of the round, as earlier reviewers noted.