Pros:
First off let me go ahead and state that I study horticulture at NC STATE; I am entralled with plants, wildlife, and interesting landscapes. That being said, many of you will understand why I rated the monster this well. We pulled up into the college and seen the absolute biggest tom turkey (gobbler) that I have ever seen in my life! That got me riled up pretty big, and by the time I seen the basket placement on Hole#3 I nutted myself.. This course utilizes the native landscape so well!! Orgasm (amazing native landscaped) holes for me were #3,4,5,8,11,12 simply because the owner of this course made sure that an extra landscape perk was incorporated. Like the island green on #11, its really a peninsula but still very hazardous! Getting that out of the way I will give other reasons why this course stacks up to a 4.5 (in my opinion)
Amenities- Some of the best signs on the front nine I have yet to see. Like the media shows they give distances, elevation, etc. I love the names on the front nine, they get kind of random and cheesy on the back
Lines- First off let me say this is most defiantly the tightest dg course that I have currently played. Ive played some super tight courses (ie Simple Pleasures, Sugaree, Buckhorn, Valley Springs) and none of these even come close to the severity of fairway width. Like most people will complain about this place being to tight, if you dont beileve me just bring your happy butt out here. I personally like the challenge, I prefer woods golf over field golf. While most RHBH players will really be scratching their head on the front nine, they can still pull out a flippy disc and sneak through the very an-hyzer friendly front nine.
The back nine offers more hyzers for these players but still you will want ultra-ultra precision
Greens- Like I have previously alluded to the Rockness Monster has some of the most ahhmazing greens I have played on. They dont quite stack up to Sugaree DGC's greens, but come very close on holes 3,4,5. Other holes have an extremly steep slope behind the basket and rollaways are everywhere out here. The brand new DISCatchers stand out really well in the woods because on many holes you cannot see the basket from the teebox
Cons:
You can tell this place is relatively new, most "fairways" are full of holes, roots, stumps, and sticks that trip you up. I put "fairways" in quotes for one reason..Im all about tight woods golf, I love it; However, if you are going to have a 385' uphill dogleg right that is so super tight it really should be a par 4 dont you think? No major complaints, I like the challenge
Some of the natural teepads are un-level and have occasional roots in the way. Watch your footing on white teepads on holes 8,10,13-18. I bet this minor issue will only get better with time.
Being a plant nerd, I can see this place being very bug-infested on a hot summer day. We played in the spring as the plants were just budding out, one member of the group still found a tick on him.
With these three minor issues in mind, this course stacks up to 4.25 to me. Being the nature guru and loving this course for its scenery I am rounding up to 4.5
Other Thoughts:
Being the designer of a relatively new course I only see the Monster getting even more epic with time. Maybe level some more of the teepads and cut down just a few more trees mid-fairway and I will rate this course a 5