Pros:
Saluda Trail is a simple nine-hole school layout. If nothing else, this middle school has a huge campus and potential for an even better layout.
- This is a simple layout. The course does have a little variety in length, with three holes more than 275 feet (the longest is 284) with the other six between 77 feet (and it's downhill) and 163 feet.
- There's a hill that comes into play on #7 & 8 to give this otherwise bland course its only spice. #7 is the 77-foot, downhill hole. With only a slight tweak, this could be a fun, little design. Mainly, double the hole length by either pushing the tee or basket back and you add challenge. As it is, it's just an easy two-putt. Or aggressive, long putt.
- As for #8, that's an uphill, dogleg right shot at 127 feet. Pretty easy overall, but it is the course's most challenging tee shot.
- Baskets are easy to spot, and have a good flow to them. As stated with #7, this would be slightly more interesting playing safari-style, simply to add length or a little variety.
- Quick round play. Without any length, it's easy to breeze through a round or two here. The biggest hindrances was trying to find several of the tees.
Cons:
The course is too simplistic. This school seems to have a ton of extra space, which could easily be used for a much-better layout. Case in point: there's a small piece of land to the right of #3 & 4, on the other side of the small parking lot. With the trees in there, why not make that a hole? It's an island plot between the parking lot and a service road, so it's getting no other use as it is. Put it to use and create one good hole for this course.
- Unique transitions at times. The tees for #2 & 6 are right next to each other, in opposite directions. The baskets for #6 & 7 are right next to each other, maybe 50 feet apart. So, after playing #6, you walk past #7's basket, to the tee for #7.
- It took a minute or two to find the tee for #9. But, I did find that, which is more than I can say about the tee area for #4. At 90 feet, and a wide-open shot, I doubt I compromised the integrity of this hole by just picking a spot to throw from.
Other Thoughts:
This course is nothing special, but it didn't bother me. It was a warm-up course for my day of playing, so in that regard it was a success.
- The open area where holes #3 - 5 are located is a decent spot to practice throwing. Also, with the holes being so open, this is a good spot to practice throwing mid-range shots. I could see good practice throwing from #6 tee to #8 basket, especially with the woods behind the basket (from that direction) offering a little bit of a challenge.
- Other than #7 & 8, course is flat and wide open. The only partial obstacles would be trees on right of #9, the fences on #5 & 6 and maybe skidding a shot on the sidewalk on several holes.
- The course is only 3 minutes from South Point HS, which is a much better layout. I guess if you were playing there, you could spare the 15 - 20 minutes for a quick round here.
- Perhaps the most interesting part of playing here is when I looked into the origins of the word. The word Saluda comes from a Cherokee word meaning green corn place, and was the name of a Cherokee nation chief. That's why you'll also find towns named Saluda in North & South Carolina, along with a county and river in South Carolina.