Pros:
+ Lost disc box, two practice pins, splendid information board and plenty of seating between the parking lot and hole one for the many players that this course accommodates.
+ A fair arrangement of left and right-turning holes through a nice balance of open, wooded and hyrbid fairways with some touches of elevation to boot.
+ All holes have at least two tee pads, and many have three, for the beginner and advanced players to select.
+ The majority of the tee pads that I could see were all well manicured stone pavers neatly framed within beams of wood implanted in the ground. They were long, wide, level and had virtually no damage.
+ The local/regular scene here is one of the liveliest I've seen in my limited experience with disc golf.
+ Small trash bags are readily available for all players to use as they consume their food and drink items. Please use them. As a result, the course grounds are near spotless!
Cons:
- Many fairways throw right alongside each other-- especially among the first 18 holes. Since disc golfers of all levels play here at all times, this means a real chance of getting struck by a disc.
- There are no next hole signs that I could identify. Navigation for first-timers is tricky. Also, there's no path back to the parking lot from hole 27 that doesn't cross through fairways.
- The tee signs exist, but many of them are faded, vandalized, covered with stickers and sometimes all three! Hole 15's sign is a humorous example. At this point, that one is more sticker than it is tee sign!
- The baskets are quite old, but so is the course. So I don't mention this as a big con against the course but more as something to be aware of.
- On the more crowded days, playing from anything other than the blue tee pads might be an impossibility.
Other Thoughts:
My favorite hole here to look at was hole13 because of its unexpected valley when most every other hole up to that point is slightly sloped. My favorite hole here to play might have been hole21 because I've still got a softspot for downhill tee-offs, and 21 is a nice throw down through a foresty tunnel from start to finish. My least favorite hole here might be hole...8? I guess it was kind of flat and dull along with a chance of getting hit by discs.
Sedgley Woods is a unique specimen in the disc golf universe. I've never before played at such a popular course. With all of the cars in the parking lot and people roaming the grounds, I mistakenly thought that there was a tournament going on. But apparently, it was just another Saturday...! Saturdays are one of their league tag days, but most of the players I saw were definitely not here for that.
As I was waiting to start my round, I had the good fortune to bump into a solitary local, Tony, who was a great guide for the course's layout. At hole 12 we were joined by two more locals, Greg and Doug. The four of us hit it off as disc golfers often do. It's always nice to see that our sport can bring strangers together as though they are friends.
While we played, I was grateful to have them as guides because the directional signage is clumsy at best. Of course, I couldn't be as attentive to all of the details with three other people around me like I could if I were on my own. Still, I did notice that the holes were clumped together because each one of us was nearly hit with a disc at least once. I still noticed the run-down appearance in some areas. The ground in a few areas is solidly compacted. More than a few of the trees have toppled over and left those areas of the course looking naked and boring. And I still noticed the shorter distances.
However, I also noticed the fun everyone was having. This course is perfectly suited towards the new and the learning. You've got your front 18 for introductory lessons. That's your manageable distances, fair tree puzzles and nice tastes of elevation. And then there's the outback 9 for extra credit involving all of that stuff in stronger doses. A player can feel the vibrance at a place like this, too. Active city courses like Sedgley contain a certain zest within them that few other courses can match.
But, I'll be honest, here. If this course had only 18 holes, I would have scored it, at best, as a 3.0 out of 5 because of how close together some of those fairways are, how close some baskets are to some tees and how boilerplate some holes' layouts are-- not to mention the mostly short lengths. Were it not for the outback nine holes extending the fun, this course would be a lot more forgettable.
Still, what we have is not an ordinary 18-hole but a well-known and historic 27-hole course: quite the rarity in our sport. Sedgley Woods started its journey back in the late 1970s when disc golf was just a curiosity. Now in 2021, the sport's popularity has taken off for space, which means that, with the massive influx of new players, Sedgley Woods's job isn't over yet! Go experience it for yourself.