Pros:
• Easy to find
• Nice baskets with the occasional alternate tee
• Three warm-up baskets with a really cool area to practice
• Restrooms (no soap though)
• Good signage and fairly easy to navigate
• Good tee boxes
• Very nice surroundings
• Pro Shop with snacks
Cons:
• Crowds form quick
• A little criss-crossy in spots
• Some of the trees are getting pretty beat-up from errant shots off the tee. Some protective netting would appear to be in order.
Other Thoughts:
Tips
• If you're going to use a map use the online one versus the big one at the course
• Go early...on a weekday
Random Thoughts:
This is one of those of those courses that, if you follow the game, you hear and see a lot about before you go visit for yourself. That, in my case, certainly raised expectations a notch but if anything tempered them, it was all this chatter about crowds and miscreants. Well, the crowd eventually showed, but I'm happy to report, there were no miscreants and the course lived up to the hype.
Addressing the crowd thing first, we showed up on a Monday at 10:00AM and there was only 1 person in front of us but by the time we finished, easily half the holes had people on them. Again, Monday, work day, school in session, and the place is filling up just before noon. That is the dealio on that.
As for the course, this is a great design. The first two holes are fairly straight with just a tree or two and a slope to deal with, but they allow you to get warmed up without penalizing too harshly the slightly errant drive. Then the fun begins, because the rest of this course is a tactician's delight. While most of the distances aren't particularly long, every hole from then on demands a fairly precise shot shape and shot length. The prior demand is a thing of beauty, in that, you'd swear some of these trees were planted just for the course and that this couldn't possibly be laid out this nicely but it's really a credit to the course designers for plotting out the holes intelligently, and then, I'm sure, a lot of hard work clearing the fairways. The result of which is a first chunk of holes that are either straight or right to left but all demand you ride the fairway rails all the way down to the basket. What's funny is right around hole 9 my wife (who's a lefty) made the comment that the course was very right hand friendly, and then right on cue, she was gifted several holes that were left to right. It again points to the thought that was put into the course and ensuring you have a complete mix of holes to play with. But before I conclude on the course demands, I want to circle back to my comment on 'shot length'. I mention this because there is OB all over this course and most of it is right behind or near the basket. It's not particularly large OB but it's well placed and it demands you think about it before firing and forgetting. What makes it even a tick trickier is most of the ground here is very hard, compacted dirt. It's darn near concrete in texture, which means Skippy McDisk is in full effect. In other words, be a little short on your landing. Even the beautiful 'top of the world' shot on #12 where you step up and go 'Yea! Let's bomb one!!'. Beware. There's OB right behind the basket. Go Patriot missile instead. Having said that, I loved the challenge of it and only gifted 1 shot to the OB gods, thanks to a crappy putt off a tree of all things. With that said, I still found the entire course to be completely fair and manageable.
Stepping back to the other course amenities, we really enjoyed what we saw here. This is a pretty park with interesting trees that was quite pleasant to walk through. There's even a horse facility next door gifting us some beautiful horses strolling around while we played. It has just enough elevation change with wandering stream beds throughout. You can also see a lot of work went into it with numerous navigation signs, benches, trash cans, bridges, and stepping stones for the rainy days (how did you get those things in there?). I also really liked that where some trees had fallen, they were just left in place. It adds just a bit more challenge and interest to the eye. In short, a lot of love went and goes into this course. It shows, and we appreciate it.
Bottom Line:
We thoroughly enjoyed this course, both playing it, and just walking through it. It has a very fun mix of mid-sized precision shots that is challenging but fair to the scorecard. It is also a lovely walk in the woods. Believe the hype and get out there. Just go early. Bravo course crew!