Pros:
1)Framed rubber or carpet tees are generally in good shape. They are a little lumpy but that does not affect confidence when planting your foot for your drive. A few of the pads are deteriorating also with rubber pieces chipping off the teepads but generally are in overall good condition.
2) Scorecards and maps available in the mailbox at the first tee. This is a welcome site because it shows the locals care about visiting players.
3) Kiosk is at the first tee shows tournament info and other postings. The local club also has a lost and found box for lost discs. This is a great idea, that you can say what disc you might have lost and they can open up the box anytime they are there to help people retrieve older lost discs. Just another thing that shows the locals are good and serious.
4) Locals obviously care about their course. It is well groomed and the little things are definitely done by the locals to help out the parks maintenance crews. I saw the maintenance crews trimming trees and doing branch cleanup. I was thrilled because I rarely if ever have seen maintenance crews on any of the courses I have played. I think that the strong local club probably is assisted by the fact that there are only a few courses within 50 miles of Savannah. Obviously this is a fairly large city but with only a few courses to play the group has to unite and be strong. If I were to compare it to Milwaukee, there are even multiple small clubs and even within clubs there are little cliques that don't see eye to eye and there are plenty of courses for us to spread out and take advantage of. Just something I notice when playing other good courses.
5) 3 sets of tees make for 3 different courses. Almost all tees really change the holes, they aren't simply just a longer hole. I love it when they create different courses with different tee locations. Most courses don't do this because it means further tree removal and maintenance. Just another thing that shows the locals take care of the course or the park would not have 3 sets of tees. They also recently made 5 tee colors. In general, I think many of the tees are for multiple colors, but they do have 5 colored markers set on 3 tees per hole.
6) Signs are in great shape. They are laminated and in color. They show Hole #, par, distance and they show an adequate hole layout diagram.
7) Every hole has a bench by it which is positive since I can imagine some slow play on this course when it is busy. Not only are there multiple tees and some that require backtracking, but also because you can get off the fairways and require some disc searching.
8) Course is extremely well designed. It uses wonderful features including some rolling hills, tight wooded areas, the pond comes into play on a few holes including 2 forced carries from the back tees. The front tees diminish the challenge and the risk which is a truly good design concept. It is playable by all skill levels, but beginners may struggle to score well because of how tight most of the holes are.
9) Practice basket is available at the first tee.
10) This is a positive even though I assume it is specifically because of the upcoming "Savannah Open". I wish I would have known I could have played in this tournament as I am sure I would have enjoyed it. Anyways they clearly were doing improvements like adding the 3rd tees, and adding the colored stakes for tee differentiation, painting a pink line around the 30' diameter for putting.
11) This was a really fun and challenging course. I love courses that make me think and I love courses that challenge me to execute tough shots. This is the only way I will get better so I can always appreciate it when a course makes me play better "or else".
12) Bathrooms are available but not in the parking lot by the course. You have to drive southeast of the first tee to another building and find the bathrooms.
13) This course has a good balance of different shaped shots. There are a lot of anhyzers and a lot of hyzers, and almost no holes that are dead straight.
14) The baskets are Innova Discatchers. They are easily found because of the bright yellow. They are in good shape and catch well.
15) This course has an incredible distance variation. It ranges from about 170 all the way up to 975. That is awesome and by far the biggest swing I have ever seen. Most holes are over 300 from the back tees, and the average is somewhere around 400. That makes for a long day especially considering most holes are in some tight woods.
16) It is obvious that this course has a ton of potential. Once they straighten out the whole multiple tee colors and areas get resolved, they will then be able to focus on adding more holes. I think there seems to be tons of vacant property. Perhaps this will one day be a 3 or 4 course property. How awesome would that be?!
17) This course has some wonderful tree selection. There is almost no underbrush and the lower shrubs and plants seem to be well taken care of.
Cons:
1) Some of the carpet and rubber tees are slightly bumpy. I don't feel that they affect the tee shot tremendously, but it is worth noting that they could be in better shape.
2) It is clear this course would be tough in summer. Not only will there be a ton of mosquitos but it has been said there are a lot of fire ants on this course. When I played (January 14th) there were neither so maybe I am just lucky the time of year I travel and play DG.
3) Water although visible is only in play on a couple holes and only then from the long tees. I know hitting the water on Hole #4 could be possible from a forward tee but I would rather have seen a couple baskets tucked right up near the water. There is no reason this isn't possible to do to create some more challenge. They certainly have the land to play a little bit.
4) The bridges that are created for this course are telephone poles laid across the drainageways and trenches and ditches that may or may not have a lot of water in them. I played during what would normally be called the dry season, and there was water in a few of them, and others were still soft and muddy, while the couple on the first and last few holes were bone dry. The bridges are not level, some have seams between poles and could lead to some injuries of those with no balance.
5) The walk path around the park is in play in a few places and forced throws across the path and maintenance path create some chances for danger of innocent bystanders. I don't fault them for the tees on the other side of the road and path because it truly makes those holes better, but nevertheless it could be an issue.
6) With the current setup of having 3 tees (and 5 colors on those 3 tees) there was a lot of confusion. I have no problem with 3 sets of tees, but why do they need 5 colors on 3 tees? It isn't as if they have 5 sets of tees each with their own color. Most of the tees have 2 colors and some have 3 colors per tee. Perhaps this is going to be resolved down the road as they keep expanding. Not only are the tees confusing, but they also used dissimilar colors from time to time. I swear I saw Gold, Black, Blue, White, Yellow, Red, Maroon, and Orange colors. I do not know what all of them mean, especially when there are NO MORE than 3 tees per hole. I cannot take off big points because of this complaint but it is worth mentioning for the time being. Because of these changes it is obvious the tee signs need to be changed, but right now they show only 2 colors of tees Blue and yellow.
7) Course is not beginner friendly because of distance and tightness. The wooded shots are not always just straight away for the forward tees, so it takes a little skill to make the corners appropriately. The course will challenge all skill levels, but it may be a little too tough for a lower rated player.
8) I ran into some barbed wire in a few spots that is a little disturbing. That is something that should be taken care of before anyone goes into certain areas.
Other Thoughts:
I am going to forgo this area where I normally summarize because the rest of the review was already very long. Just be sure to play this course when passing through Savannah. I really wanted to give this a 4.5 but because of the tee confusion, old tee signs not giving all information, and the fact that it seems to remain wet for a long time. I could only imagine just how many mosqitos would be there. I will reevaluate this course next time I get through Savannah.