Pros:
This is the one that made me want more on my trip to the area. I loved it and played it twice. While I love challenge I don't necessarily crave the distance that Gold level courses bring into the mix, so this Blue level course was just what I needed with a great mix of shot selection required due to the varying hole types and unique terrain.
The area is beautiful with great site work and landscaping done in part because it was an old ball golf course. Now the disc golf course reaps the benefits of that previous work, but also gets to dive into the unique wooded ravines and valleys that surround the manicured fairways.
The variety and balance here was outstanding. From tight woods, to wide open rippers, to downhill bombers, water hazard, elevation, and valley edge to valley edge touch shots, this course has great variety for 18 holes. Some longer wooded holes and eliminating the throwaway #6 would make it even better.
The signs were great with a good depiction of the hole and accurate distance.
There were indeed some memorable holes. I wanted to jot down and describe more than 75% of them! #1 has a nice fast green and some terraced fairway landscaping in a great wooded valley. #2 is stunning beauty of a hole. A fairly long downhill wooded valley with scattered trees to shape your drive. Then punch out to the pin in the open but very near a stormwater drain ditch for some risk. #3 is picturesque and over a pond off the tee. Not a simple over the pond shot either. #4 and #13 offer the wide open 400'+ ripper hole. #5 is a beautifully framed and elevated tee and green from a former par 3 bolf hole - makes a great disc golf hole. #10 is a great uphill wooded hyzer (RHBH) with a pin near the edge of a ridge for some risk. #14 is a rolling valley with great elevation (50-75') throwing downhill to a pin hidden behind a lone giant tree. This is your downhill bomber hole. #14 is a downhill touch shot. 75' elevation change to a pin on the edge of a raised green with severe threat of blowing past it and winding up another 30-40' below the pin with no view on your upshot (here is an example where an alternate pin way down below in that valley would offer a GREAT option to crush a drive downhill). #16 and 17 are those excellent valley edge to valley edge wooded holes than I love so much where you throw from an elevated tee, over a gully, and up to the pin on a risky rollaway slope. #18 is a beautifully framed hole with some manmade fields and tennis courts as possible OB. You throw uphill and try to thread in between a few major trees to a pin perched on a good slope that loves to skip your disc away if you can even make the s-curve drive.
Cons:
Only one pin placement (although I saw a few alternate sleeves on various holes). Having a second pin placement on many holes would showcase much more of the unique and beautiful terrain, offer some more needed distance, introduce some risky greens, and add needed variety in skill/challenge.
Only one tee on many of the holes. A second set of tees would really wake up the variety and skill challenge throughout this course. The best option might be to leave the current tees as a white level tee and install shorter red level tees and some even longer blue level tees. Plus, there seemed to be older style and shorter concrete pads for holes 3, 4, 5, and 6.
I think there was wasted potential on the walk between #5 and 6, and not incorporating the wooded ravine and the bridge. But my opinion is that I like manmade obstacles incorporated into the design. This wooded potential is even more squandered because #6 is just a wide open throwaway hole.
Hole #2 had no tee sign but it was probably due to the recent redesign.
Despite the clean and beautiful setting, there is some annoying road and traffic noise on holes 4-9.
Baskets were old style DISCatchers modified with an inner layer of overlapping chains. They caught fine. They had numbers on them that didn't match the hole at all.
While the setting was beautiful, it was not secluded. Lots of road noise, private residences, and college activity all around.
Other Thoughts:
I was never torn on this rating. The fun, unique, and beautiful terrain and the well balanced variety in design was screaming high rating after playing a third of the round and things just kept getting better. This course is a solid 4.0. Lack of multiple tees throughout and multiple pin placements keeps it from being more. Also, lacking good par 4 holes, longer wooded holes, and having a throwaway hole #7 will keep the rating down. The redesign on hole #2 is becoming a thing of beauty, and it looks like commitment to the course is strong. Installing some more option for skill/challenge would be ideal. Add longer tees, and add riskier alternate pin placements. Although with the challenge of Leigh Farm, this course will fill a great par 3 niche in the area with its setting, terrain, balance, and variety.
I'd say this is a Blue level course. When you have the option, the longer tees fit the bill of a blue level skill course. I never play as well my first time through a course, but this course did challenge me on almost every shot. A few excellent drives and LONG putts kept me in the game.
(The order of favorites on my Raleigh trip is as follows - UNC, Leigh Farms, Harris Lake, Cedar Hills, Zebulon, Middle Creek, and Valley Springs. UNC and Leigh farms were runaway winners but with vastly different reasons. Harris Lake was repetitive being almost all wooded, but real fun to play and lots of risk. Cedar Hills, Zeb, and Middle creek were all tied around the average for different reasons. Valley Springs was very fun, but repetitively grueling.)