Pros:
Great layout! Convenient parking. Easy to find discs (with 3 players, we didn't look for a disc for more than 10 seconds in 2 rounds!).
Cons:
It would be great to have a course map near hole 1. Following smart phone/gps directions to "Veterans Park" brings you to Stratford. This course is in "Veterans Memorial Park" aka "90 Acres Park."
Other Thoughts:
Played two rounds this morning with two buddies...the first time any of us had been there. We wanted to check it out thanks to the recent CT Post article where players compared the course in quality to Cranbury and Wickham.
This course is NOT like Cranbury or Wickham. Those courses have been used for national tournaments for a reason: they have flawless tee boxes, excellent signage, and they are spotless. This course has none of these characteristics.
With this said, this is a great course! Whoever designed the layout of the holes did a GREAT job! I can't imagine any better placement for any of the baskets.
Here's a summary of the course:
Hole #1
Open tee shot across the field. Approach shot is guarded by tall trees allowing overhand approaches. There is trash on the ground as you enter the woods, but this is by far the worst of it, and most holes are totally clean.
Hole #2
Wide tunnel tee shot. Missing tee shot left buries you. Basket is deceptively far as it is on the other side of a small hill.
Hole #3
Tunnel tee shot with slight right dogleg at the end of the tunnel. Straightforward hole.
Hole #4
Tunnel tee shot and long dogleg left...flat for the first half, downhill the 2nd half. Miss your tee right and you might be in a swamp.
Hole #5
This hole sucks and accounted for the most strokes on the day from all three of us. It's a tunnel dogleg left and uphill, and if you don't hit the tunnel off the tee it will kill you. There are a few approaches towards the hole if you miss the fairway, but they are narrow. The basket is located in a nice rock bowl which did seem to attract our discs rather than bouncing them away like a force field, thank goodness!
Hole #6
Fun hole. Tunnels left and right so you have your pick of your favorite throws to reach the basket. Again, basket is located on a mound surrounded by rocks that seem to suck discs towards the target. Nice!
Hole #7
Fairly open tee shot uphill and definite birdie hole.
Hole #8
Another tough hole. Narrow tunnel tee shot into a right hand long dogleg. It doesn't look that narrow a tunnel, but the trees to split are a good distance from the tee and if you miss splitting them, you have problems wherever you end up. Better to miss right than left. Even better to actually hit the tunnel!
Hole #9
Fairly open shot to basket on top of a hill, slightly to the left. I birdied this one, but it's pretty easy to fade the disc too far left, or yank it right into a tree to the right of the tee. Also, the hill looks like it will cause approach shot roller headaches, but we weren't unlucky enough to experience this.
Hole #10
Tricky hole...dogleg left with a fairly wide tunnel that leads to fair approach shot, assuming you hit the tee shot, which I didn't!
Hole #10 (another approach)
A better shot is to risk the tunnel that leads to the open field where there is an easy approach shot to the hole. Our scores going dogleg route were 5 & 4. Going the direct route through the field were 3,3,4 & 5.
Hole #11
Fairly open dogleg right and even bad tee shots seemed to give good approach opportunities.
Hole #12
Cool hole with "Y" tree in the enter of the fairway close to the tee box. Out of our six drives on our two rounds, none of us hit the fairway for this hole. It doesn't look that hard, but the trees beyond the "Y" kept deflecting our shots like Wonder Woman's bracelets. Bogeys galore.
Hole #13
Uphill, dogleg left, tunnel. Miss the tunnel and it's extra strokes. Looks pretty difficult for a lefty/forehand player.
Hole #14
Nice easy downhill dogleg right. Unless you throw like we did completely missing the fairly wide tunnel to the basket. Out-of-bounds is a threat if you go long. Otherwise, pretty straight-forward.
Hole #15
Cool hole and pretty difficult. Choice of tunnels left or right off the tee. None of us were able to find the fairway off the tee (except for one short shot). The hole is short enough so that an approach can set up an easy par, but the impressive smattering of mature trees combined with what looks like a missile silo creates a very challenging approach.
Hole #16
Tee sign is missing. Uphill slightly right, narrow tunnel. No surprises.
Hole #17
Downhill and straight. It looks easy, but we failed to hit the gap leading down to the hole.
Hole #18
You could argue that this hole is similar to the open holes at Cranbury and Wickham. Tell my buddy that who found the clump of trees dead center in the fairway. You have to choose right or left of these trees and either way, the gaps are far enough from the tee to be somewhat challenging to hit. Still, we managed 5 of 6 tee shots unharmed. On a windy day, I'm betting this hole sucks!
Summary
We didn't see anyone else playing, but then we began at 7:30 am on a Sunday morning. We thought better comparisons for this course might be Leonard Park in Mt. Kisco or Page Park in Bristol due to its woodsy nature.
Hole #1 looks a little scary because of all the trash near the basket, but the course is nice otherwise. Nothing a shop vac and a generator couldn't remove in an hour or so. Elevations for the holes would be a nice touch as this information would be useful on many tee shots.
Overall, this was a wonderful course to play. Challenging, fun, and well-thought out.