Pros:
I was in Lexington for a couple days and had time to play two courses. I chose two on the south end of town, both ranked in Kentucky's top 25 courses. As of this review, Jacobson was ranked 8th and Veterans was ranked 25th. You can read my review of Jacobson, but overall, I was very happy with the decision to play that course. Veterans was fun, but there were enough cons to make it just an average course, in my book. As of this review, I've played 16 courses that are ranked in the top 25 of their respective states (10 in NC and 6 elsewhere). Veterans gets the lowest rating, from me, out of those 16.
+ The course layout is actually quite good. There are some challenging holes, with a variety of wooded (almost all holes), with a couple of open holes mixed in, some fun downhill holes, some uphills, hyzers, anhyzers, and straight. I liked the use of the creek on a few holes. That was a fun challenge.
+ My favorite hole ended up being #6. When I first got to it, I walked the fairway to try to figure out where in the heck to throw it. The fairway is very tight, with a creek bordering the entire left-hand side and a steep hill on the right-hand side. Seems like it would be pretty easy to hit the slope and roll to the creek. There are also trees dotting the fairway. It's somewhat of a blind tee shot playing downhill to a basket on a flat area, with water to the right. I chose an anhyzer route. From the tee, it looked like I hit the edge of the slope and landed there. When I got to where the disc hit, I saw that my disc had cleared the slope, just barely, and glided down to the basket, within 10 feet. I'll take it!
+ Veterans Park, itself, seems like a big, destination park. There was a competitive softball game going on at the stadium when I was there. Lots of fans cheering. The walking paths and jogging trails were packed with park-goers. Despite the park crowd, I did not see any other disc golfers and never felt like the walkers/joggers got in the way of my lines on the holes close(r) to the paths.
+ Drainage on the course seemed pretty good. It had just rained the day before and I didn't encounter any standing water or mud patches.
+ The tees were ok.
+ Take away my negatives (below), and this would be a stand-out course. The fun factor is high and the holes have a good variety and are adequately challenging. BUT, there are negatives...
Cons:
- First and foremost, when I played -- in the summer -- the underbrush was out of control, not only off the fairways, but on some fairways. I came across a guy weed-whacking a fairway, so I don't want to bash the people maintaining the course. It's situated in a forest...and it is the South...and it was summer. It must be a nightmare to try to keep this course maintained. But, like I said, the underbrush was really bad. Grass and weeds were high in many of the fairways. The risk of disc loss was high.
- The other big drawback for me, a newcomer to the course, was navigation. There were no Next Tee signs. I relied on my DGCR Course Map, but even that couldn't keep me out of trouble. There are numerous trails cris-crossing the course. I followed one by mistake after hole 15 and darn near got lost in the forest. It probably took me 20 minutes or more to finally find hole 16. This course desperately needs some Next Tee signs and trail markers.
- Old baskets, hard to spot in the woods.
Other Thoughts:
If you have one day and the choice is Jacobson or Veterans (the only two courses I've played in Lexington), go with Jacobson. Veterans is probably a lot more enjoyable in the fall or winter. And even with the cons, it's worth playing. Just bring a map.