Pros:
Victor Ashe is a thing of beauty. A perfect mix of fun and challenge, and arguably, one of the best open course I have ever played.
- Some pieces of land were made for disc golf, and you see that here. The course is built across rolling hills, which give it some surprisingly challenging layouts. There's almost a good mixture of trees, water and rough to up the difficulty level.
- As much as the terrain is important, you actually need to have a well designed and laid-out course. And that's exactly what you find here. You see that in the variety of the first five holes: #1 is a downhill shot over water, back to an uphill putt/second shot to the basket. #2 is a long dogleg right. #3 is a long, mostly open shot, with three trees potentially blocking your path. #4 is an uphill blind shot. #5 is a downhill shot, which, depending on the layout, will either penalize you for going long, left of right.
- Difficult holes throughout, some of which are deceptively challenging. #6 and 9 both look tame on the tee (throw around the trees on #6, stay right on 9), but end up being much tougher. #12 and 13 both go over a creek bed, with narrow openings to go across.
- This is one of the biggest risk/reward courses I've seen. If you're aggressive, throw great and hit your lines, you will see a lot of birdie putts. If you're aggressive and can't throw straight, you'll see lots of bogeys, double bogeys or worse (lost discs). The course also rewards smart, conservative play with a lot of (relatively) easy pars. It might not be the most glamorous way to play, but getting an easy three on most holes is a good score. The best example of this is #12. It's a par 4, downhill tee shot, across the creek bed to a basket protected by trees. Unless you can really rip a straight tee shot (probably 400 foot+), the smart shot is a well placed, mid-range disc. That sets you up with an easier second across the creek, and may leave you a birdie putt, or an easy par.
- Distance and accuracy are both important here. Unlike Groves Park, which puts too much emphasis on distance, Victor Ashe has a great blend of both. Shorter throwers (less than 300 feet) can still score well here if you throw smart and strategic shots.
- Extra long tee pads. You could get a five step run up on these, which just further tempts you to be aggressive.
- Good, descriptive tee signs. There are enough blind tee shots on the course, and the tee signs were a huge help in knowing where to throw.
- Great, overall park with lots of amenities. The course is in the back, and other than a walking trail you cross on several occasions and people fishing the pond on #1, you're almost completely isolated from everyone else. The pictures gave the course a more rugged, older look, so I was actually surprised how good things looked in person.
Cons:
As a testament to this course, these are all relatively minor issues. If one of the 'cons' is that you have to play all 18 holes, I think you're doing something right.
- The basket positions need to be more consistent. When I played, most baskets appeared to be in the red, shorter layout. On some holes there were multiple baskets (#3, 5 & 13 come to mind) and at least one appeared to be in the other (blue) layout - #14. Also, #16 was in a new position not listed on the sign, scorecard or website.
- The ending to the course was a little disappointing. #16 & 18 especially felt different from the rest of the course that it was a little bit of a letdown. After 15 solid holes, plus #17, I would like to see something with a little more punch on #18.
- On some holes, the grass Is pretty thick and unforgiving. On at least two holes (#17 for sure, I forget the other), I threw big tee shots that got no bounce or roll once they hit the ground. That lack of extra feet made second shots seem even longer.
- There are some long walks between holes. After #5, there's a long walk to #6, in the back of the park. And again, after #14, there's a long walk back up to #15.
- As a continuation of the above comment, the way the course is laid out, you can do a nine-hole loop if you choose - #1 - 5 & #15 - 18. The negative is that you're missing out on the meat of the course, and there's also really no way to get to those back holes without playing a full 18.
Other Thoughts:
Victor Ashe far and away blows away the Knoxville area's other open course - Grove Park. Fair or not, my buddy and I played these courses back-to-back during a visit to the region, so all the good things about Victor Ashe were even more magnified than if they were played separately.
- I could play this course all the time. The added element of elevation/hills is what makes this open course go from good to great. This same layout would be as exciting if it were flat.
- There was a great variety in terms of hole layouts. Even on holes that looked similar from the tee, there could be a huge difference in the way subsequent shots looked and played. I was forced to play more shots and discs here than at most courses.
- There are so many fun and challenging holes throughout the course. Anytime a course/hole is both fun and difficult at the same time is a great sign for me. It's a great sign that you can both love and hate the course at the same time.
- This is a no-doubt, must play. Between this course and Morningside, Knoxville has as great of a one-two punch as what you'll find in most cities. I'm surprised the ratings on this are somewhat low. I'm a pretty tough critic - look at my course ratings compared to others - and I thought this course was great. This is one of the few times I think others are being too tough on a course.