Pros:
- challenging narrow fairways that force excellent shot placement
- good mix of wooded and "open" holes
- lots of potential
- quality baskets
Cons:
- doubles as a dog park nearby (didn't bother me early in the morning, but others have commented on dogs running loose)
- presence of wild parsnip
- rough/undergrowth is extremely overgrown and eats discs like crazy
- tee signs are very basic
- no tee pads
Other Thoughts:
This is a hard course to rate and you can see the previous ratings are all over the place. This course has a lot of potential and challenges the player to use excellent shot placement.
I was tempted to rate this a 1.5, but I really this it is a 2+ caliber course, maybe more like a 3 with some improvements. The problem is, I really didn't enjoy playing it. The #1 problem here is just that the rough is so overgrown that there are places everywhere for discs to get eaten. I lost 2 discs on the first hole - that was painful. There is also wild parsnip around which can really mess you up if you're traipsing through the prairie grasses looking for discs.
I truly don't mind a challenge, and some of my favorite courses are extremely challenging (Idlewild in Kentucky, Canyons in Lockport, IL, etc). This course will challenge you, but if you have to spend too much time hunting for discs in the rough it gets hard to enjoy. I think if some of the undergrowth was trimmed back this could be a much better course.
I should have heeded the warnings not to play in summer that I only saw after the fact - perhaps the course would be more playable in winter when things die down. The tee signs/tees could definitely use improvement here, but for me it was the difficulty finding discs that put a damper on the round. There are signs at the beginning warning of wild parsnip, and it looked like it was everywhere. I'm no botanist, so maybe I was wrong, but there were plants all over on the early holes that looked just like it.
There is a nice mix of technical wooded holes and more open holes - although due to the prairie grasses, etc. the "open" holes still have tight fairways and are pretty challenging.
I'd like to go back to add some updated pictures to the site, but I can't say I'm excited to try playing this one again.