Pros:
Located in Westminster Park, which is an outreach of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, is this beautiful course that features a healthy mixture of open, semi open, and wooded holes. The course features nice Innova DISCatcher baskets, well designed tee signs, long tees made of leveled astro-turf and short natural tees marked with Innova tee markers.
For a park with so much open space, it would have been easy to just slap some baskets and tees down out in the field and call it a day, but some serious thought went into trying to make a balanced course. This was done by making good use of the elevation on the property. Well placed baskets that make players consider landing angles/speed control and plenty of fun downhill bombs really stood out. Hole 5 was likely the hidden gem among the whole course. It twisted it's way uphill a decent amount of elevation, creating a memorable Par 4.
The basket locations also utilized elevation well. In fact, the basket locations in general seemed well thought out and it was plain to see that some serious thought went into where the baskets locations. For instance, my card noted that on a lesser course, the basket for Hole 4, which is a long Par 5, probably would have been placed in the middle of the fairway behind the last tree in the fairway, but it was instead tucked off to the left on a slope between a handful of other trees. Holes 7 & 12 even have elevated baskets to spice things up. Hole 12's is particularly memorable because of its relation to the tree it is next to.
The maintenance on the course seemed immaculate. The grassy fairways were all neatly groomed, even the slightly long grass on the steep downhill shot on Hole 15 wasn't unruly. It can be frustrating to play a grassy course with weeds popping up everywhere, so this was a nice surprise. As an added bonus, while we were finishing up our round, a groundskeeper (or maybe just someone who does work around the park) was out doing more maintenance around Holes 17/18, which already looked perfect from my perspective. He was a very nice person, and it was clear, he and the entire team took a lot of pride in the course from our brief conversation.
Navigation around the course was very well marked. The only time our group got turned around at all, was when we got complacent, but every basket had a next tee sign on it, and longer transitions even had more signs pointing you in the right direction.
Outside of the disc golf course, the park also features a driving range for warming up/field work, and a six hole ace run course, that can serve as a spicier putting warm-up. There are multiple athletic fields, a picnic pavilion, a fire pit area, multiple trails, a ropes course, and a kayak/canoe launch onto the Catawba River.
Cons:
While I think every hole on the course is well designed, I personally think there was a missed opportunity with the wooded holes, where they could have demanded more out of players in terms of shot shaping. Pretty much all of them can be reached for a birdie putt by throwing a dead straight shot.
Speaking of wooded holes, Hole 13 felt unnecessarily gimmicky. While the other wooded holes were certainly tight and punishing, they also felt fair/rewarding.I could be in the minority, but I personally would love to see Hole 13 be opened up a bit, and maybe lengthened so that the basket was pushed up the hill. Possibly far enough to create a Par 4. It would create another uphill hole, shorten the transition between 13 & 14, potentially add another Par 4, and drastically change what I can only imagine is the most disliked hole on the course.
There is a distinct lack of benches and trash cans on the course. I don't think either one is necessary for a good course, but I do believe a handful of benches at the wooded tees would be appreciated for people to take breaks and escape the heat on sunny days after walking up and down all the hills.
I also would have loved to see the short pads actually have pads like the ones from the longs. I feel like a mix between the two layouts would make the perfect after work course to just have a relaxing round, without taking too much time.
Other Thoughts:
I had a lot of fun playing at Westminster Park and am super thankful the course didn't fall into the same common pitfalls many open courses seem to fall into. It is definitely a welcome addition to the Rock Hill landscape of disc golf and is a course I can definitely see myself trying to visit more often. For now I'll be giving Westminster Park a 3.5 rating, but it honestly feels like it is on the precipice of deserving a higher rating. It would probably only take a small tweak or two to really bump this course over the edge.
Favorite Holes: 5, 11, 15, & 18