This is a fun, fairly short course with some nicely designed holes. It is very wooded which is great in the hot summer. This summer it has not been very crowded, likely due to some holes being closed for construction.

I like a wooded course, but some of the holes are just "close your eyes and let it rip" holes. So many trees on the fairway that it's nearly impossible to not hit one. The course also gets very muddy when it rains. If you're adventurous, you can play 17 of the holes, but the 12th no longer exists due to water lines being put in. In some places the weeds are overgrown making it very hard to find your disc.

We played here last night (Sept 2) and noticed that they're currently rebuilding the tee boxes on the back nine and they added a basket to the 11th! Hopefully this is a sign that they'll soon be officially opening up the back nine.

Apex *was* one of my favorite courses in the Triangle, but it has been knocked down a couple of notches due to a massive drainage problem and a redesign (currently incomplete) of most of the back 9.

+ Apex is one of the prettiest courses in the Triangle -- a great piece of property and a peaceful setting.

+ Apex has terrific, unique, and fast greens. Several holes are on steep elevation. Hole #2 is on a plateau with a dry creek bed around it (making roll-aways possible). Hole #3 is a raised basket. Hole #7 is perched on a hole and roll-aways are all but certain if you miss. Hole #11 is above a creek. I hit the basket and my putter rolled right into the drink. Hole #12 is on an island green (my favorite hole). #13 is on a steep hill and is the toughest putt on the course. Hole #14 is a par 4 and is a tempting birdie, but the basket, just over the creek, can force some risky putts. #15 is on a raised platform about 3-4 feet tall. Just really unique and fun greens. My favorite aspect of the course.

+ Awesome risk-reward elements (see above)

+ Good mix of left and right curve fairways, although slightly more right curves than left (a con for this RHBH player).

+ Lots of trees to contend with, but I think every hole except #5 is fair. (#5 is a poke and hope hole, in my opinion.) Challenging, but fair, overall.

+ Multiple ways to play certain holes. Examples: #8 has a flex line and a straight, slightly hyzer line. Hole 4, the dogleg par 4, has a mando. You have to decide if you want to aggressively cut the corner after the mando or play a safer shot in the landing zone before taking the dogleg turn.

+ Easy navigation and informative tee signs.

+ Nice baskets, easily visible from the tees.

+ Some legitimate par 4's where birdies are possible, but bogeys are too.

+ Three sets of tees for different skill levels (red, white, and blue).

+ The rubber mat tee pads on wooden platforms, which were a major con due to the rotting platforms and beat-up mats, are in the process of being replaced with new, concrete pads. The front 9 already has the concrete pads. This is a big improvement.

+ Nice practice basket at the first tee.

+ Amazing facilities: the nicest public park bathroom you'll ever see (complete with murals and artwork on the floor), paved and unpaved trails for walkers (watch out for pedestrians!), a dog park, a playground and athletic fields on the other side of the park.

+ Very clean and well maintained.

The cons:

- Installing rubber tee pads on wooden structures instead of regular old concrete tee pads was a mistake. Many of the original tees have rotted out and are uneven and dangerous now. (Note: these are in the process of being replaced; the front 9 now has nice, new concrete pads.)

- This is more of a nit-pick, but I think Apex is very lefty-friendly. (I'm sure lefties have that complaint about many rightly-friendly courses!) I like the opportunity to work on anhyzer shots, but still would prefer a better balance of left-to-right and right-to-left fairways.

- #5, mentioned before, is a "poke and hope" hole in my opinion.

- Apex does not drain well AT ALL. After rain, many fairways turn into churned up, muddy messes. In fact, the course has remained a muddy mess for months at a time.

UPDATE: Holes 10-17 are closed and being redesigned. Hopefully, the back 9 will reopen again soon and be as good as the original.

Keep an eye on the course status for Apex to see if and when the back 9 redesign is complete. Once that's done, Apex should be worth your while. Until then, there are better 18-hole options nearby (Jones, Buckhorn, Middle Creek, and the soon-to-open Diavolo).

A lot of money has gone into making this place nice. The park has tons of parking and very nice facilities. The baskets are new discatchers and there are two sets of tees with nice rubber mats over gravel. The park has also spread an unbelievable amount of mulch. Hole signage is good and there are "next tee" signs in all the places a new player could get confused.

There are several interesting holes here and from the blue tees it plays pretty long for a wooded course. Although nearly every hole is heavily wooded most holes have a generous enough fairway.

Even with all the mulch that has been spread I think a significant portion of the course is doomed to be marshy. The white tees have nice maps but the blue tees only get a small distance marker. There are a lot of right finishing holes here, which I wouldn't mind, but several of them are very severe. There are also a couple holes that throw across a walking path.

Overall I think the designers did a nice job of fitting a course into the park. It is nice to have a decent course between Buckhorn and Raleigh.

The blue tees provide a nice challenge and it is definitely worth the short trip from Raleigh or Durham to check it out.

Overall it's a shorter and technical/wooded style course.

Atmosphere - Apex Nature Park is a new edition to the area and the city spared no expense putting this one in. The facilities are top notch and a lot of time and care went in to the construction of this place.

The course itself flows the wooded section of the park and although you never get the real secluded feeling it's a pleasant little area with some great geographical features.

Layout - The course offers up three tees which I would say suits the skill level of novice, intermediate and advanced. The majority of my review will focus just on the two harder layouts.

The entire course consists of wooded holes although a few holes have wider more forgiving fairways that allow you to work a disc in a number of ways.

A few holes give you multiple routes to choose from though for the most part you're trying to hit a particular line the length of the fairway. Most of the holes are heavily walled with a mix of trees so getting off line can mean trouble.

The white/intermediate course consists mainly of shorter shots under 300'. There's a good wealth of shot shapes and the flow of the layout does a good job of mixing things up so it stays interesting; even though you'll mainly just be using mids/putters.

For less experienced players this course can be a fun yet challenging task; probably a good course to learn to shape shots on. For more experienced players you'll be looking to get birds although there's more than a few holes that come with danger; good shots get rewarded.

The long/blue course is meant more for experienced players, less skilled players will probably have a hard time navigating fairways due to the added length.

The blue tees do a good job of changing the look of the tee shot just a bit on some holes so the gaps you need to hit are squeezed. Or in some cases the blues just back you up enough so that hitting that first gap while also staying on the correct line becomes more challenging. Most players will probably pull out a fairway driver on a handful of holes that require more D.

The front 9 from both layouts is more about hitting straight tighter gaps while the back 9 gives you holes that generally require more shot shaping.

There's a few par 4's on both courses; all reachable from the tee if you have the D and skill. However for the most part you're just playing a technical layup shot then moving forward.

The course has decent elevation changes with short but quick slopes though overall there's no drastic up and downs. What is there is used in a really solid way to add difficulty and create some faster greens.

A creek comes in to play on the back 9 on three of the holes. It's used very well and creates some cool greens, especially on #12.

The flow of the course is easy to follow and intuitive. There's two different parking lots for the park and you can jump on the course at any number of holes.

Overall the course does favor LHBH/RHFH but I personally don't consider this a con, us RHBH guys have plenty of courses in our favor. If anything it helps you work on your game.

Equipment - Brand new discatchers. Rubber hexagon mat pads for the two longer layouts. Tee signs located at white tees with map/distance of each hole. The other tees do have smaller signs listing just distance.

Park facilities conveniently located. Course bulletin board by #1.

Layout - To me the biggest problems of the course come from the limitations of the land. It's all a bit squeezed in together although the course does a good job of keeping fairways separate.

There wasn't a lot of land to really be creative and this is apparent mostly on the front 9 which was designed with some prior limitations. The lines here are less imaginative and mostly straight gap hitting.

There are some holes that still have that one tree in the middle of the fairway that makes it based more on luck than skill.

In a few areas the course comes back to the walking path and you will have to watch out for casual park goers before you throw. It's nothing serious because they'll be visible and most of the time the tee is right beside or on the path in these situations.

If there were a few more shots that went right to left the course would be more balanced. There's also no real open shots where you can rip something if that's what you're looking for.

Atmosphere - Again, there's a few areas where you need to be considerate of other park goers and err on the side of safety. You're in the woods but you're not alone.

A good portion of the course is in a low area so when it rains the course can get very mucky, it's best not to play right after a rain; although the parks dept has done a great job with throwing done a ton of mulch to combat this.

Equipment - The rubber pads are nailed down on to sunken wooden platforms. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me and only time will tell how well these hold up but I don't consider it the best way to do it; although I think the rubber mats are the most appropriate for this course.

To me with some tweaks and more breaking in this course could be a 3.5 but it's getting better every time I go.

I think this is a great addition to the area even though it doesn't really add any diversity in terms of what was already here. It's just more NC style technical golf in the woods; yet it does a good job of dishing out fun and challenging rounds depending on your skill level.

The park itself is super nice so if you're traveling with your family I'd put it up there as a really good place to stop. Check out the bathrooms by hole 1 they're insanely nice, it's ridiculous.

Solid addition to the triangle area. Apex is a little less tight and a little more lengthy than a lot of the courses here. While there are no real open holes, many of the fairways are much more generous and the rounds here should be more fun and light than those at any other area course. There is also a decent amount of elevation and a few holes that are memorable.
Those holes? The ones that feature the creek. 12 is probably the best of the bunch. Downhill to a basket that is protected by a bend of the creek, nearly surrounded by water. There is another hole that uses the stream more as a guard line. I'm told that the stream tends to be a trickle, which is a shame. When I was there after some heavy rain, it was raging and that really amped the fun level of those holes. A disc that goes in there might be retrieved, but you better be on your toes and attempting to head it off downstream.
Thrown in good enough tees, nice tee signs and simple navigation and you have a course that is ready to play. Just a lot of variety with holes that are more less open, finish in different directions and have a bunch of different types of elevation changes, from gradual climbs and descents to those that area bit more steep. A bunch of different lengths, from ace runs to holes are really long for par threes. Very well appointed with all creek crossings done by bridges that look to stand the test of time. With this much effort behind it, so should this course.

There are fairways here that need to be thinned out a bit. A few too many unfairways, where there is no real path to the basket. Sometimes it's fun to thread these but really, it's not as nice as a clean line. At the same time, the trees that would need to be removed are old trees that I'd be loath to cut down. I think Apex has 3.5 potential but it is probably fine as what it is. It seems to be very popular for a new course so it's probably fine as a fun, everyday-style course.
It's not a course with major problems, but it's not a course with major successes. Limited in ambition somewhat, it clearly targets the type of play that wants a fun round in a nice atmosphere without a lot of challenge. It's not incredibly interesting at many points. The one thing I regretted is that the creek did not come into play more often. It was running fast when I was there and as I was sprinting downstream, keeping pace with my floating blizzard wraith, I noticed a lot more creek that could have been potentially used.
The last thing is that the blue tees rarely provide substantially more challenge than the whites and never provide a different look. The red tees are significantly easier but won't provide much interest for players of any experience.