This course forces alot of extreme curves through the woods, and has a good balance of both. It also has elevation in play on every single hole. This course often combines steep hillsides with trees for several very interesting holes. This course has a nice mix of wooded holes and open holes, so both distance and accuracy are rewarded.
This course is actually quite pretty, even with no leaves on the trees yet, and the elevation changes add another entire dimension to what you face on this course. Also, the many mature trees here put a ceiling on many technical shots, which is a nice change from many Southern Wisconsin courses that leave the over-the-top route a little too open.There is also a small creek in play on two holes, though it was dry when I played.
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From the short tees, this is mostly a technical workout for curving your midranges around corners, busting out the occasional driver on the handful of open, longer holes. (10, 15-18)
From the longs, I teed off with drivers on all but a few holes. Even from the longs most holes are park-able off the tee with a well-placed drive, though some are on the verge, where you will still need a long putt for a birdie (10,16). The exception is hole 15, which takes me two solid drives to even sniff putting range, though its wide open, so you have wiggle room to really air it out.
The terrain on this course makes for some risky putts, and many holes on this course are unusual. One thing this course has tons of are blind tee shots. On at least 12 of the holes, you can't see the basket from the (pro) tee. Usually it is obscured by foliage, but this course has several drastic uphill shots where the terrain itself blocks the basket from view (Holes 1 & 14). This type of terrain is an interesting and unusual feature, present at a few excellent courses like Justin Trails Big Brother, Fountain Hills, and Whistler DGC, but something I haven't seen too often.
Several holes have no obvious line to play, and force risk/reward through the trees. Either that or, the line is there but it requires a strange shaped shot to pull off a birdie, such as the short anny with a fade at the end needed to sneak up on Hole 2's basket from the tee, or the sudden kink right 40 ft off the tee, then long straight downhill tunnel shot line that you somehow have to follow from the Long Tee to park Hole 4.
Several holes on this course are of the feast or famine variety, where a 2 or 4 is very likely, rather than a bell curve of mostly 3's. Some others are the type of hole where a 2 or 3 is the norm. Others are a real stretch to get better than a 3 on, but not too hard to par. A couple of pro tees, due to length, are a stretch just to get a 3 on.
This course is much more technical than distance from the shorts, and a mix of both from the longs. From the short tees, I've birdied the same 3 holes in a row multiple times (12-14). However, the long tees, while still birdieable, do constrict the lanes on the technical holes more, and add distance to the open holes, which really turns it up a notch. They significantly change the look on almost all the holes, which is good.
This course is quite challenging from the long tees. Looking at my score, on a good day I shoot similarly from the pro tees here as i did last week from the short tees at UW-Parkside, another mostly tight technical course with a few longer open holes thrown in. However, with the added length of the the long tees here vs Parkside shorts, its alot easier to shipwreck your score than it is at Parkside. A bad day from the longs here would be a REALLY bad day at Parkside
Another notable thing about this course is how much harder the longs are than the shorts. On some other courses, most notably Parkside, the longs don't seem really much more technical than the shorts, just a bit longer. Here, the longs punish you, forcing tight shots down constricted spaces, or bring more trees into play, or significantly increase the distance (holes 15 & 16)
So, this course has lots of terrain, variety and challenges, depending on which tee you play from, but not the most challenging course around (that would probably be Heistand)
Its Acorn Park's little brother in Southern Wisconsin: A nice intermediate course with enough variety and challenge to keep you coming back, but basic in many senses.