Pros:
-Great signs and baskets that guide you to the next teepad
-Good distance, you will need to use a variety of discs for the different holes
-Hole 11 had clever signs along the fairway that signified the distance to the basket
-Holes 12-15 have decent fairways that were cut out of thick woods
-Plays around a nice pond (non-hazard)
Cons:
-Holes 6-11 (prairie holes) should be skipped. 10-20 ft wide fairways sorrounded by a sea of tall grass. Mostly flat and more windy than the rest of the course. I spent more time looking for my disc than actually playing the game.
-Holes 16-20, despite being under wooded cover, are also rather weedy. For a couple of these holes the fairways are tight which increases the odds you will throw into the brush.
-The course ends about a quarter mile from the parking lot and hole 1
Other Thoughts:
Like I said before, this course can be described in three parts. The first part is 200-300 foot holes playing in a sparsely wooded part of the park. It was rather enjoyable. Holes 6-11 play through the prairie and I did not find these holes enjoyable at all. Prairies cannot be tamed for disc golf and should be avoided. All this is on top of the fact that the park district has clearly done a lot of work on the land to keep the grass short and the fairways delineated. That kind of hurts the claim that disc golf is a largely non-invasive game, at least in this case. The next 9 holes play through more wooded areas. The first several of these holes were fun, shooting between the tree line and through other wooded obstacles. But sure enough the woods got weedy again and the fairways tight. Once again I spent a lot of time looking for my disc.
There were around 9 holes on this course that I enjoyed playing, and if this course only consisted of those 9 I would rate it a 3 or 3.5 depending on my mood. The rest of the holes only bring the rating down. Not an absolutely terrible course, but not worth traveling from far either.
Coming from the south I would rather play Adler, coming from the north I would rather play Silver Lake (BTW, this course very much resembles UW Parkside). Coming from the west I would rather play Silver Lake or Fairfield.
If you are back in the area check in. There has been significant mowing to make it easier to find discs across the street. Those tee pads have been fixed too.
You got unlucky with the course being super muddy. Wood chips have been laid and this course stays fairly dry.
Many improvements this summer. More to come in 2014.