Pros:
This is a very challenging course, it demands a player to have a full bag of skills and shots in order to score well on every hole. It is by far the toughest course in the Chattanooga area.
It has shorter holes, very long holes, and everything in between. Some holes are tightly wooded, some are lightly wooded, and others are very open. Many holes have water hazards- mainly a small river bordering the holes. The wooded holes have shapes of straight, left, and right. The open holes require a big arm in order to score low.
Course has concrete tees, good baskets, excellent tee signs.
This course is in a very big and nice park, and very easy to get to and close to I-75/I-24.
Cons:
Even though this is a solid and challenging course, there are a good amount of flaws:
This course is set in a major flood plain of a major feeder to the TN River. The river has the potential to take over many of the holes after a heavy rain, or at least making many of the holes very swampy for days. There will be many days throughout the year where this course will be unplayable. (I played the day after a good rain, it wasn't too bad, the creeks/river were high but not quite out of their banks, but holes 1-3 were super marshy in a field of standing water and it appears that these holes might be bad most of the year.)
There were several of the open holes here that are nothing more than a basket in a wide open field of grass. And the last 3 holes are like this but also very long. I viewed this as poor design- after hole #16 you are at the furthest point from the parking area with only a long open field between you and your car. It was as if the designer realized "oh no, we only have 2 holes left yet we are a mile from the car with only an open field with 2 trees between them!" The fact the course is an odd 19 holes just adds to my theory. *Update- only 18 holes now, redesigned, but now has more holes with litte to no obstacles than length and mandos only added as an attempt to make something interesting.
There is a walking trail around most of the holes, and each hole has a huge warning sign telling you not to throw when people are in view- seems extreme to me- in range? Sure. In view??? Rule gave me a smothered and limited feel throughout my round. Trail was very busy on a weekday afternoon- so good luck playing on the weekends.
Course is mostly flat. I think the best courses have some holes going up and down. Not the courses fault, just the land that happens to be here.
*Update 5 years later- Unfortunately this course has dropped in my rating since I last played it 5 years ago. There has been a redesign from 19 holes to 18 (presumably to avoid the walking trail as I mentioned above) that has made this course more wide open, more boring, and trickier to navigate. The holes and numbers don't always match up now. The map on the kiosk was inaccurate around holes 7-8 and navigating the wide open holes 7-10, 17-18 were much harder now as there is a good amount of distance between holes and it is not always clear which way to go next. As usual, the first 3 holes were very marshy and much of the course is going to be squishy for long periods of time. The holes bordering the river are nice, but it is very risky to be agressive because a hyzer skip off the fariway on a drive could end up in the river. I feel like I remember some better park style holes, but I think those have been changed to avoid throwing near/over the walking trail. (I understand the safety concern, but the result is a worse design.) The wooded holes were overgrown, very little fairway, tough to find discs. Some areas of the huge open field needed mowed, but likely can't because it is wet, making it tough to find discs in the fairway. The basket in the parking lot island appeared to moved to a hill. #17's basket was impossible to see from the tee because it literally was placed in a ditch which had standing water in it (really???).
I hate to be so negative, but this course, though it has some potential just has too many things not helping the cause.
Other Thoughts:
This is a ok course, very challenging, and it can/will beat you up. There are several holes where 4 (or even 5) is a pretty good score. It will be a good place for tournaments and a place to really test your game. It is not good, however, for a relaxing fun round or for newer players. It is very different from the other area courses, I really like that the Chattanooga courses offer something for all different skill levels and style preferences.
*Update- I think from now on in Chattanooga I will only play the Sinks (a reason why it is usually very busy.) For comparison, I played here on a nice Friday afternoon (Good Friday holiday to be exact), and other than two other guys monkeying around for an hour on hole 9's basket throwing trick shots, there was not another soul at this course, and it looked like it does not get played very much.
I had a little trouble finding the course once in the park, but after you enter the park area and cross the walking trail take an immediate left into the gravel drive right. The parking area appears double as an RV campground.
*This is a tough course to rate, it has potential, but it does have cons, lots of cons. I can see why others rate it higher and really like it. I originally decided on a 3.0 (good) when I first played it 5 years ago (compared to other 200+ courses I have played). But I would not recommend playing here to anybody except those who like to throw super long drives with no obstacles. 2.5 is described as "decent" on DGCR, and I feel that is the best description in its current state, and may be a bit generous, other than the fact it does have 18 tees and baskets.