Pros:
The three courses all start at about the same place. I'm sure this makes for a really fun start for events with everybody gathered together. The campsites are neatly laid out, and I saw several stacks of wood. It just felt welcoming!
The signs are clear about which course starts where. The signs on the teepad tell you the number, and there are probably a couple of spots where you could accidentally jump from one course to another, but they're well spaced that this seems unlikely. I also enjoyed seeing all the names of the sponsors and people who had aced holes and the like. Again, it provided a very strong community feel that I enjoyed.
The baskets are *beautiful* and catch well, and it's wonderful that each course has baskets that correspond to the course color. (Red baskets on the red course, green baskets for green, blue for blue.)
The layout makes excellent use of the property. There are hyzers and anhyzer shots. There are a couple of longer throws and a couple of ace runs. MInnesota isn't known for its mountains or hills, but Chad makes good use of the elevation changes that he has. I like that there were true par 4's and even a par 5. I'm anti-mando in general, but I thought the two mandos were reasonable. What I mean to say is that they weren't a gimmick: they just forced you to play the hole along the fairway and weren't the thing that made the hole the hole if that makes sense.
The care and attention was evident everywhere. All of the paths were very obvious. The little signs on the baskets pointing you in the right direction, even when it wasn't necessary, were great. The landscaping wasn't over-the-top but added to the experience. Not even a cigarette butt on the ground. Just fantastic.
Cons:
I would call the below "negatively-tinged thoughts" more than cons. It truly is a gorgeous course.
A couple of times it was pretty hard to see/find the baskets. The signs for the holes give good footage and sometimes have extra information, but on more than one drive I was surprised to see where the basket actually was. I suspect that Chad made a conscious choice not to put flags on the baskets, but in some cases it might help. (I played 9-10 holes on the green course and the green baskets were very hard to see on most of the holes.)
While the fairways are by and large very fun and fair, there were a couple of what I call "gotcha" trees. You're on the teebox, you can see the fairway and the line you have to hit, and then there's just one tree right in the middle of the line. I think these ultimately detract from the course since the fairway is asking you to hit a line and then punishing you anyway. This happened to me a few times and left a sour taste in my mouth.
I mentioned this in the pros section, but I think there's an inherent con to it as well. There just isn't much risk/reward or agency. What you see from the teebox is what you get. You've gotta hit the lines and hit 'em well or you're going to throw a par or a bogey. I don't think there's anything wrong with that if a course does the fairways well (and Chains Edge does them very well), but I do love some risk/reward in my disc golf.
Most of the "action" is off the teepad. There aren't many protected baskets on the red course. So, if you hit your line off the box then you're likely looking at a good shot at a birdie. To be honest, I think that's fair: we like to be rewarded for good shots. But I think there's something to be said for a basket that has protection within 50-60 feet.
Other Thoughts:
I typically don't like to review a course until I've played it at least a few times, but with only 7 reviews at the time of writing, I think it's worthwhile to add my two cents.
Playing on a private property course can be hit or miss. Chad has really put his heart and soul into this course. When I played it, he was on his ATV cruising around working on teepads and the like. I could hear him all over the place, but he still took the time to chat with me a couple of times. He even humored me by looking at my score and patting me on the back "Good job, buddy." Paying $8 felt like a steal, to be honest. Chad told me he used to work at Blue Ribbon Pines until he got his hands on this property. The style and grace of BRP is very evident on this property.
I like to end my reviews by imagining what kind of a player I would be if this were my home course. This is a tricky question to answer since there are three full courses on this property. Focusing just on the red course: My accuracy at all distances would have to go way up. It's not just tight fairways off the teebox. The par 4's and the par 5 had me carefully shaping shots to make good progress. In addition, all of my throws would improve. I didn't throw a tomahawk, but I did throw a mid-range roller or two. However, I could've easily been in a situation where that was necessary. I used most of the discs in my bag. I think that even if you had a great round, consistently hitting the fairways, that you would end up using a lot of different plastic.
This is an incredible piece of property. I visit my mother-in-law down in Cambridge (about 30 mins away) about once a year. I will definitely return. For those of you who don't have a reason to be so close, I strongly recommend setting up a trip and playing all the courses on the property. The camping looked like a good setup, so an overnight could be a great time.
With the blue course at a 3.5 for me, the green a 3.75, and the red a 4.5, I think I would give the entire property and experience a solid 4.25. That's more than the average of the 3 courses. At $8, it's such a good value to be able to have such different experiences on a well-maintained course. I solidly recommend Chain's Edge.