Pros:
I think this was one my most anticipated course ever. When I heard that Chau Ram State park was going to have a course, i began to dance, couldn't WAIT for it. Because this course is in a gorgeous park with a beautiful river flowing through with amazing views, we had such high hopes. Too bad they couldn't use that side of the park for the course. Sigh.
I was apprehensive about the wooden-deck tees. I FEARED slipping on them. Luckily it was dry with almost no humidity, so they were nice and grippy. Some were nearly a foot off the ground and that really messed with my brains targeting software. Something about having the ground 6-12" below my feet left me feeling unsettled. But the tees were solid as a rock, didn't move, budge, sway etc. We found that in dry conditions they were very stable.
I'm not saying Navigation was easy, but Stevie Wonder could have found his way around the course. Super easy, nice signage, almost no places were hard to figure out where to go.
And for a new-ish course, I think there were no brush piles, no real thickets to lose a disc in. In fact, even if you got way off the fairway (which is very possible here), we really had no problems finding our discs and sometimes had lines back to the fairway.
Cons:
When we stepped up to the first tee were were like "this has great potential!" And we felt that way through the first eight holes (some really nice variation in them!), but started to notice a trend on #9 - so many fairways had no direct line to the basket. And I don't mind having to throw a short placement shot to have a line for the basket, but not a fan of multiple shots this way. I want to get on the tee, see the line presented, and attack. I feel short-changed if I toss a putter or a soft flick, then attack.
And after hole #9 the course began a series of 'throw over the valley', 'throw over the valley again' and 'Throw over the valley again and again'. Once, twice, fine, but by the time we hit the 3rd one, we were like, 'c'mon, throw something different at us!'
I normally do a break down of every hole, but many of the holes were so similar, that they all ran together in my head. And I don't think there was any one hole that we went, "Now this is golf!" and was memorable. There were all 'okay' but none were great.
You discover on the back 9 that you basically throw up hill, up hill, up hill, to throw down hill...wash, rinse, repeat. We were so tired of the repeating holes it almost got depressing. Now, there was some variations in them. Some you threw hyzer, some anhyzer, but it seemed to be the same overall design to the point that we longed to see #18 just to be done.
And it also seemed that so many of the greens became 'poke-and-hope' with trees guarding the target. Now, I - once again - don't mind this. But after awhile your're tired of throwing shots and just hoping to penetrate enough to have a putt.
Other Thoughts:
If you have knee issues, aren't 925 rated or above, or have a solid 3 years under your belt, stay off this course. Two of us were advanced players and love challenging courses, but had decided half-way through that we probably weren't coming back. I love challenges, one of my favorite courses is Nevin in Charlotte. Course eats me alive, but I love it because its fair. I just didn't get the warm and fuzzies with Chauga Rapids.