Pros:
Enka High School is a pleasant addition to the Nature Trail family of courses. I wasn't sure what to expect with the dual-tee pad layout. What I got was a nice round of disc golf on a Saturday afternoon.
- This is a nice, beginner-friendly layout. There are an array of enjoyable holes, with some being potential ace runs (#1, 6, 10 & 17), some offering a decent degree of challenge (at least when it comes to making birdie - #12, 16 & 18) and others presenting a good risk/reward challenge, especially for those who get too aggressive (#8, 11, 14 & 15). This variety will present a good challenge to all lower-level skilled players.
- For such a small plot of land, I was impressed at the variety of hole layouts. There are holes with an elevation factor (#1, 5, 8 among others), holes that have tight fairways (#4, 5, 11, 16 & 17), ones with wider fairways (3, 10, 12 & 17) and others with doglegs (3, 4, 7, 15 & 16).
- Good course to practice the mid-range game. I never pulled out driver on the course. The longest hole is #12 at 372 feet. The only other hole that played long is #18. It's listed at 283, but is clearly longer - tee pad is more than 60 feet behind #11 (it's dual-tee counterpart) and it plays slight uphill.
- Great tee signs. As is the standard for Nature Trail courses, I'm a big fan of these descriptive signs that feature a picture of the hole (along with a highlighted line showing the route to the basket), a disc golf tip and a bit of nature knowledge. Kids, just think. You can learn while playing disc golf.
Cons:
The obvious drawback to the course is that the course overlaps with seven baskets being used for 14 of the holes. Not only that, but other holes play so close to each other. As an example, I teed off on #1 right in front of a duo. After finishing the hole, I had to wait for them to throw their tee shots before I could safely throw my tee shot. This is all attributed to having too many holes in such a small space.
- Navigation can be tricky for first-timers and/or people without a map. There are multiple times on the course where after finishing one hole, you walk past other tee pads to get to the correct one. I got stuck behind a family who were following a logical progression around the course rather than the confusing, numerical one.
- Course would be extremely difficult to play if there were many other disc golfers on the course. Between all the issues above, you'd have long waits on tee pads while also having to watch for stray discs from other holes. There were only two other groups playing, in addition to myself and the aforementioned family, and it was seeming crowded enough. This isn't a course where you can easily skip a hole to pass a slow group because you could easily get stuck behind another group playing the alternative tee on the same basket.
Other Thoughts:
Enka High School won't be everyone's cup of tea. It'll be too easy for some. Others won't like the layout and/or the potential confusion. Still it serves a purpose in the disc golf course spectrum and it could be good for a change of pace. I wouldn't play here often if this were in my hometown, but it would be good for the occasional visit.
- There are enough enjoyable holes here that it kept my interest throughout. Granted, a lot of holes lost their luster after playing them from a different tee pad. That recipe works well, for some reason, for Park Circle in North Charleston, SC. It doesn't work as well here.
- This is a course you can play carrying only a couple of discs. As I mentioned above, I never used a driver, so the ones in my bag ended up being extra weight I was lugging around.
- Taking everything into consideration, I'm giving this course a 2.0 rating. That's slightly below average; but, considering this is a short course with limited space and seven shared baskets, this course probably overachieves with those limitations. Given more space with 18 unique baskets, this could have been an enjoyable course.