Pros:
1) Excellent distance variation on this course with a few short reachable holes, some that will require a drive and an upshot to get close, and some that will take a few drives to get there. I love it when you have to be able to throw everything iny our bag and all shots on one course, and this is one of those courses.
2) This course uses the trees on the golf course very well to define fairways and also provide some obstacles. There are plenty of trees that come into play and that surprised me a little bit, but because this is an old course the trees are mature and can be much more of an impact. The design did a lot of running between golf fairways or crossing golf fairways so you start in the trees and end in the trees on the other side of the golf fairway. This is essential to being a well designed course on a golf course.
3) The design of this course does not surprise me in the least . . . Steve West is a ver analytical designer and probably did dozens of calculations to figure out specifics of the layout. The course basically plays 18 holes on a 9 hole golf course. While 9 holes of golf typically take 2 to 2 1/2 hours to play 18 holes of disc golf takes somewhere between 1 to 1 1/2 hours. What this tells me is the course was designed specifically to not disturb the golfers on the course. Disc golf is secondary to golf in this world (as it should be because of the costs associated with golf versus disc golf) and they didn't want the golfers to be disturbed or slowed down by disc golfers. If anything . . . the disc golfers should have to wait for golfers. I think there may have actually been room for a few more holes to tighten the gap up since the disc golfers will play much faster than the golfers. We actually had 3 disc golfers (2 rec or lower level and 1 intermediate level) and we were holding up the 2-some of golfers behind us for the first 4 golf holes, but eventually we pulled away. If the golf group were to have been a 4-some we never would have slowed them down except on the first hole.
4) Nice powder coated baskets with Blue and Yellow. They catch well and look great.
5) Nice # sign attached to the basket at basket level. It does not affect play at all but is very helpful to decipher what basket you are supposed to throw at. You can easily see the # on the sign from most of the tees (except the really long ones). This helps navigation and also speeds up the disc golfers.
6) Recycled plastic posts mark the tees and a color coded per each tee. There are also two small discs inserted into the ground to mark the tee area. They are also color coded so you know what tee you are on.
7) Incredibly nice looking signs (Equivalent to the nicest golf signs I have ever seen). They are made from the recycled plastic and show the Hole #, Par, and Distance of each hole (albeit it in yards and not feet). No map of the holes unfortunately but do the job for sure.
8) Some nice rolling elevation changes on this course.
9) Using the golf fairways is a way to get more distance if you know how to throw rollers. Since I learned the roller I have always wanted to throw rollers on a lush golf fairway, unfortunately I forgot my roller disc at home on this trip. Ahh what could have been.
9) Dual pins on the entire course to cut down on wear and also change up the variety of the shots from time to time. I like this idea for functionality as well as variety.
10) Low branches on the trees might be considered a hinderance to golfers, but they act to force really tight low shots or force you to go out and around trees. There might be more options if the branches were ever limbed up, but I like that it forces you to really think.
11) Carts are available and a beer cart on occasion. What more could you ask for on a disc golf course. . . oh yeah a nice clubhouse with refreshments afterwards. Check!
12) $5 to play is a deterrant to the douchiest of disc golfers which is good. I am all for it if it means we can have more courses and a better variety of courses to play!
13) Next tee signs hanging from the underside of the baskets . . . and they have one for each tee and are color coded!!! Awesome
14) Mandos are used well to protect golf greens, the safety of the golfers and the disc golfers, and are appropriate when used. They are not shown on the course, but they are discussed on the
15) Scorecards!!!!
Cons:
1) While the design incorporated most of the trees well, I still prefer more wooded courses or at least more variety of the density of the woods. Here it is what I would consider mostly open with a smattering of trees.
2) No maps on the course signs. Always a negative in my mind even if the signs are super nice. I like to see the general layout of each hole before throwing.
3) It might be considered a little dangerous with golfers and disc golfers intermingling. We had two balls come very close to us, one from the group behind us playing golf not waiting long enough fo us to leave Our green area, which was off in the rough so they probably couldnt even see us, and another from a group on an adjacent holes hat missed their fairway and ended up in between two golf fairways right where our basket was. I would hate to think a golf or disc golfer would ever get really hurt out here for fear the course might be shut down. This is something I am going to address in my designs on golf courses and having a decade of experience on golf course management and being a pretty good golfer will help me to be sure to avoid the common spray areas of the golf ball as well as the discs.
4) Grass tees are always a negative, but they picked flat and level spots at least. They are in perfect condition which means this course is not played all that often. Considering we were the only disc golfers at 7:30 on a saturday morning mixed with only 20 golfers I would guess this is a perfect place to intermingle disc golf with golf.
5) Technicality is missing on many holes. Just throw your longest drive whatever direction you want and then approach from there. I played the blues, so maybe the reds would have been more technical for me and the golds would have simply added longer throws and distance to the blue tees, it wouldnt have altered the holes much.
Other Thoughts:
This is now my third disc golf course set on a golf course that I have played. The first two were closed to golfers when we played so some issues are non-existant at that time, but when intermingling disc golf with golf has its ups and downs. I hope to account for all of these things in my disc golf course designs.