Pros:
This course has undergone many improvements: concrete tee pads on some holes/well kept natural tees on others, excellent signage at every tee, markers showing the direction to the next hole & boards placed along paths where it tends to be marshy.
As other reviewers have stated, this course is definitely a 'one of a kind' experience for PA disc golf with the scarred, mars-like landscape.
Many 'blind' drives - but the lack of overgrowth vegetation (which seems to thrive at most other PA courses in the summer) helps keep searching for your disc to a minimum - only if you're careful with your placement!
Francis E. Walter Dam will make you use some unorthodox shots and challenge your mental game if you're not accustomed to 'conforming' to a course.
Cons:
Monotonous! The rocky, alien, scarred landscape thing gets old. When I arrived, I was the 3rd car in the lot (there was a group of 3 just finishing their round and a pair on hole #5). When I left, there was a group of 3 walking to hole #4 and one person practicing drives on hole 1. This course won't bring in the crowds.
Other Thoughts:
First review full disclosure:
I began playing DG in '98, stopped in '03 and started again in '07. I haven't played this course in over 7 years but played it at least a half dozen times previously.
Comments:
The cons being stated, I really like this course. It's definitely different - I'll give it that. Today, for the first time ever, I threw a tomahawk for a drive...and then proceeded to throw one again and again - with reasonable success. That's how different this course is for us Greater Eastern Pennsylvania disc golfers. We're used to well defined, hardwood fairways with very large - even boulder sized rocks. Not randomly scattered pines & wildflowers accompanied by water-starved scrubs on top of a landscape of reddish dirt and small rocks.
Before playing Francis E. Walter Dam, I played Hickory Run State Park and the contrast was striking: I couldn't keep count of how many people were on the course - from locals, to families, couples, general park goers and the like.
It's obvious which Pocono region course is the most popular and which course is the outcast.
That being said, the Bearclaws give Francis E. Walter Dam much love and if you're playing anywhere in the region, please give the course a visit & write a concise and honest review!