Pros:
The Pender Island course consists of a series of 3 nine hole loops which wrap around a large rock-laden hill. The front 9 (with tone targets) plays up and down the center hill and offers the most rugged, rocky terrain in the park along with the shortest bunch of holes. The second 9 (baskets) plays along and down the north slope of the hill and offers moderately rugged terrain and has probably the most tightly treed fairways. The final 9 (baskets) was in our opinion the most complete group of the three and offers huge elevation changes, tightly treed fairways, a couple of longer holes, and much more accommodating dirt teeing areas.
Hole highlight: I'd like to highlight the 27th hole at Pender for an example of what you'll find here. From the tee, you have a high-angle uphill throw from a short rock-lined tee at the very base of the rock hill. Several windows are available off the tee through 3 decent gaps in the moderately treed fairway. Choose one, check your feet for your 1 or 2 step run-up, and rip one up the hill. If you've managed to miss the trees, your disc will be playing plinko over the rocks high above you - hopefully it snags a crag and sticks 50-60' above the tee with a view or putt to the pin which is set in the center of a large old madrona tree and sports a dangerous sheer drop just off basket left. Keep an eye out here for the final resting place of your disc if you can because there are many crevices and hidey holes not apparent until you are on the hill searching. As you pick your way up the rock wall, be careful of dislodging debris onto those below you and make sure your footing is sound so you and your fellow group mates can enjoy another round!
Course aura - Families, seniors, and casual golfers abound here and really give this course a strong feeling of neighborhood "connectedness". Everyone is extremely friendly and always ready to point out a lost disc or direct you to the next hole. A small clubhouse, putting area, and picnic tables serve as a focal gathering point at the start and finish of all 3 loops.
Ruggedness - This course is just downright off the rugged chart, maybe not Diamond X, but definitely more than just about any PNW course I've played. You'll see discs take some of the strangest skips, jams, bounces, and rolls out here. Just be prepared to laugh off the bad luck and check your footing.
Navigation - You'll find really cool homemade painted rock tees on each hole with distances (in meters) and basket direction painted on each one. Navigation is pretty easy from start to finish.
Maintenance - With as many people who play here, one of the striking things about this course is the complete absence of garbage, bottle caps, cigarette butts; you can really tell everyone takes care of this park. There are garbage cans at several of the tees and all bottles SHOULD be left in the club house because course funds are raised through bottle returns.
Other Thoughts:
Overall: One of the most fun courses I think that I've ever played and certainly worth the experience from Seattle to come play.
Costs and logistics: I just wanted to post for other out-of-towners how we got here and what it ended up costing to make this day of golf happen.
We drove from Seattle to Tsawwassen (South Vancouver) to take the ~3 hour ferry over to Pender Island (Otter Bay). We decided to leave the car behind because of the exorbitant cost of transporting it and parked it at one of the pay lots near the ferry terminal (it cost us $11 CAN for the day and included a shuttle trip to/from the terminal). The ferry itself was nice and not too expensive (~$20 CAN per person).
After arriving at Otter Bay, take a right onto the main road and walk for a ¼ mile to the first right. Walk to the bottom of the hill to a small shop which rents bikes and scooters. We opted for the scooter which ended up costing $95 CAN for 4 hours (plenty of time for a round or two). If you rent a bike, be prepared for some very hilly travel and leave plenty of time to get to the course. Finally, make sure to get a good map because the street names change often and there isn't any signage to get you to the disc golf course.
Be careful because there are a very limited number of ferries going to and leaving from the island each day - definitely make a plan in advance. We left on the Sunday 9:40am ferry and returned on the 7:40pm ferry and finally arrived home in Seattle around 2am. We knew this ahead of time but it might be a rude awakening for the unprepared!
Total cost without gas or food: ~$126 Canadian