Paul Kinder is a surprisingly difficult course that features OB, long woods shots, a lot of opportunity for danger, and a really good amount of variety. It you have a map, navigation is pretty easy, with markers on some baskets directing you to the next tee, and some arrows on trees near tees in the woods.

Every hole provides some challenge, and you can't really ever relax. Even when you're not in the woods, you're thinking about OB, long distances, or a really wide hyzer line whose distance may be hard to judge. Few school courses manage to do anything like this, and I'm glad to see someone had the courage to design a course like this.

While there aren't any proper doglegs, there are a lot of slightly different fairway shapes, and having both backhand and forehand is really useful. The woods or places to avoid are generally on the right side of the fairway (though sometimes on both sides of the fairway), but you sometimes want to hug the right side or start to one side and finish on the other.

A couple of standout holes. Hole 5 is long and has you playing through a gap at the end of the fairway, hole 7 is a touchy downhill woods shot, and hole 11 seems fairly straightforward but has a lot of danger if you don't get all the way to the basket in 1. All three of these would be world-class holes if the tees were better and maybe a few weeds were cleaned up.

Some effort was clearly put into this course, but the maintenance isn't great. Weeds are prevalent if you get off the fairway in the woods, and sometimes even in the fairway. The basket of hole 13 is the worst. And once you get away from the school itself, there's no telling how tall the grass will be. I'm glad a few holes are pretty rocky rather than grassy so there's less grass.

There are a lot of blind shots and weird fairway shapes. If it's your first time, you may be walking down the fairway on several holes. In some cases, the wrong shot selection off the tee could cause major problems. Holes 6, 14, and 15 don't have good enough gaps that I can see, though they are all short enough that if you do find the right line, you may be able to get the birdie.

Some holes just don't feel right for what seems to be the level of difficulty this course was made for. I don't think this was meant to be a super difficult course, but unless you have a lot of power to make some crazy lines, a few holes don't seem to give a proper challenge. Holes 3 and 4 just opposites of each other, and a few holes might be tweener holes. Maybe I'm expecting something different just because this is a school course, but I really think the various holes on the course don't fit together so well.

Roads, parking lots, and fences come into play on several holes, namely 1-4 and 17-18. I like the OB challenge on 17, but playing 200 feet on a parking lot on 1 and throwing around the school building is just lazy design. I really think an excellent nine-hole course could have been made if a few holes were removed, or maybe replace those holes with a few more in the woods around holes 6-10.

I'm actually not sure why this course is here. It's not a good course for beginners, like most school courses are, but its maintenance and quality of equipment doesn't match the difficulty. I still recommend anyone to come here if you're in the area, but I don't think this will be a home course for many.

The basket of 8 is raised. It's cool, but I would have chosen a different hole for a raised pin.

The extra baskets don't help much. The practice basket doubles as a long pin for two holes, but I prefer the short pins on those. There is also an extra basket near holes 13 and 14 that could be a long pin for something, but I'm not sure what. Maybe there's some sort of 9-hole layout in some of the open areas that would be a little more beginner-friendly.

Lots of distance to be found here. For a middle school course I'm surprised at the amount of distance and creativity that was available. There was unused land around the school and the minds that designed this course did it well.

Several unique holes make this course more challenging than it looks at first glance. 8 is a blind left-finisher, and hole 10 is it's mirror. 9, 13, and 15 are tough greens to access, 6 and 7 are both difficult shaped tunnel shots, and 18 with it's OB danger all the way down the right of 540' fairway is a great finish.

16 of the 18 holes tee from rubber mats which are in good condition, and the other two tee from solid pavement. All baskets are in very good condition.

A few holes have alternate pins. Holes 3 and 12 can be played to the practice basket, while holes 11-14 can all be played to an alternate pin that sits in the middle of a field.

A few decent elevation changes are present around the course. 3, 7, and 11 all drop a decent amount, and 6 and 14 go uphill.

Hole 5 is a great hole. It's reachable, but a miss will leave you a long way down the hill, stuck behind some trees, or with a tricky left to right upshot. An accurate drive is your only shot at the 2.

Hole 16 is a simple dink left-to-right hyzer, but the trees in the way leave you just enough room to get overconfident and miss short or long. There's also a line-drive option, but the risk of smashing into a tree is pretty high.

Some wonky navigation spots. First off, hole 1 tees from the parking lot. And not just the edge. Right in the middle of the parking spots at an angle. 1 to 2 and 3 to 4 would be difficult without a map, and coming back down the fairway on 2 and 17 to get to the next tee is a bit annoying, especially as those are holes that cross the road.

I only have two holes that I feel are "bad."
- Hole 4 runs along a steep slope that turns to the right. It feels like you're playing around the back of a baseball field, and with the fence on top of the hill your only good option is a strong right finish.
- Hole 14 has two or three too many little trees in the way off the tee, and then the sharp incline just past the trees is almost impossible to get on top of in one.

The only other knock on the holes is the glaring lack of obstacles on a few. Hole 12 is wide open with just the football field way off to the left as the only "danger," hole 13 is flat and open as your only target is to land in a good enough spot to get through the tree gap, and hole 17 doesn't have much to fight with except a fairly easy-to-beat road.

The back end of the property (holes 8-11) all play semi-close to each other, and teeing off of 18 you will cross the fairway of 17. Not huge issues, but enough to talk about.

A field trip to this course is a must. You'll need supplies to hit a few strange shot shapes, and a chair to sit in after you get put in detention by some of these trees. Don't fail to let the teaching help you graduate to bigger and better courses. But definitely give this course a try and have fun getting schooled.

(In all honesty if the school were to run a tournament as a fundraiser, I would definitely go, and I wouldn't say that about most school courses I've played.)