Pros:
Hiestand Park is a comprehensively above average city parks course that covers all the bases well.
1) Dual Tees & Pins - Every hole has two concrete tees (except hole 3, which has a single tee), which are all suitably large and pretty grippy, as well as one Am (red) and Pro (blue) basket per hole. Thus, the variety of golf you can experience is very good - the am to am configuration is littered with ace runs galore, the pro to pro configuration will give a stiff test to your length & accuracy, and mixing and matching the above will yield a different round entirely. Pro baskets are all new blue banded DISCatchers, and the Am baskets are red powder coated Mach 5(?)'s, all in good condition. All tees had good signage showing hole length and pin locations.
2) Seclusion & Navigation: The part of the park that the disc golf course occupies is nearly 100% DG exclusive - there looked like a walking trail that came kind of nearby a few times, and a badly shanked drive on a few of the early holes may get entangled with other park uses, but this is a disc golf centric park for the most part. Hole to hole transitions were mostly no-brainers, and the only ones that were even semi counter-intuitive had next tee signs clearly directing you where to go.
3) Beauty & Maintenance: I may be emphasizing this because I played in mid color change fall, but goodness, the course was absolutely beautiful this time of year. Some of the wooded corridors you will shoot down look like what you will see in professional nature photos. It follows that the maintenance of fairways and rough on this course is mostly very good - as on any wooded course, you'll be doing some weed-whacking if you really shank one, but the fairways are generally quite well-defined (no real "poke and pray" holes!), and you shouldn't be spending a ton of time looking for shots that only get into the edges of the rough. I don't remember seeing much, if any trash, laying around.
4) Elevation: Hiestand plays on and around a large hill, so elevation comes prominently into play on many holes, which is cool. Hole 5's pro basket, in particular, plays on top of a sizeable ridge with a retaining wall beneath it.
5) Extras: Community board and a pair of practice baskets by tee #1, and nice stone benches/trash cans by many, if not all tees. Plenty of shaded areas and benches under the tree canopy for hot days.
Cons:
Mostly nitpicks, but Hiestand does have some limitations.
1) No single signature moment: Hiestand does just about everything very well, but nothing superlatively well. There's no Silver Fox Hole 17 here. The closest thing I can come to a "signature hole" is 3's downhill bomb (to be fair, it is a cool hole!), and even that type of hole is not terribly uncommon in this area.
2) Parking: Can't really fault the course designers here, but there only street parking here. I played just a bit before dusk when there were few other players on the course, so it wasn't a major problem for me, but I understand Hiestand is often pretty crowded, and I can see parking being an absolute nightmare if you've got a group every other hole on the course.
3) Bugs: Even on a cool fall evening, there were still insane swarms of mosquitos in places. This can't be fun to deal with in the height of summer.
4) Pro/Am Basket Spacing: The red and blue baskets were awfully close to each other on a handful of holes. 18 was the worst offender - IIRC, a gray ace on either pin would still have you attempting a putt inside the circle at the other basket. A few holes could have used some more spacing between basket locations to avoid having them both play as a nearly identical hole.
Other Thoughts:
A quick note regarding P2P: I will personally attest to this: Before playing this course in October of 2019, it had been a decade+ since the last time I played Hiestand (it was free then), and one thing that struck me is that the general condition of the course in that timeframe has improved substantially. I can tell the P2P $$$ is being returned to the course. I'd happily pay the $40 (I think?) annual pass if I lived in Madison (I do so for the Milwaukee County Parks courses), and while I don't love dropping $5 spots to go thru single plays of city park courses, this is one I can live with.
There was also what appeared to be a disc golf shop across the street, which is cool too. I wasn't in need of anything, but that's a nice amenity to have if you need it.
Overall, Hiestand is a delighful course that scores highly across the board, and while I'll stop short of calling it a true destination course that you need to come and play no matter the travel, it's worth a play and the drive if you're within a 100 or so mile radius. Price of admission also entitles you to play at fellow Madison course Elver Park, as well, if you want to make a day of discing in Mad-Town.