A demanding test of your abilities as a disc golfer, physically and mentally. On a nice variety of open and wooded holes, you'll be required to through demanding straight shots, hyzers through tight gaps, turnovers through tight windows, and careful hyzer flips or flexes to hit small landing zones. Requires distance, accuracy, shot-shaping, and knowing the flights of your discs to absolute perfection.

UPDATE 2019 Oct - Just played the new gold layout, put in for the 2019 DGPT Championship. I'm bumping up my rating by a half-star.
+ The new gold 13, which uses old 14's teepad and plays up old 15's fairway, is an outstanding addition, and is now my favorite hole on the course.
+ The new gold 14 is basically a par 3 version of old 14's second shot, and plays much better that way.
+ Old hole 9 is not part of this layout, hallelujah! Good riddance to that gimmicky hole.
+ A few pin locations have been changed shorter or longer, and for the most part I like most of these changes.

I find this course to be frustrating and unpleasant to play. Most people seem to disagree with me, so I'll do my best to explain why I think so, trying to be as objective as possible. Some of this inevitably delves into personal feelings and philosophies on course design.
- Holes 5-7 run alongside the entrance road, which is pretty much always full of slow-driving cars. There's also typically picnickers, walkers, birthday parties, etc. on the edges of these holes, plus on Hole 4. Not only are there safety issues here, but they are also just distracting and un-peaceful, not what I'd associate with a top-level course.
- Quite a few holes feature highly elevated baskets, and to me in these cases, this is just lazy design. For a few, the elevation is completely unnecessary, and are overly punitive on holes that are already difficult as-is (ex: Hole 17). Then on Hole 9, this stupid-simple hole is overly-compensated for by the exaggerated height of the basket (update - this hole is not part of the newer gold layout, hooray!). A 'perfect' drive under the basket suddenly has no angle for a putt, and then what do you do? At least lower the basket a foot or two, but even then this is not a good hole, and I'd prefer something entirely different.
- A number of the Par 4s feature a relatively straight tee-shot, followed by a near-90-degree dogleg, then a long alley to the basket. Examples include holes 3, 10, 12, 14 (update: replaced by gold 13, which is much more attackable and much better), and 17. This is not a design that I'm in favor of. There is no way to cut the corners on these doglegs, and most people's tee-shots will come up short of the corners, or be slightly off-angle. This then essentially requires a lay-up to perfect position on the corner, and given how long the second alleys are, practically guarantees a bogey at best for many players. This is related to the principle of preferring early gaps to late gaps, but in this case, it's not just a late gap, it's an entire late fairway that must be carefully positioned for. This design is overly demanding and punitive, and to have it repeated so many times is unwelcome, exasperating, and uncreative.
- Tournament hole 2 on the island is certainly better than the permanent hole 2, but it's still not that great. The basket is tucked too far into the trees, and there are too many low-hanging limbs. Plenty of good-looking shots get caught by branches or take a tree kick, and end up in the water.

UPDATE 2019 Oct - Just played the new gold layout, put in for the 2019 DGPT Championship. I'm bumping up my rating by a half-star, but most of the above cons still apply, and I'm still lower on this course than most others. In addition,
- Gold 15 is the new gauntlet hole, with a mando and an unbelievably tight gap off the tee, and it just feels too gimmicky to me. Some players may elect to just jump-putt off the tee to make the gap, and that doesn't seem fun. Curious to see how the pros play it, but it's hard to imagine anyone consistently running it for birdie.

I've never played well at this course, casually or competitively, which I've always blamed on what I see as serious design issues. I'll concede that perhaps I'm just projecting my personal failures onto the course. But I do think these design issues are valid, and even putting those aside, I just don't really like most of these holes, and I've never enjoyed playing the course. None of these holes would make my Charlotte 18. It surprises me that so many players love this place, and I have a very hard time understanding those positive feelings. I've done my best to be reasonable and open-minded before playing and before presenting my criticisms, but I do want them to be on the record for this course. I'd rather play Nevin 100 times before coming back, but I inevitably will, just to give it another shot.

UPDATE 2019 Oct - Just played the new gold layout, put in for the 2019 DGPT Championship. I'm bumping up my rating by a half-star, mostly because I like gold 13 and 14 so much, and because old 9 was removed. Gold 13 would certainly make my Charlotte 18, so at least there's one or two holes I really like now. Though it's an improvement, there's still 4 or 5 Charlotte courses that I prefer.

(This is primarily a Nest layout critique)

One of my very favorite courses has been resurrected, this will not suck. Oh, the warm and fuzzies of Nest's yesteryear washed over me like an alcoholic relapse. If you're looking for classic, technical, balanced park-style disc golf than you have found it here on this holy ground.

The Nest is basically the shorter, kinder version of the Web but there's no shortage of venom in its stinger. For the most part, you're going to have to earn your deuces, either with good distance on the 300'+ wooded bad boys, putting prowess on the short holes with those fiendishly tall elevated baskets or by setting up your shots on the exquisitely designed Par 4's. Elevation change isn't substantial but it slopes enough to roll away putts on many and bother footing on others. Nest is more balanced than a tight-rope walker with low blood pressure with literally almost everything you could ask for save mountain holes or water carries. Holes entirely in the woods, holes in and out of woods, and open holes all challenge in their own ways.

The tee signs tell you all you need to know and next tee signs are everywhere to direct you and differentiate from the Web and Nest layouts. New tees are perfectly placed and poured and the old tees are holding up fine. Not a bench at every tee yet but at most.

In its day Hornet's Nest was a destination course but despite the phoenix rising from the ashes it still shows some signs of age. I'm a tough critic, especially regarding safety, so this is where Nest is bittersweet for me. Hole 2 is pretty close to a walking path. Hole 4 is near a ball field and a path and you could easily spill into a parking lot if you overshoot the hole. Hole 5 now has a blind corner with that new pavilion thing on the right, plus the old road along the left and the basket is just in front of a sidewalk and pond. Hole 6 and 7 have the same road issues. The back 9 has no such issues though as you get away from the shared spaces of the park and more into the DG exclusive woods.

Navigation can be rough at times. Decent hike to hole 2 which at the date of this writing has no discernible tee except the tee for tourneys only. Another long walk to the back 9 and if you're playing Nest you'll pass two Web tees before you get to your #10 tee. Flow is intuitive after that but worth mentioning, the red/yellow color scheme of next tee arrows that differentiates Web and Nest layouts flip-flops on hole 11 or so.

Design-wise I can't complain about much. Par seems very accurate and most holes seem strong. All the par 4's seem legitimate and not the dreaded 'tweener Par 3.5s that plague so many courses. The Par 3's are stout, only the elevated basket holes on the front 9, hole 4 and maybe hole 11, 13, and maybe 15 could suffer some Par 2 scoring (I savor the birdie opportunities though). Hole 2 smacks of filler hole for sure but I get the impression it's the best lemonade they could make with lemons. Hole 16 is the only hole I don't really like. I don't think the fairways are quite wide enough to reward skill as much as luck.

So my rating seems fairly harsh considering my obvious man-crush on this course. I tried to rate it on the totality of the course in relation with modern standards and the competition nearby in the Queen City as well as beyond, so as not to fall into the homeboy bias trap. I'd give this course a 3.75 in a heartbeat and my arm could be twisted into a 4, indubitably. But this is what I'm giving it, for now.

Ignore my rating though. This course is a master craft of design and squeezes out every fathomable drop of quality the park and terrain offers. It's no longer the airbrushed super model pinup course associated in the top 10 or so but it's easily the course you wife up in a heartbeat with nary a regret.