Pros:
18 hole course carved out of a wooded plot in the southern edge of the Adirondacks.
- Devotion - Morgan took this course from blank slate and basically designed and built this on his own - felled trees, removed/burned (controlled) brush, moved boulders, dragged concrete tee pads - you name it, he did it himself
- Private course, so $5 donation is strongly encouraged to help continued upkeep and improvements
- Practice basket right near parking/hole #1
- Beautiful wooded course with a variety of hole types - many short tight holes, which are challenging and rewarding if you hit the line (#1, #3, #11, #18, etc.) - open drive holes gives you room to stretch your arm out (#5, #12, #15, #17, etc.)
- Elevation really comes into play - you get to tackle multiple uphill and downhill drives and approaches - combined with numerous trees and right/left turns makes for wonderful challenges
- Signature holes - some courses are lucky to have 1 hole that you clearly remember and look forward to playing, well...this course has 2 of them! With all due respect to the entire course (I love holes 1, 5, 13, 15), holes #12 (essentially a DG driving range, with an elevated tee, 600' of a wide open field, complete with distance markers painted on boulders, then a cool approach over a boulder filled creek to an elevated pin in a wooded cove) and #16 (wind your way down a tight, challenging fairway to eventually be greeted by the coolest pin I've come across, which is set in stones in the middle of the gentle creek, which is not so wide/deep/fast that a missed or errant throw would make you lose a disc)
- You don't have all of the short holes right in a row or all of the big open holes right in a row
- Concrete tees create consistent, even footing
- Excellent tee signs, with great info and distances
- Baskets have a bit of variety, but are all in good shape
- "Next tee" signs create very easy navigation
- Seating/benches
- Very little, to no, trash
- This course makes you work and improve your game - until playing this course, I didn't have to worry about a power uphill hyzer or the importance of laser lines through tight alleys - a par 3 hole can turn into a 5 or 6 quickly without finesse here
Cons:
Not much and dwarfed by the pros:
- While the concrete pads are nice and certainly better than bumpy dirt/gravel, since they mostly sit an inch or 2 above grade (intentional to avoid water pooling/freezing), the small size makes a larger runup difficult for people who want/need it
- While the "new new" hole #17 (long tee) is very fun and challenging, your drive goes headfirst into the second half of #12's fairway, which could be a problem if someone from #12 is out of sight in the brush looking for their errant drive - some delays/spotters needed on crowded days or tourneys - also, the "walk" from the tee down to the creek is a bit cumbersome
- Hole #18 kind of takes you away from the parking lot, so you actually have to backtrack down the fairway once you're done (it's a short hole, though)
- Bridges and stone walkways over the creek are not incredibly sturdy
Other Thoughts:
- Course map not on site, but it is available on the website and navigation is pretty easy anyway
- 2nd half of fairway #17 is a bit rough, since it was only recently carved out - soon enough, everything will be dead and trampled down
- Not much parking (save the land for quality DG holes), but not a problem on regular days - can be crowded for tourneys, so please car pool
- Bring bug spray during warm/muggy months
This course really in a gem in the Adirondacks. The course itself is varied, challenging and fun, but the real impressive thing is how it was just carved out from nothing (or burned out - check out the videos on youtube), rather than having a park or trails as framework.