Pros:
-Great Concrete tee pads
- Signage
- Mix of open long and wooded short holes
- Good mix of elevation
- Easy to get to from 1-5
- nice pdf map
Cons:
- Even with signage, hard to navigate w/o map
- multiple blind (to the basket) in the woods, into low lying plants
- Bushes in open areas are great for disc to get lost
- 15th is a questionable par 3
Other Thoughts:
Probably the best course currently in Salem (apparently more are in the works). Very easy to get to if you're an out of towner: Keizer exit from I-5 (260 on I-5 N), left at exit, left at the second light down Chemewa Rd., and stay on Chemewa until you get to the park.
Course goes from an open first hole to 2 - 10, which are somewhat open wooded holes (not ridiculously tight). These holes still require accurate straight, hyzer, and anhyzer shots over around an average of 250ft. The ground is covered in large ferns and leaf litter, so there is a chance of losing a disc if you kick off a tree or have your view blocked when you tee off. A couple of these holes have blind tee shots to the basket (4, 5, 8, and 10). The ground is not necessarily even on these holes, either, which makes them a little more interesting.
Holes 11 - 16 are more in this funky hilly open area, with few trees. The ground is lined with grass, some blackberry, some shrubery I don't know, and a pond. Lots of elevation here that is used well. It sorta looks like a wetland area that isn't a wetland, with hills. Whatever it is/was, it was my favorite part of the course.
Holes 11 & 13 have elevated tee pads to longer shots, around 400ft (always nice); hole 12 has the pond in play, with the basket about 200+ away on a small green peninsula (very nice).
My only complaint hole wise was hole 15. The hole starts with a 300ft fairway to a extreme dog leg left to the wooded basket, about 100ft from the dog leg. I am all for hard par 3s, but this is right on the border of being a moderate (not easy) par 4.
The course finishes with a ace run on hole 17, and a tunnel shot over what could be a pond at times on 18. The 18th hole crosses the path to get to hole 1, so it could be dangerous.
All in all, a well designed, challenging course. I would not consider it for beginners. Great use of the area given and excellent tee pads (grippy concrete). It would get a 4.0 from me if some of the ground plants and shrubbery gets cleaned up a bit more. I think an increase in use would do this as well.