Pros:
- Fairly complete course featuring elevation changes, short techinical holes, longer winding holes, and a couple of nice bomber holes that have you throwing from elevated tees. Course challenges all aspects of your game.
- Nice mix of flat and gradually sloping fairways, a few small valley-like dips and a couple of serious hills thrown in for good measure.
- Great shot variety: Excellent mix of L & R dog-legs, tunnel shots, and holes that really reward a good S-shot. The thick brush may favor a Tomahawk or Thumber, or other creative escape shot when drives stray from the fairway (and sooner or later on this 27 hole behemoth, they will). Several baskets are tucked away off the fairway and well guarded by trees. Up-shots that don't land in the sweet spot where basket comes off the fairway may require straddle or hyzer putts.
- Spacious dual concrete tee pads on most holes. Long and short play differently, even when the change in hole length is minimal.
- Fairways clearly defined and neatly mowed.
- Navigation may be a bit tough for first timers, but most paths are obvious.
- Decent tee signs with distance and crude (but effective) hole layout (same as Hudson Mills & Willow).
- Scorecards with maps, pencils.
- Course comes back to parking lot after holes 15 & 18 for abbreviated rounds.
- Party store across from north entrance (Milford Rd.) has a nice assortment of discs.
- Pay to play: If you saw how run down the previous course was, you'd understand. This course pays for itself and it's maintenance. The $2 fee keeps DG from being a cash drain on the park and filters most of the trouble that ruined the old course. Park presence helps to keep trouble from happening.
Cons:
- Could use more variety in distances from the Am tees, and many of the Long tees are really nothing more than the same look with another 60 ft tacked on.
- Would benefit from rotating, alt pin placements.
- Elevation only a comes into play on
- Park entry fee for cars in addition to the fee to play disc golf (annual car pass is good at all the metroparks).
- I've heard park will charge pedestrians to enter the course because local kids say, "I'm just walking along with him," but play anyway
- Grass just off the fairway is extremely tall and thick, Shots just off the fairway can be tough to find.
- Rough is thick and hungry for discs (especially the last 9 holes). I recommend "safety in numbers" because of this. If you plan to play solo however, it's a busy course, and there's a very good chance you'll be able to hook up with a group of locals who will be happy to let you play in with them.
- Bugs can be a nuisance on last 9.
Other Thoughts:
I delayed writing this review because I needed some time to let my bias for the old course fade, and wanted to judge this course on it's own merit (or lack thereof) after having played a few rounds here, and... I really like this place.
This course will expand your game. I throw mostly RHBH, playing here has helped me improve my FH shot, develop control on annie releases, and use understable discs to turnover then fade back to carry S-shaped fairways.
- Glass containers are not allowed, but dogs, beer and wine are.
-Many blind holes.
- They just put a few neat branch and rock lined paths between a few holes on the final 9 to make it easy to find the next hole.
- Basket for 18 is mounted on a large tree stump - looks cool.
- This is essentially Discraft's home course. It's only 10 miles from their building, and Jim Kenner and Discraft Pros heavily influenced its design. The first 18 are challenging, the last 9 were meant to be championship caliber.
- Course's hunger for discs has diminished; it has become a bit more forgiving now that it's "broken-in."