Pros:
The Lake Julian course offers incredible picturesque views. The first few holes are near the lake and the scenery is fantastic.
Excellent teepads. All the teepads are large, trapezoid-shaped slabs of concrete.
Hole #1 is one of the cooler holes on the course. While it's a challenging way to begin, the hole starts with a gap in between several trees, travels over a few small creeks and finally flirts with the edge of a pond.
The course offers good use of elevation without being strenuous. Plus, there's some well-done variety here -- from very narrow holes in the woods, to Hole #12, which is a longer par-4 that is fairly open and traverses over rolling hills.
Cons:
It seems a shame to criticize a course with such a spectacular setting, but unfortunately, the errors at Lake Julian are glaring and unforgivable.
First-time navigation is challenging. There are no tee signs for any of the holes. Also, there are no "Next Tee" signs to guide you on your route. In addition, there are many teepads scattered about, so it's difficult to know whether a teepad is short, long or unused. I played from the wrong tee or to the wrong basket a few times.
Holes #2 through 4 cover terrain that is full of trees, and with the reality of too-narrow fairways, an unlucky ricochet may drown your disc in the lake, which is perilously close to the right side of the fairway.
In several spots on the course, fairways run parallel to each other. The designers attempted to remedy this by putting small white stakes in the ground to randomly mark OB areas. Of course, the shoehorned "fairways" are really tight on several holes, so I recommend you ignore the out-of-bounds markings if you have the course to yourself.
Not every hole at Lake Julian offers heavenly views. Several holes on the back nine incorporate monstrous and ugly utility poles that interfere with play.
Hole #18 is a ridiculous finishing hole. The current basket location is just several feet from the lake's edge and with the entire hole being downhill, any reasonable attempt to birdie the 250-foot-plus hole may result in saying farewell to your disc. Plastic is precious. I chose to play for par and throw conservatively, which negates the potential awesomeness of the hole.
Other Thoughts:
Lake Julian is a beautiful but baffling course that needs more attention to the amenities. The recent expansion from nine holes to 18 is nice, but why invest in more holes and excellent teepads but not include tee signs and navigational aids? There's definitely some good disc golf here, but it's offset by the flaws. Lake Julian might be the first course where I stopped keeping score after several holes. A local guide is definitely recommended.
On UDisc, someone described the Lake Julian course as "one of the best courses in the Asheville area."
Nope. Not a chance.
In its current state, this course lags far behind several other nearby courses, including Richmond Hill and Jackson Park. However, with improved navigation and perhaps opening up a few fairways, Lake Julian has the potential to be much better.