Pros:
NOTE: I put a lot more time and effort than usual into trying to understand this course, and I labored over this review. The course designer, Russell Schwartz, and I exchanged several emails and he very graciously gave a lot of his time to discuss the course in a long phone call.
This course opened in summer '07 and I played it in Dec '07 while it was still pretty new. When I played it there was a list of items still to be completed, so the course was still a pretty new and unfinished work in progress.
• I especially liked the holes on the back nine where the lake came into play. There are also creeks in play on several holes and 6 holes on the back nine have water on them. The drive on 18 is a really cool shot plays straight down a creek until you get to a perilous landing zone.
• There are some really good and fun holes such as 1 (short valley shot in trees), 2 (great fairway in the woods), 5, 15, 16 (my favorite; see more below)
• The land has nice trees and terrain. 14 holes are in the woods, 3 are a little more open, and 1 is a long wide open downhill hole to let it fly at full power.
• There are a wide variety of fairway shapes- 4 St/ 4 Lt/ 4 Rt/ 5 S curve/ 1 L bend
• Excellent length variety: [Short tees] 8<299/ 5 of 300-399/ 3 of 400-499/ 2 of 500-520
• There's a fair amount of elevation changes. 9 Up/ 9 Down. The greatest is +30 ft, but 10 holes are under 10 ft elev change.
• Tees are very good rectangular raked concrete, and tee signs are fine with a basic map.
Cons:
• There are still lots of thorns in places.
• Seven baskets are hard to see from the tee.
• If you play in the late fall it's easy to lose your disc in the leaves on the holes in the woods.
Other Thoughts:
• Course Level = Blue (Advanced)
• There's work currently being done to finish up some aspects of the course, to make some holes a little more fair, and to address a few potential safety issues. There are a few trees that have been, or will be, taken out to make some fairway shapes more fair. On 18 it's planned for the landing zone on your drives will be made bigger.
• There's an active beaver on hole 15.
You be the judge-
I have great respect for Russell Schwartz' course designs, but I expect that this course will continue to produce some strong reactions, as it already has. Some of the holes have creative design intentions which require uncommon shots. These are intended to add variety, to stretch the boundaries of hole design, to make the best use of the available terrain, and to force a player to think about their shot selection. In addition to the Schwartz signature "L" shaped fairway on hole 7 these unusual holes are 4, 12, 14, 15, 17, and 18. Most of these holes have forced layups which require more accurate, lower power, and shorter shots. Some players will appreciate the creativity and diversity of playing fairways that are different from the norm, while others will be frustrated because the holes don't play the same way that they're used to. Big arms may be especially frustrated when they have to hold back their power on some holes. On a few of these holes (especially 17 and 18) I was baffled how to throw the hole and wondered what the intended shots were. It may have been because I didn't have the skills for certain shots, but several times I couldn't figure out how to make a disc follow the fairway. Personally, I rather liked the unusual holes because for the most part they add variety, but by the end having them on 6 of 18 holes may have been a little too much. I suspect that the typical Advanced (Blue level) player that the course is most suited for may not like these holes as much, so my rating is a little lower because of this.
-I expect the course rating to improve a little over time as some issues are taken care of, the work is finished, and the course gets more broken in.
Favorite holes: 16. From the long tee- you drive over the water for a beautiful hole with risk that makes your palms sweat.
15. A beautiful hole with the lake all down the left side. Play it safe with shorter shots for a 3 or take a big risk to try to get near the basket for a deuce.
<span class="underline">A note about my rating:</span> My rating is a subjective measure of my enjoyment of the course, on the day I played it, and it is NOT intended to be a measure of the quality of the course. My ratings are given "on the curve" in relation to all other courses I've played.
~More detailed "Overall Rating" notes and "Hole-by-hole Ratings" are available in the Files section.