Pros:
The land Magic Meadows course is on is beautiful- partly on a grassy valley and partly on the rocky hillside you are immersed with images of white-barked aspen trees, fascinating rock formations, and incredible mountain views in all directions. This a course that absolutely gives you that "out-in-nature" and "away-from-it-all" kind of feel (especially because you are guaranteed to be the only ones on the course that day, and especially after Paulie mentions things like bears and mountain lions and then drives away leaving you completely alone with the course!)
Paulie is a fantastic host and course designer. He really wants people to come and play his courses. His attention to detail is amazing and evident from beginning to end- he gives you a scorecard and hole-by-hole tip sheet, he walks you through any tricky navigation areas or confusing basket placements before you play, and he has installed plenty of signage to ensure that you won't get lost and you know where to aim off the tee. One of his best ideas is having a sign in the middle of the fairway anytime there is a blind or hidden basket from the teebox to prevent having to walk the hole twice to play it once (and believe me, in this altitude and terrain, you don't want to walk more than is necessary!) Paulie has this place very well thought out and planned and is constantly making improvements, always from the eyes of the people who are coming to play his courses.
Again let me emphasize that you get a private round here- the course will be all yours for the day- (this factor is why some people rate this course a 5.0) This allows holes to be set-up a little different- you can have tees closer to baskets (shorter walks) and holes that cross (longer holes, better holes, etc.). The course itself has a nice mixture of short holes, holes that are short but play long uphill, and a couple long more flat holes as well. The terrain is mostly up and down, but there are a few flatter holes mixed in as well making for a nice variety throughout the round. The baskets are of high quality and many are placed in unique locations in various rock formations. These placments, the terrain, and the altitude make this (what Paulie calls an Intermediate) course much more challenging than it looks on paper or in the pictures.
Cons:
Apparently you used to be able to, but now you can't just play anytime you want- you have to make a tee time (part of the agreement with neighbors to the property) and there are only a few times a week, so be sure to plan ahead and contact Paulie in advance if planning to make a trip out to this area (which you should).
$20/round would be a lot if you lived here and wanted to play all the time, but as a destination area, it is not too bad, as you do get the course to yourself. He said we could play two rounds which can take 5-6 hours. The altitude got us pretty good as this was the first course we played after flying in, and we only played once, but would have loved to play it again.
The natural tees are fine, and he would be crazy to pour concrete all over on this beautiful piece of LEASED property, but they are not concrete, and I personally prefer courses with concrete tees for both better footing and a more official/permanent/consistent feel.
The mountain grass in the fairways was thin, but was still rather tall. It is playable and wasn't too bad to find your discs and mowed fairways are generally preferred, but I doubt these fairways get mowed or have much of a need to except for in late summer (probably impractical to get a mower here anyways). Just pay attention to where you land or you could be searching more than you want.
Though in the original plans until some other issues have put them on hold, there are no manufactured tee signs, however they are not really necessary as he gives you all the info you need with the scorecard, page of hole descriptions, and self-made navigation arrows.
Things that used to be here are no more- clubhouse, driving range, practice 9, etc. due to making peace and compromising with the neighbors.