Restoring Hope Church is an enjoyable, straightforward layout. It looks like zero clearing was needed to install this course. That's encouraging because it means the course will need minimal upkeep over time.
- Course is predominately an open layout. Only two truly wooded holes. Stray tee shots can find the woods easily on many other holes as all but #9 border wooded areas, some of which are thicker than others.
- #4 is a fun tee shot. Tee area and basket hug the left side of an open field. Going left is bad. Going far right is worse. Wooded area is covered in ivy, so any disc landing in there can get easily absorbed. Even after searching for more than 30 minutes, I couldn't locate my pink Leopard. Considering old tires were almost completely covered by the ivy, any discs that settles in the ivy might be a lost cause.
- #5 is a fun uphill, shoot-the-gap shot. 163 feet, teeing off from the open (you cross #4's fairway), to a basket up on a small hill. Fun birdie, ace-run.
- #8 is a fun sharp dogleg left. Tee off from the woods, throwing into a gap, aiming directly at a metal storage building. Once in the opening, fairway slopes sharp downhill and left. If the hard surfaces (parking lot and basketball court) are played as OB, this suddenly becomes an extremely difficult par 3. Outside of the risk of smacking the building, this is a fun, little layout.
- #9 is a quick, open, uphill layout. Don't go left or you're hitting a house. You can be forgiven for smacking the building on #8. Crashing through a window on #9 is probably a different story.
- Baskets are in great shape.
- Once you find the first tee, course is easy to navigate. Tees are marked with white flags and are generally close to the prior hole's basket.

A couple of safety concerns with basket locations. On #1, you're throwing over or around the church's fenced-in playground. Even playing when it's empty, I don't like the risk of hitting property if it all possible.
- It's worse on #9. The house on the right side is in play for anyone who throws RHBH hyzer. Just move the tee spot 20-30 feet to the left and take that risk out of play.
- A lot of simple, open holes. As stated above, to combat the open holes, baskets are placed close to the woods. Going long on #2 is bad. Going long or right on #3 is bad. Going left or right on #4 is bad. You get the point.
- Grass/natural tees. I would like to see something better than white irrigation flags marking the tee areas. Even a basic sign on a wooded post would be helpful, simply to state the hole number and length
- There is potential for creating some holes if time and resources were allowed in the woods. I get why it wasn't done. So, consider this a mere observation. That said, with some behind #2 & right of #3, you could create excellent, change-of-pace layouts.
- No amenities on the course. Pack it in. Pack it out.

For a simple layout, I enjoyed Restoring Hope. Would it be as fun playing here regularly? Probably not. But that's not my concern.
- Open field where holes #1 - 4 are located offers a chance for some good field work.
- With enough space throughout the church campus, you could easily put in 9 temporary baskets and create a fun ace race tourney layout. I see this church doing bbq or fish fry fundraisers at some point throughout the year. So, why not do disc golf events as well?
- #2 is fun in that it's the type of hole where you can soft toss a disc, and watch it gently sail down towards the basket. The same Leopard I lost on #4 seemed like it was in the air for 20 seconds as it glided towards the basket. An easy, peaceful shot.
- I liked the outdoor classroom setting by #7's tee. It would have been fun to incorporate this more into the hole, even if it just meant teeing off through the space. I like when courses incorporate some of the aspects of their outdoor designs. Orchard Hill in Greenville, SC does an excellent job of this.
- Overall, this is a fun, simple layout. It's not going to wow anyone. Beginners and casuals should like this layout. Advanced players are getting mostly 2s on their scorecard. I'll call it a perfectly suitable 9-holer that's much better than the closest course to it: Warlick Academy.