Pros:
REZ PRK or Reservoir Park definitely has enough edge for it to earn its shortened name. It's an 18er where the short hole lengths on paper trick you about any actual ease of the course.
From the main park on FIllmore Street, you drive into a NO OUTLET Franklin Avenue that looks rather sketchy with overgrown chainlink fence and lots of No Dumping signs. Past that first row of park is the end lot in sight of a Pavilion and a Community Garden, that cheers the whole place right up, near the first tee.
The beginning holes don't seem too promising. By tee#2 -- an open long distance hole with lots of signs about the Mando left of the big bush to avoid neighboring properties -- I was wondering if this place was yet another tacked-on course, an afterthought crammed onto some spare park field. The kind you see behind some highschool fields or the like, maybe with a singular tree desperately trying to spruce up a boring course.
It does gets a bit interesting at #4, open with a ender in forest, with the basket in front of a steep cliff. #5 starts giving rhfh some gravy to work with, a big rightward bend, after an amount of dead straight shooting.
Then #6 starts dishing out the meat and potatoes of the game and the course never really relents until the end. It's a long distance uphill to a ridge with a small gap on the most straightforward route, going back down with a smattering of small trees. The basket is on the right on a slope.
What follows a number of short, oft-tight technicals in or bordering forest, that carries risk if you don't make lines too well. Interspersed are several more longer-distance holes, notably #14 and bookends #17/18.
If a comparison needs to be made, perhaps the type of course the old 9er, New Hanover Community Park DG, about half an hour away towards Boyertown, was yearning to become years ago. Ultimately it just didn't get the land for it, here it did although it's tight. There's also obviously involvement by a heavily vested community.
In the summer, I was cursing out this place. Scouring for color circles in rough for the third time in a series of incline shots. Battling wineberry pickers over captured plastic. My ankles resigning in protest over heavily sloped #13. It's not ball golf style disc golf amongst grassy meadows and lounging with Palmer's iced tea, that's for sure. But I couldn't bring myself to hate it because the potential was plainly there, it was just too much existing thorns and weeds to be enjoyable during the warm months.
November rolled around, mother nature cleared out a bit, and this novelty course is becoming a regular goto like Boyertown, Kenilworth, Upper Salford for me. Solid.
+Tees excellent, Signs superb quality although some distances seem to be shorter than actual, double chained Discatchers, navigation quite easy.
+#6 and bowl-shaped #15 were my favorites
Cons:
This is one of those courses that really isn't for everyone and for all seasons. Despite it practically being in my backyard, I don't see playing it in the summers like Kenilworth, Boyertown or Upper Salford. Maybe I'm wrong, they certainly stuck a lot of work into it the last half-year.
First time I went, on a Thursday afternoon, hot and muggy as hell in July, expecting a dead course but instead it was PACKED with player groups. Since many visits, never seen it dead. Expect other players.
In the summer, you're gonna spend a lot of time searching in rough. If the discs are green or dark, even better! Search and rescue when DG alone gets dull. That's what a lot of players I passed were doing. I only threw my brightest and still played battleship with the underbrush many times. Neon Orange leopard in weeds D7! No? They can glide pretty far on these downhills.
The course plays into itself and bottlenecks in spots. #7, 8 & 18, there is about 160' width the place is hosting three fairways at once. Or #9/10/11 triplet down/up/down fairways birthed together.
#12/13 are in forest, downhill, and extremely tight. And there's thorned wineberry brush throughout on many holes. If you're someone that doesn't have good disc control, particularly premature release or griplock, I'd advise to stay far away after #7. Stick to the area's more forgiving courses. This just ain't one of them. It'll eat your discs in the summer and ask for thirds with a smile.
#13 is treacherous walking. Steep downhill front-to-back with a left-to-right decline to boot. Stick to the middle downhill path until you get to your disc and then go up or down as needed. This is the most treacherous hole and dry leaves or after rain can make it extra slippery.
If you want to skip #13, and I wouldn't blame you some days, at #12's basket walk up towards the fence and then go alongside paralell the river, it will eventually deposit you by #14's tee.
Other Thoughts:
Out of XXXXX:
Terrain: XXXx - Good. Varied elevation and scenery, never bores but could have used more room in spots.
Execution: XXXX - Excellent. They made about the best DGC possible on this tract of land. Nice touches like a Youtube tour video just tells you the locals care about their DG.
Upkeep: XXXX - Excellent. New but every few times I'm here, I see improvements like fallen timber strategically used as backstops behind certain baskets.
Difficulty: XXX - Intermediate. Good aim is rewarded, bad aim punished. However, distances are mostly par 3.
Fun Factor: XXXx - Very good. Excellent in winter. Less so in summer.
Crowd: XX - Busy. Never seen this place empty and often full with multiple groups in sight at once.
#1-6 loop back to Pavilion/parking lot. #7-10 are back and forths but basically stay in place. #11-18 is it's own seperate loop into forest and come to the pavilion.
NOTE: #1&2 precaution about throwing into neighbor's backyards. Observe mandos. This apparently has been a problem for the course.
#1 Within tree grove, a slight downhill to open basket, straight on.
#2 Long fielder with mando left of bush in middle of fairway.
#3 Slight Downhill with large bush/tree guarding basket.
#4 Shot over open field with basket just in forest. Seems to have cliff behind it so don't overshoot.
#5 is an anhyzer bend and the first hole where bad shots are punished by thick, thorny forest on the right side and expect more of the same until the very last holes.
#6 is where things get more interesting, neighboring #2 fairway, it's a long incline to a ridge guarded by treeline with gaps. Then it's downhill and right the last quarter to the basket.
#7 is fairly straight on except for all the branches and elevated basket (nice design with the wood btw) and #8 is a backtrack to tee on the edge of forest line, throwing under a tree's umbrella and its many branches, for an anhyzer downill line where the entire fairway including basket straddles rough. Here is the hint of ridiculous that's coming on, it's not gonna get better.
#9/10/11 are where my knees started hating this place. Short downhill/uphill/downhill on a slope, side by side, where the rough is fully invited to play along and the fairway is more like narrow walking paths until the circle. #9 anhyzers at end. #10 up has a tree guard and is hung by chains. #11 is straight on with a forest tunnel starting a bit after halfway through.
#12 Goes deeper into forest. It's a shorter shot but with a myriad of trees, slight downward incline, and extreme brush on both sides, it's not a shot to miss. Short but narrow.
#13 More extreme downhill entire way, with the left-to-right downhill being hard on the ankles. Shooting from open to forest with plenty of underbrush to lose discs and plenty of trees to swat them down. Narrow, again.
#14 Long 400ft tunnel shot slightly upwards, felt more like a small bulge. Decent width fairway with obstacles.
#15 Claims it's only 167ft but felt longer. A great bowl shot with a valley in the middle and plenty of obstacles.
#16 Long Tunnel shot back into open near basket.
#17 Slight uphill in open.
#18 Long shot near street back to pavilion.