Pros:
Stumpy Creek, located in the park of the same name, is located in the Mooresville area right near Lake Norman. The park features a small playground and multiple baseball, softball, and soccer fields. If you visit the course on a day when the park is relatively empty, these fields can be used to get a few warm up throws in. The course features 19 holes, with concrete tees and Innova baskets, including one practice basket.
The course features 2 layouts, as some holes have two different tee pads. The white tees offer a more condensed, shorter version of the course, while blue tees provide the full Advanced level experience. While I have not yet played the white tees, it seemed like the white tees often changed the angle in a way that they provide new character to the hole by demanding a different tee shot. This will allow players of multiple skill levels the chance to enjoy this course.
This course utilized the terrain of this course in an incredible way, in fact the elevation use of this course is some of, if not the most pronounced I have ever encountered on a disc golf course. Even many of the flat holes make subtle use of elevation, like Hole 1 which will have many RHBH players drift down the hill towards the baseball field if they don't really commit to their drive. This course really has it all: extreme uphill shots, extreme downhill shots, valley shots, fast greens, etc. While the course has seen small tweaks here and there, what is currently known as Hole 15 is a definite standout to me. This top-of-the-world tee shot will really let you air out your disc. (And if you really want to put the extra juice on it, you can play to Hole 16's basket. Which will also let you play only 18 holes instead of 19.)
Not only does the course utilize the terrain well, but it offers a nice mixture of wooded and open holes, with 11 wooded holes, and 8 open holes. The wooded holes are tight and technical, with a lot of them being very straight shots. Taking an early kick will spell doom for your scorecard. The open holes, while not straightforward in their own rights, will give players a chance to take a breather from the gauntlet of challenging wooded holes. Even Hole 19, the final hole - which is also one of the most wide open holes with little, to no elevation to speak of, is made interesting by a mando pole. I could see some thinking the mando is a bit forced, but I actually like this mando. It turns the hole from a mindless rip into a well executed drive. I was able to just barely clear the mando to have a straight open shot to the basket, but if I faded out too early, I would have had to lay up to the mando. I also like the mando, because it looks like it will hopefully keep people from trying to attack straight at the basket and throwing their discs into the playground accidentally.
The course features a lot of what some people would call "natural OB", where if you miss the fairway you'll be pitching back to the fairway, just to have a line at the basket. Luckily, due to the woods the course is located in being so heavily consisting of pine trees, the leaf coverage around the course when I played (which was in the very thick of fall), was almost non existent.This is very nice for golfers, because it means less time looking for discs, and a lot less discs lost by being shoved up under a pile of leaves.
Cons:
Stumpy Creek would really benefit from some new signage, especially at the tees. Unlike most courses in the area, it wasn't readily apparent what shot was needed from every tee without possibly walking the fairway first. On a course with as much elevation change, this quickly adds up.
The course could really use some newer baskets as well. There seemed to be a mixture of new, double-chain baskets and some single chain baskets. This is something that could really help prevent spit outs on a course that already has a high propensity for roll aways.
I felt like this course, out of all the courses I've played, would really benefit from more benches. Once again, with as much elevation as this course has, it is surprising that there aren't more benches.
A couple of the holes seemed to play fairly close to other aspects of the park where an errant drive/shot could become an issue, such as the playground or the ball fields. I could see this being a potential safety concern during tournaments during peak park season.
Other Thoughts:
It amazes me how little I hear about this course, compared to other nearby courses. As this course truly deserves to stand amongst the best courses in the area. I've played plenty of courses that have been touted as using elevation very well, however, this may be the best in that regard. For all of these reasons, and more, I am going to rate Stumpy Creek at 4.0 for now. Though I could see this course continuing to grow into one that deserves an even higher rating.
Favorite Blue Holes: 2, 5, 8, 15