Pros:
Village of Pinehurst is a very good intermediate to advanced level course in a very rural setting west of Pinehurst. (The name of the future park is West Pinehurst Community Park; right now, the Village of Pinehurst DGC is the only attraction at the park.)
+ Very challenging and fun course with excellent design elements--great variety in hole designs and shots required.
+ White (intermediate) and Blue (advanced) tees with appropriate difficulty and distances for those levels.
+ Nice concrete tee pads (both sets): wide, long, and flat.
+ Helpful tee signs at the blue tees with hole layout and yardage. Navigation is simple and intuitive.
+ Some holes have multiple lines you can take (eg. hyzer and forehand), which I think is a terrific design element.
+ Simply awesome greens with baskets situated on hills and ridges, making for some risk/reward decisions and death putts, and other baskets protected by guardian trees. Awesome challenge that requires maximum concentration at all times.
+ Awesome use of elevation. There are some sweet downhill holes and super-tough uphill holes, including #18 which ends with a basket on top of a steep and narrow ridge (death putt).
+ Another design element that signals this course was laid out by a seasoned professional: the front 9 loops back to where the course starts, so players can play 9 only or start on the back and end on the front (figure 8 course design)
+ This course has true par 4's (from both sets of tees), emphasizing placement and precision (landing zones) over pure distance. I loved the par 4's on the course.
+ Just to recap: the course is way up there on the fun scale, *and* it's challenging, *and* it's well designed, *and* it's a pretty, well-maintained property. I highly recommend. I almost gave it a 4.0, but dropped it slightly to 3.5 for a few reasons...
Cons:
If you're an intermediate to advanced disc golfer, you'll love this course. But it is a little rough around the edges. Beginners, kids, or golfers who prefer a "park setting" probably won't like Village of Pinehurst as much as I did.
- This is rural disc golf. The means two things: bugs and underbrush. Did I mention BUGS? I was harassed for much of my two summer rounds there by horseflies, mosquitoes, ants, and spider webs. (I didn't run into ticks, thankfully!) Bug spray may have deterred the ticks or mosquitoes some, but not entirely. And the horseflies didn't mind it at all!
- I mentioned the underbrush too. This rough is real rough: thick brush and briars. Big incentive to stay on the fairway!
- Minor gripe: the baskets are older and tough to spot from the tee on some holes. New ones with bands would be sweet, but not necessary to thoroughly enjoy the track.
Other Thoughts:
Not much can be done about the bugs and underbrush, especially in the summer, so just know what you're getting with this amazing course. It's totally worth it, in my opinion, but maybe not so much for new players who aren't ready for it yet. This is the big brother course to Reservoir Park. If you're newer to the game or want a more leisurely round, go there. But for a bigger challenge on a better (more fun) course, go to Village of Pinehurst.