Pros:
This course has concrete tees on 17 of the holes (one was cleared for a new walking path). Baskets are numbered. Most holes do not have a tee sign, just a metal rod that it looks like a sign should attach to it, but is conspicuously missing. Vandalism, perhaps?
Trashcans at several holes. The only bathroom I could find by hole 1 was locked, so be mindful of that.
This park sports a wiiide variety of lengths. You will go from 350ft to 250, to 600ft holes, and back. However, despite the multiple longer holes on this course, it's surprisingly easy to score well, thanks to benevolent use of terrain. By this I mean that the long holes are mostly fairly level or downhill, so the length doesnt seem as bad. No nasty 500ft uphill tunnel shots. Big Brother this ain't, but it is quite a fun course to play.
This course is relatively open, but keeps it real. Even on the wooded holes, you are usually shooting from open areas into a patch of woods protecting the basket, thus there are generally several ways to attack it off the tee, often a more open curve route with late trouble as well as a more direct tunnel line. (vs Elver Park, where you are stuck playing the tunnel bc theres woods all around you)
At the same time, most of the "wooded" holes are more like Deming park: A cool hillside/valley/hilltop with scattered trees that all come into play. In fact, Hole 14 here is an uphill shot through a tree archway similar to Hole 5 at Deming: both short, yet surprising hard to deuce. This is indicative fo the types of challenges this course will throw at you most often.
There is really alot of cool terrain on this course in general, enough that it keeps the wide open holes fairly interesting as well. I may sound like a broken record as I've written this in seemingly every review lately, I am generally biased towards more heavily wooded courses, and this course has several holes with between 0 and 2 trees on each of them. However, I found that I didnt mind many of the open holes here, because the terrain alone is enough to keep them interesting, like the first few holes on Justin Trails Classic. Hole 2 here is a great example. Wide open, longer uphill (I know what I said, this is the only one) shot. The basket is blind over the hilltop, and every time I was so sure I overshot it on my second drive and rolled it down the backside of the hill. But the basket is tucked in the bottom of a 30 ft wide bowl, like a bunker on the baskside of the hill, so it catches shots and funnels them toward the basket. What a great way to make a long uphill hole a more manageable three. I love it!
On the wide open holes, the basket is always at least somewhat protected, with a few nearby trees behind it to snag errant throws or a bog beyond them. Also, one thing that is unique about this course is that for how wide open it is, there seems to be surprisingly little wind on the open holes. The edges of the large fields containing the more open holes are all lined with solid borders of tall bushy pines, and I believe this does a good job protecting from the wind. Also, the fact that is farther away from the lake, and not on a hilltop probably helps. However, open holes with no wind does make for a much nicer round.
It also makes this a great course to put a new disc through its paces on, as the lines you have to hit are mostly pretty open, and gives you a good chance to fine-tune technique during the round without suffering massive stroke penalties. You will get a variety of technical challenges, but nothing too tricky. Its great practice.
Overall its a surprisingly fun experience. I came to this park with fairly low expectations, and i was pleasantly surprised. It even starts off with a cool water hole, something the other milwaukee courses I've played to date all lack.
Cons:
Navigation: The flow of the course is good in that the holes are all not too far from each other, and 18 ends by the parking lot and tee 1 for a nice loop.
However, finding the next hole is a real challenge in many, many spots. Fortunately, I attached myself to some locals who guided me, otherwise I would've been hopelessy turned around in spots. Here are some of the worse ones
(X-Y) How to get to tee Y from basket X
GUIDE TO NAVIGATION
2-3 --> Cut through the woods on your left
3-4 --> Cross the street and past the tennis courts. In the open next to line of pine trees.
6-7--> Between tennis court fence and road
8-9--> Across the road.
13-14--> Take the furthest trail on the left, past the park bench. Dirt tee to right of path.
You cant see the basket numbers clearly from the tee, and in some cases you will be able to see more than one basket, but in any event, the correct basket is the obvious one so don't stress.
The hole layouts are pretty obvious off the tee, so the lack of hole maps didn't bother me as much as not knowing the distance on the basket, or where to go for the next tee. The addition of just hole length markers and next tee signs would make a huge difference here.
Another area where this course annoys me is the paths between holes. Several times, the paths lead you up the fairway from the previous basket to get to the current tee. Thus, this is a risk of getting hit by the group in front of you, or at the very least, slow them down and be a general pain for them.
Every hole has one tee, one pin placement (except the hill hole). This is really too bad, as it hurts the replay value of the course, and they do have room to add more of both onto the existing holes. The course seemed pretty busy the whole time I was there, so its a shame that it hasn't gotten a little more of a facelift. But I've admittedly been spoiled by Dretzka's 4-5 pin placements and the wonderful job Mark does switching a few up every week.
Again, I didn't mind the open holes because they were mostly interesting, but I would've liked a little more intrigue aka wooded holes.
The course is good as it stands, but it would be nice to have long tees for some added challenge.
This is a good, fun course, but it hits alot of singles, even a few doubles. However, this course doesn't have those tricky home run-hitting holes that the great ones have in spades.I like it and enjoyed it, but it didn't impress or wow me much.
Other Thoughts:
This course reminded me of Tendick up north. Both are courses out in the sticks, and both IMO have a similar style of a few interesting courses blended together into a mix that may be lesser than the sum of its parts. Here is where the similarities stop.
Tendick is like a Brown Deer/UW-Whitewater mix, with its variety of longer open holes and tight technical ones. Village Park is more akin to a Justin Trails Classic/Deming Park blend, with a touch of Token Creek, because it has really cool terrain on open holes, and scattered trees, as well as several loong holes.
I thought about giving this course a 2.5 for Decent, but the cool terrain on several holes won me over. Check out this course if you are in the area, but is it worth the drive from Milwaukee? Not while Dretzka, Parkside and Brown Deer are open.