For me, it's
RL Smith.
Over the years I've watched numerous people visit Charlotte, a mecca for disc golf, and come away with RL as their favorite course.
Wow there is lots here, ill do my best.
I've watched people rate it 4, 4.5, 5...thinking, why?
I kind of agree but only because Charlotte typically gives its courses lower ratings than other areas. We do not have a group of people dedicated to inflating ratings (like IDLEWILD) where if you offer a thoughtful review less than 4.5 you get hammered. We are literally too concerned with ACTUALLY making courses good, than making them look good, falsly online. That being said, RL WOULD be a 4-5 i most disc golf areas, especially the ones that inflate their own ratings.
RL currently has a 4.15 rating. Nevin, Renny Gold, and Hornets Nest, Charlottes 3 premiere courses in my eyes, currently are within .10 points of that rating.
How?
I just don't see it.
Its the deck and the rocks and the creek and the woods for many people
I've made repeated trips to RL Smith, always fueled by a 4/5+ review. Maybe I'm missing something, I'd think.
Nope.
I played it again today, and still, I don't see it.
To me the course is in the 3.25-3.75 range.
Probably in its average state and if other courses in the country were rated correctly, yes, but it is heads and shoulders above most 3.5 rated courses in design and upkeep.
It has some tricky holes, but it isn't as challenging as the 3 other courses I mentioned. It has some neat holes, but none of them are as memorable as say, #18 at Renny Gold, #2 at Renny Gold (One of the coolest upshots ever IMO), #18 at Nevin, etc.
1. If you dont see 18 at RL as signature, you can't be helped. If you stand there almost everyone empties their bag on that hole. Ive never witnessed a lost disc on 18. If people are emptying their bag on a hole, its a signature hole. You are right, outside of 12 the rest of the course lacks that aspect, but who cares. You can't force a signature hole if one isnt able to be made.
2. RL time and time again plays, according to par, as hard as Nevin, Nest, Renny Gold, or Elon Angry. You can score there but you can also die there. There is way less risk at Nevin than RL Smith.
I am unsure that I can trust your reviews if challenging is the only way you get to 4-5 disc rating. Water, elevation, beautiful cedar benches and deck, perched baskets, old wells, signage, quiet are all amenities that add to ratings where challenge might even take away from the rating of a course. Also, your reviews tend to try to prove how great you are at disc golf, always taking away points because a course is "too easy." same with your videos, edited to tell the story of how well you play disc golf. Just based on this, I dont really give credit to your actual abilities and chalk it mostly up to bluster.
Half the holes are what I consider gimmie holes. some of them don't even feel like very good golf holes, they feel more or less like they're there to fill in the space.
16 is a terrible hole 4 is bad and the OB around the course is not good besides that, I dont know if you have a handle on what may or may not be good design, perhaps when you are so good at disc golf all challenge becomes a blur. Sure 12 is an easy hole, but throwing off the deck to those beautiful rocks is more about the experience there than whether you get a 2 or not...but regardless. Ill take that hole to explain something about design. (I did not design RL.) Hole 12, short and easy right? Nope not that simple. The hole asks you to ace run, it begs you. When you submit and run it you dont realize there is a gentile slope behind the basket, now you are 25ft long looking at a death putt. Your easy 2 on a beautiful hole becomes a 4 or 5 and then you are given a 300ft transition to think about it. there is more to that hole than a 230ft wooded shot. If you dont see those kind of things in the other holes maybe we should have a discuss each hole at RL thread.
I see lots of land that looks like it would have made for more interesting golf when I play here. I wonder why it wasn't used?
You use the land you are allowed to. Period.
The rest of the land is reserved for future phases that include ballfields and roads and all sorts of things. But since you wrote this statement, I assume that you walked the rest of the property to see all the other neat land features? Nope probably not or you would have seen that they found the best land within the area they were given.
This course never establishes much of a rhythm IMO. Its a weird mix of easy, gimmie birdies, then tricky Par 3's, with 3 easy Par 4's thrown in the mix. It never really feels easy or challenging, it just hovers between the two.
Here we go again. I've never played with you, but I'd love to see you show me how to easily navigate 5 and 9. I've seen the score cards, 5 years of pros and amatures would love to get lessons too. Its driving me crazy, I can only think of 2 par 4s. Unless you consider 4 a par 4...it is not, it is a 3 on all documentation.
Every time I come here, I walk away with cut up shins, tons of bug bites, soaked in sweat. The first few holes are just open enough to let you get soaked in sweat as you're exposed to the warm Charlotte sun, then the up and down elevation on the shaded #4-18 makes it tough to get dry.
The rough here is abysmal. I'm talking there are holes you can ace run (#3, #18, etc.), drive 10' deep of the basket, and never see your disc again. It's just dumb how bad certain holes are.
There are spiderwebs everywhere.
Really? i've combed this review...after the last few lines...im sure you must have marked it down for Airport noise, smell of the sewer line, and distance from parking lot to first hole.
Combine that with the terrible rough and the wooded nature of this course, and even if you don't throw into the rough someone in your group is bound to. Rounds at RL always take a while because someone always loses a disc in the rough, and someone always throws into the stream on #4, etc.
I've given this course so many chances but frankly I just don't see the appeal. I live within a half hour drive and play RL less than once a year.
Just you man...its just you. I have a critical eye for rough. I dont find Rl overly abusive. Also if you live in Charlotte, you are a half an hour from like 70 courses, so not a big deal that you rarely get to RL.
If I want a quick, easy to play 18 hole course, I'll go to Renske or Winget. If I want to be challenged, I'll go to Nevin or Renny Gold. RL falls in a weird gray area where its not a quick, convenient to play course like Winget or Kilborne, but its not as challenging at Charlottes best courses.
So RL is my pick. Its rated the same (essentially) as the best Charlotte has to offer, when its my 6th or 7th favorite course within Charlotte's 485 loop. IMO Renny Gold, Nevin and Hornets Nest are clearly a cut above RL, but for some reason there has never been any scoring separation between the 4 courses over the past 3 years.
Just don't get it. RL isn't a bad course by any standard, but its completely insane to me that its rated the same as Nevin, Hornets Nest and Renny Gold. Its more tedious to play and less challenging.
RL is challenging and has amenities not found in other courses that can, in some people's eyes bring it to the level of courses you mentioned. For example. The benches at RL are sick, the practice field by the practice basket is pretty sweet, and the soccer fields right there are a great amenity. At hole 1 there is a large full sized map of the layout in a kiosk, water hazards add points to some people. In all these things RL exceeds, Nevin, Renny, Nest. So it gains in those areas and the others gain in other areas. Its not really mind blowing.
PS. OB at RL is not great in my opinion, 4 7 16 arent great holes...poor IMO.
I find certain courses easy, and that is a legitimate opinion. Don't know why that rustles peoples jimmies so much. If a course doesn't challenge me I will not rate it as high as one that does. 
