Pros:
A pay to play course done the right way. The care and love of the owners is evident from the moment you set foot on this course. Outstanding maintenance and design. All concrete tee boxes, even concrete tees for water hazard drop zones!!! Wood chips around every basket, impeccably manicured with a ring of rocks or wooded "sandbox style". On some holes, the whole fairway is woodchips. Descriptive and clear maps on every tee.
Beyond just the facilities, this course is gorgeous. Most holes play in the woods, with a variety of harsh doglegs, tunnel shots (see the picture of hole #4, thats a 400+ ft laser beam straight tree corridor you have to shoot through, yikes!), water hazards, both rivers and lakes in play on several holes, and tons of trees. This course has a moderate amount of terrain as well. No steep uphill or downhill shots, but the terrain available is used for a variety of interesting wrinkles. Also, it is evident some landscaping has been done to sculpt some of the holes to make things even more interesting.
Many creative things are used to make putting a challenge on every hole. Most putting circles are raised bed of woodchips (which play pretty fast, prone to rollaways and skips) surrounded by a stone ring which makes it harder to roll in close for an easy layup.One pin is mounted in a raised stump. Another putting circle is a wide pit about 2 feet lower than the surroundings, with one big tree blocking it from the tee (i didnt see the pin until I had walked past it).
THe holes I played (and how they were listed on the tee signs) were in many cases different than what the scorecard said (I think for whatever reason, probably growing sod) the 27th hole i played used the basket for the so-called 28th hole (practice basket), the scorecard's hole 27 was actually 26 on the course. For a course so well designed, it puzzled me how and why they could or would do this. I think soem of the middle holes, which shoot over/into the fields, are rotated around as they use the fields for sod-growing. In any case, its astounding, and impressive they are able to shift hoels around like this and still have a great course.
This course will challenge you. By hole 9, the weaving, tree-filled fairways had me skittish of throwing any plastic other than champion/z, and I still managed to taco a disc.
Roughs are not too thick, making lost discs generally findable, though all the giant trees mean there are no "get out of jail free" passes on errant drives. As previously stated this course will punish errant drives, and even some drives on the fairway. Not ideal for a beginner,
As this course ages, and the traffic beats it in a bit, (discs chopping branches off trees, etc." i believe it will only get better, and perhaps a little more manageable. Some of the tunnels might be cleared out a bit from use (thumbers take a toll on trees), so come on down and do your part by getting your discs custom engraved with chunks of bark from this forest. It's worth it.
Cons:
Its greatest strength could also be seen as a con. This course is challenging, make no mistake. There are a lot of big trees everywhere on this course. Sometimes the fairway seems a bit too crowded with them. It makes you realize that in other parks, like Acorn and even North Valley or Kaposia, the trees are smaller, and thus harder to hit dead on. Those glancing hits off trees you still can salvage some shot from, but when tree hits are dead-on, your disc just drops at the base. You will get a lot of dead-on tree hits here if you are not careful ( I think I set a new high score for tree hits when I played). Accuracy is key.
The bugs here laugh at you. I sprayed most of a can of Off on myself, and wore a hat, but it hardly slowed them down.Soak your clothes in citronella before you head out here, or strap a tiki torch to your bag.
These are minor concerns when the course is this great, so plan ahead, and bring your A-game, and you should be fine.
The challenge (and length) of this course can test your attitude, so don't let it get to you. If you get frustrated on #12, it will be a looong round, unless you snap out of it.
Other Thoughts:
This may seem obvious, but bring premium plastic and bug spray. The giant trees will eat your discs, and the giant horseflies will eat you, if you aren't careful.
Since it is such a long drive from the cities, dont worry too much about the "two hours before sunset" closing time. It is not strictly enforced. If you slide money through the slot, I doubt they would care if you wanted to play at dusk (several folks were starting when I finished up at 9pm)