Pros:
This is one of the most cared-for courses I've played. Tee pads are spacious and concrete, often limned with brick retaining walls. The greens are covered in red mulch, and any area that could be wet after a rain is covered in hay. It's tough to ask for much more in terms of course manicuring. No problem with mowing on the open holes, either.
About two thirds of the course is wooded, and many holes feature multiple lines to the basket. These were fun holes, and they held my interest until the very end.
Unlike many people, I appreciate a good water carry, and Blue Ribbon Pines has several. None were exceptionally challenging, but they were enough to get in your head and to make the power throwers reconsider if they could get all the way over the pond (one caveat: the ponds were covered in algae, and if your disc goes in, I assume you won't find it).
Hole 4 is maybe the most photographed hole in the game with the long alley between symmetrical rows of tall trees. These are the kind of holes you daydream about.
Hole 7 was a cool shot with a pond lurking about 2/3 up the fairway. Again, if you have a huge arm, you could clear it, but otherwise you are considering how much you can safely put on your drive to lay up. This is how ball golf structures holes, and I love it when disc golf does, too.
One of the late holes has a downed tree parallel to the ground about 5-6 feet off the ground. It felt a little artificial (I don't think it fell like that), but I like it. It gets in your head. If you can throw low and flat under it, it's an ace run. You can throw an easy shot over it and card the safe par, too. Either way, you're thinking about your options.
Cons:
No elevation at all. Obviously the designers can't help this, but this is an absolute requisite for a 5.0 for me, and probably for a 4.5.
Tee signs bordered on useless. They were just pictures of what you could see with your own eyes (tee signs are supposed to show what I CAN'T see from the tee). On a wooded course like this, I'd like to know where the trouble lies and where the lines are without having to walk the whole fairway.
The throws across the open space felt a little bland. I'm all for adding open holes to the technical course, but you can still have the greens be wooded (or the tee areas wooded) so that there is a gap that needs to be hit. On too many of these, it was basically "throw in that direction as far as you can," and these holes just felt like filler between the two wooded sections.
Finally, criticism of one hole: hole 9 was a 140-foot hole with a 90-degree dogleg right. Getting a 3 was trivially easy, but getting a 2 would require nailing a very long putt, and a 4 would require completely botching the hole on multiple throws. This felt like a crammed-in hole.
Update: I've been told there is a legit line to the basket on this hole, and I'll trust the locals.
Other Thoughts:
A 4.0 signifies an "Excellent" course. Blue Ribbon Pines is excellent, and the enthusiasm of the locals is very evident. I love that Minnesotans plow this in the winter. I was born in the Twin Cities, but I lost that level of heartiness along the way. This is a must play if you are in the Twin Cities, and I look forward to my next visit.