Carolina Lakes DGC, or Sun City Carolina Lakes DGC, located within Water's Edge Park is a 9 hole, open course that features long and short tee pads on every hole. There are nice tee signs at every long pad, with simple maps, par, and distances listed. The baskets are DISCatchers, and the course is well maintained.

Unlike many of the nearby courses, there are some holes that require some real distance. Bigger arms will enjoy throwing drivers from the long tees. Navigation is simple, once you find the tee for Hole 1. The course mostly plays around the outskirts of the field that creates the park.

The park was very busy/active when I played. However, I was the only one playing disc golf - so I sort of had the course to myself.

By Hole 5 there is a place with a scenic view of the Catawba River.

Hole 1 played slightly downhill to a basket in between some trees. Hole 2 plays out of an extremely forgiving gap from the same scattered trees. Hole 6 plays around a cluster of trees to a basket on the edge of a pond. Hole 9 plays slightly uphill. The rest of the holes are wide open, flat, and can be reached, or played toward, with shots with slight hyzer if RHBH.

The course is meant for residents and guests only. That is something to be aware of if you're trying to play here. I had no issues when I went by myself, and even had a nice conversation with a few gentlemen while helping them look for their lost drone in the field the course was located in.

The tee pads could use a bit of work. They look like they were once crushed gravel with rubber mats over top of them. Some were still sort of there, others less so.

As I said before, the park is a very active park, and most do not seem to understand what disc golf is. Please be respectful to other park goers.

The biggest hurdle players are going to have while playing here is if they can throw the required distance in the general direction of the basket or not. A bit more variation in the hole design would have been welcome, which is a shame because there were plenty of trees surrounding the field. If any of it were available, it could have made for a few more exciting holes.

Carolina Lakes DGC at Sun City is a perfectly fine course. It's the kind of course you tell your friends, "It is easily one of the disc golf courses I've played." It isn't terrible by any metric, but it isn't a course players are likely to recommend their friends check out. For residents, this is a great place to get some air under their discs and learn their flight patterns. I am giving the course a 1.5 rating, but if there were more variation in the hole designs, the tees were upgraded, and/or maybe a few more trees around the course to force different shot shapes it would deserve a higher rating.

Favorite Holes: 2 & 6

This is a course set in a 55+ community. It was built and designed by the community. You can tell the local clubs didn't have input into this layout.
- It's not bad. It's a simple layout playing within a community park.
- The course is essentially in a wide open field. Hole #1 has a little tree protection. #6 is the course's best, most varied, and most scenic layout. #9 incorporates a smidge of elevation. The other holes are all open, some with slight dogleg aspects to them (of which #2 is the best) and others are relatively straight.
- Shoot, I already described the entire layout in two bulletin points. Let's see. Hmmm.
- #6 really is a pretty layout. It's 225 feet from the short tees & 324 from the long. You start in the open, aiming at a basket protected by mature trees, with a pond 50 feet past the basket. Anything sailing long may actually find water.
- Dual tees, both of which are easily visible. Also, very nice tee signs.
- Course has a general easy to follow, clockwise flow.
- Course is designated as for community residents only. I had no issue playing. I'm guessing individuals probably won't arouse suspicion. Groups of young people/whippersnappers/the younger generation may be more noticeable.
- Excellent place to practice field work. From #3's tee to #6 basket, you've got about 1,000 feet of open field to work with.

A simple layout with little to no variety. The short holes range from 189 to 234 feet. Yes, that's correct. Simply throw 210 feet on every hole and you're putting for birdie. At least the longs range from 248 to 419; although, 7 of 9 range between 291 to 396. So again, not much variance.
- #2 through 5 are all essentially the same layout. The woods hug the left side of the fairway with the open field to the right. The amount of dogleg varies from hole to hole. But, just throw a sweeping shot on every hole and let your disc fade back to the basket. #7 - 9 are all relatively straight shots. So another stretch of rinse and repeat.
- To the left of #5 is a short trail that leads to the Catawba River. It makes you think how nice it would have been to put a hole there.
- Course isn't aimed at advanced players. That said, a course like this would yield a big scoring disparity between different skill levels. Those who can park 350 foot tee shots are going to be closer to 9 under whereas those of us who are hoping just to be putting, are going to be closer to even or a couple under for the round.
- Watch for other park goers. One resident decided he was going to use the field for his iron game. Brought out a bunch of balls and a couple clubs. He only aimed somewhat in my direction.
- Random tangent. I found out there's another Carolina Lakes DGC in Sanford, NC, 2.5 hours to the east. Nothing like posting a review, wondering why it didn't show up, to discover you were writing for the wrong course. Guess I'll have to play that course so I can compare to see which one is better.

There's nothing inherently wrong with this course. It's got the bones of a suitable course. It just isn't all that much fun.
- For any local in the Charlotte region, this is a 9-hole version of Frank Liske Park in Concord. I was standing on the 4th tee, looking at the tee sign for the distance, and was shocked that I was only on #4. My brain had already shut off and I would have imagined I was already on #7 or 8. Not a ringing endorsement.
- There's debate about how this course should be named on this site. The technical name of the community is Sun City Carolina Lakes. Sun City is the parent company. Residents in here refer to their community as Carolina Lakes primarily. The name of the park inside of (Sun City) Carolina Lakes is Water's Edge Park. So, Water's Edge Park at Sun City Carolina Lakes DGC?
- To add to the confusion, the actual town its located in is also under debate. Some places have it listed as Indian Land while others have it as Fort Mill. Well, Indian Land is the closest town. Fort Mill is in a different county. My parents live nearby. Growing up, we lived in unincorporated land before it was annexed by Charlotte. During that time, their official address listed them as part of a different town. Ah, fun times not getting mail delivered.
- Oh yes, the course. Courses like this just aren't all that fun for me. On a good day versus a bad day, my final score won't vary by more than a couple strokes. Barring a fluky round with multiple holes-in-one, I'll probably get a couple birdies, mostly pars, and maybe a bogey due to a bad shot. A bad day means those birdies are pars instead due to missed putts.
- That said, if I could walk here, and knew I'd have the course to myself, this would be a perfectly suitable neighborhood course.
- I'm giving this a 1.0 rating, which is slightly below average for 9-hole layouts. There's just nothing memorable here to make anyone want to return. I'd rather play a shorter, easier, but varied layout (such as Fewell Park in Rock Hill) than this layout.