Pros:
My background on this course: This is my home course, which I have played 200+ times.
-Baskets: The baskets are Innova Discatcher Pros. They are very visible and in great shape.
-Tees: The tee pads are gigantic trapezoid concrete slabs. With run-ups perhaps a bit more important on this lengthy course, the size of these pads is a bonus. These tees were brand new as of October 2012. They were funded by the city and installed by the local club. Many of them have retaining walls that can serve as a bench.
-Signage: Each teeing area has a painted post (red for amateur, blue for pro, both for shared) with a sign attached to it. The signs have a nature trail theme with information about various topics and have nice maps of each hole.
-Maintenance: The course is pretty well maintained and is mowed on a reasonable schedule, especially given the size of the area to be mowed. Often times you will see defined fairways mowed, which frames the holes in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Efforts have been made to eradicate poison plants throughout most of the course. The Parks & Rec department has shown dedication in keeping the course in playable shape.
-Local Support: There is a local disc golf club who helps maintain the course as well. They assist in clearing the course of debris after storms and with construction and general maintenance projects on the course.
-Design: The course has a lot of wide open space, but almost every tee shot has some sort of obstacle to navigate and the course will often leave you with the feeling that you played a slightly more wooded course than it would have seemed upon first glance. In other words, the designer did an exceptional job in utilizing the property available to him. That said, the massive amount of trees that have fallen in recent years have weakened that original design.
-Tee Selection: Having amateur tees helps make the course a bit more beginner friendly, as the pro tees heavily favor players who can consistently throw over 300 feet. I have observed a tremendous amount of beginners playing the course off of the red tees, so this is a positive aspect in growing the sport in this area.
-Alternate Pins: A substantial number of alternate pins have been added in recent years by the local club, largely in response to the loss of dozens of trees on the course. The local club changes the pin positions periodically, which helps to break up the monotony of playing the same shots over and over for the local players.
-Other Amenities: The course is located in one of the nicest parks in the region. There are three massive shelters right next to the first hole, in fact one of the shelters falls right between the practice basket and first tees and is an ideal place for staging tournaments. There's also a nice bathroom near the parking area / playground. The practice basket itself is a nice green rimmed Discatcher located in the most logical location it could have been placed; out of the way of other people in the park, but not too far from the first tees. There is also a huge kiosk with course information and (sometimes) fantastic scorecards. The nearby office for The Beanstalk Journey zipline course has a small assortment of discs for sell, but it is only open intermittently, mostly on the weekends. Lost discs are often turned in / kept there as well. The course itself contains 4 benches on Holes 4/17, 8, 12, and 16 and a trash can on Hole 9.
Other Thoughts:
Mandos: There are now 4 officially recognized and signed mandos on the course (a double on #11, one on #14 blue, one on #17 blue, and one on #18 blue), indicated by white arrows. Any blue arrows you see spray painted on the trees were temporary mandos that were added without permission and you are not required to play those. There are two yellow blocks installed into the ground denoting the drop zones for the mandos on 11 and 17, while the mandos on 14 and 18 require a re-tee.
Least Favorite Hole: Holes #13 and 15 feel both the most bland and most similar of any two holes on the course. Both have received new pin positions, but remain pretty ordinary.
Favorite Hole: I love hole #8. It is one of the few holes with a significant elevation change and has a beautifully framed, tee shot that opens into (more or less) a meadow, perhaps invoking the namesake of the course.
Outlook: The course has shown much improvement over the years and despite the loss of trees, its outlook is exceptional with the support of the city and local club. The primary focus moving forward needs to be on tree replacement. The club does have plans to add some more alt pins and even some structures on the course to make it more interesting, such as elevated baskets.
Most of the greatest courses in the world have an amazing balance of wooded to open and hilly to flat holes, among other things. Catawba Meadows will always be mostly flat and mostly open and that is the character of the course and that can't really be changed, consequently I feel that this aspect somewhat limits the maximum score that the course can achieve.
The course has experienced significant upgrades in the past several years and is approaching a level of quality that it is going to be hard pressed to move beyond within the scope of a public course. I do encourage previous reviewers to revisit this course and update your reviews.