Pros:
Catawba Trails Elementary is a simple, pitch-and-putt course. With nine holes playing along the school building, this one is clearly for the kids or anyone practicing the short game.
- Short, easy course. One hole (#7) is 204 feet. Every other hole - with a listed distance or not - are all much shorter than that, with none probably playing much longer than 125 feet.
- Great course for kids. Most holes are wide open without any obstacles. #4 has a couple trees near the basket; #8 plays around/near a canopied area. Other than that, this is an overly uncomplicated layout and a solid way to introduce kids to the game.
- Good place to practice your short game. There's enough room here to practice approach shots and putting. If you live nearby, that might be the most (and only) appealing part of this course.
- Good for a quick round. I spent more time trying to find the tees for each hole than I did actually playing the holes themselves. One could easily play through twice in less than 30 minutes, and possibly three times in that amount of time.
Cons:
The actual layout/flow of the course is a bit awkward. From the parking lot, you walk past the basket for #5 to get to the first tee. -- On an aside, the tees are all on portions of the sidewalk/concreted areas. Look for the spray-painted yellow boxes. -- From there, you play away from the building for holes #2 - 6. I couldn't find a 'tee area' for #6 even after searching for 10 minutes. Hole #7 plays behind the building, with some long walks involved. The baskets for #8 & 9 are almost right next to each other - you play #8, then essentially backtrack down #9's 'fairway' to turn around and throw. Then you walk back around the building to the parking lot. I guess kids need exercise, so the walking is good for them.
- My biggest concern with the course is how the fence comes into play on almost every hole, and how this could be a detriment to kids. It's only a three or four foot high fence, so it's easy to jump. If kids are playing disc golf during recess, A. their accuracy probably isn't as good as more experienced players, and B. I don't know if teachers let them jump the fence to get to their disc. Seems like this could be a frustrating issue for all involved.
- Lack of signage. Only four of nine holes had a tee sign, and of those, they weren't even that close to the tee area. It'd be easier to have smaller signs, so they could be placed closer to the tee areas, which would benefit all players. Also, not being able to find the tee area for #6 was annoying, as was the trying to remind myself this course didn't follow a natural disc golf course design flow.
Other Thoughts:
Catawba Trails' course is clearly for the kids. There wasn't one average hole on the course, with only a couple even being semi-interesting. That's mainly due to the lack of space, obstacles and terrain the designer(s) had to work with.
- I took it as a bad sign when a course is three years old, and only four people on this site had marked it as played. Clearly none, other than me, is making an effort to head out of the way to play this. At least it only added 15 minutes to my drive.
- Unless you live in the immediate area and will take advantage of using the baskets for practice, there's nothing this course has to add to your disc golf scene. Enjoy kids. This one's for you!