-Interesting basket placements on several holes.
-Easily navigable for the most part.
-DISCatchers on all holes.
-Variety in length and hole difficulty.

-This course is littered with trash (old hand warmers, an old fire extinguisher, flower pots, a sign post, etc.) especially on the wooded holes
-Weird transition from hole 1 to hole 2.
-No public bathroom on-site.
-Only 9-holes
-Natural tees on all holes. None of the markers were visible, and we simply teed off from the closest spot that made sense.

Crest High School is really not a bad course, especially for one located on a school campus as they tend to be pitch-and-putts for the most part. Overall, this course just lacks identity. Does it want to be a short tightly wooded pitch-and-putt (a la Holes 6 & 7)? Does it want to be a long open course (Holes 4 & 5)? Who knows? Yes, it has good variety, but it just felt forced. Basically, this course could be a decent 9-holer with a little TLC, an additional 9-holes, and some concrete tee pads.

Crest High School has a decent nine-hole layout. I was more impressed with the top-notch athletic facilities (hello big money) than anything else here.
- There are some nice holes here, which break up an otherwise monotonous course. #5 is a legitimately fun and challenging hole. It's a 450 foot, downhill layout. It's a blind tee shot across a field and down a slight hill. The challenge is in your approach shot. The basket is hidden in a narrow open in the woods, so your tee shot has to be strategically placed in order to have a shot to the basket. First time I played this layout, I didn't know that, so I had to essentially waste a stroke getting in the correct position so I could reach the basket. This hole offers a true mix of distance and accuracy, something you don't often see in a course of this level.
- There's a little variety here. Key word is little. A couple holes (#5 & 8) have some nice elevation; two are true wooded holes (#6 & 7); and the others are all predominantly open and flat. Two holes are shorter than 150 feet and four are longer than 350 feet, so there are a couple chances to throw driver.
- Baskets are in good shape. There are nice tee signs and very easy to spot from far away.
- Course is easy to navigate with one exception. Going from hole #1 to #2 tee, you have a long walk between the tennis courts and softball field. The tee for #2 is right next to the main road.
- The facilities at this school are impressive. From the football field to football field house, tennis courts to baseball and softball field. All have some money poured into them. When you pull into the parking lot, you see a ball field. I thought this was well kept baseball field. Turns out it's actually the softball field. I've never seen a high school have such a great softball field. All around, these were very impressive venues indeed.

There were only several small things to point out about this course.
- There were too many open, flat holes. It's what you would probably expect for a school course except there did seem to be more land to expand/add challenge to the layout. For example, move the tee pad back on #8, to make the tee shot even more challenging. It's currently an uphill, 202 foot, dogleg right hole. This was probably the second best hole on the course, in terms of layout, but it still didn't offer much challenge. Pushing the tee pad back, would up the risk/reward factor big time.
- Along those lines, it was disappointing that the two wooded holes were the two shortest on the course. Again, there was more room behind them to easily add some more length. With these two holes, even a bad tee shot should lead to a relatively easy up-and-down to save par.
- The tee for #2 is somewhat close to the main road - Old Boiling Springs. The layout is a dogleg right, away from the road, and the road isn't normally that busy, so it "shouldn't" be a problem. That said, if you're tee shot gets away from you, it won't take much to be landing on, or across, the road.

All, in all, this is about what you'd expect for a school course. There are some challenges, but it's mainly aiming for beginner/casual players.
- It is nice to see how prominently featured this course is throughout all of the athletic fields. Some schools seemingly dump a course in the back of the campus, away from everything else. So it was nice to see how the baskets weaved through everything. This can only help expose students to the game.
- This is a quick course to play. I played through twice in about 45 minutes. The worst part of the course might be the walk back from hole #9 across the parking lot, back to the first tee.
- If you're in the area, and are looking to play a course, I'd play Gardner-Webb before this one. There's nothing at this course you won't find at most places. Now, (hypothetically) if the school ever poured some of that athletic budget into the course, it would be interesting to see how good it could get.