This course showed signs of recent renovation when I was there, which I suspect to mean they put in new pin positions, which is great, because every hole on this course has multiple pin locations, marked with red flags, as are the baskets themselves. An impressive THREE pin locations per hole seems to be the norm on this course, though a few holes might've just had two. Every hole has a single flat concrete tee in great shape, and a tee sign with a decent hole map and distance. The listed par is such that it comes out to 72 for the course, which is great for rec players. I played them all as 3's, which I suspect the local die-hard's do as well.
The course is set on a strip of land that generally slopes downhill from the meandering park road to the wooded area through which lie the train tracks you must cross to enter the park. The course is on large hills with scattered mature trees, as well as the aforementioned strip of woods.
This park reminded me of Anna Page West, in Rockford IL, but with cooler terrain and more overhanging branches. It has fewer trees and very little shule, but this park makes every tree count. Many of them have branches close to the ground that seem to grow out sideways, giving many trees wide profiles, and/or creating windows and/or low ceilings on many fairways.
I freely admit that I am biased towards heavily wooded courses, and often not impressed with fields of scattered trees, but this course really does it well. The unique profiles of many of the trees create much more intriguing holes than even many thickly wooded courses, where you are merely dodging between tree trunks. This is a different game entirely.
The thick canopies on this course add a vertical element to it as well, combined with some really cool terrain. A few of the best courses I've played (Justin Trails) have terrain that singularly creates interesting holes without much in the way of trees or water, and this course sports a few holes like this as well.
A good example of the canopy is the surprisingly-hard-to-deuce 208 ft Hole 5. You shoot slightly uphill to a flatter spot where two trees form a small, low window, through which you see the basket up the much steeper hill beyond the twin guardians, framed between the archway of their branches. The trees are wide and tall enough that its hard to spike hyzer around them, and its hard to get a skip up the steeper area for an easy deuce. Not to mention the elevation makes it play significantly longer than the sign says. Looks simple, but its not.That's how this park is, in a nutshell. They keep the baskets well protected, and other than 16 and 17, are are few gimme's here.
The elevation here is some of the coolest I've played on, and the course design maximizes it for many unique and memorable holes, including several blind pins, long hilltop-driving holes, and a variety of curves.
Because there is not much shule, many holes lend themselves to several possible lines to play on any given holes. However, the size and girth of the trees here keep players honest, and do punish errant shots, as does the steep terrain.
This course will get you to think about your shots, and especially where you want them to land. It will also have several holes that will stretch most arms, WHILE forcing control, both in direction and height.
Though hole 12 is the "signature hole", my personal favorite is hole 7. The fairway plays up a steep hill, with the wooded area on the left. In the middle of the fairway is a gigantic thing that appears to be several trees growing out of the same stump. Its pretty wide, and only gets wider the further above the ground it gets. Past it is another tree or two, and behind that is the basket, either slightly left or right of center (depending on the pin placement). Either way, totally hidden from you off the tee. You are forced to choose which way to bend around this behemoth in your way. Its tough, because you need all the distance you can get to make it up the hill, but if you clip a branch, you are looking at a 4. Spike hyzers are dangerous due to rollaway on the slopes, and more branches up above, so you have to find the right height to maximize distance up the hill, which is a delightful challenge.
The first 12 holes here flow down the hill to the edge of the woods, and play back and forth, working their way along the area in a clockwise direction. The wooded areas in play, if any, are usually on the left side or back of the holes. The last six holes of this course play up closer to the road, and work their way back to the start.
This course opens up with two holes that are interesting, purely terrain holes. One tree total, on both fairways. Hole one is on the edge of a raised sloping ridge, and two is a blind downhill shot that forces you to curve around a lone tree on the crest of the next hill to a pin hidden in the low area just before the edge of the dangeous wooded dropoff. The first chunk is a good mix of short-medium length holes (mid-high 200's) with a 300+ ft-er thrown in periodically. Deuces are attainable but well-earned on this section. Starting at hole 12, the course delivers the knock-out blow with three long, fairly technical holes in a row, two over 400 ft, that can wreck your score. After that, there is a longish tunnel shot, and 16 and 17 provide back to back birdie opportunities, before finishing with the interesting hole 18 (which is either fairly clever or dastardly cunning depending on where the pin is)
This course is a fun time, and thanks to the terrain, has good drainage and variety. The gorgeous park itself will wow you more than the course, but this one is definitely worth playing if you are in the area.