* Challenging. It's not often I feel great finishing at par, but this course is one of those times.
* It's not exclusively wooded. There are some open throws for some variety.
* Pretty good mix of par 3/4/5, not typical of the area. I like that some fairways require me to throw righty then lefty or vice versa.
* That hole one sign is tip top, and an indicator of good things to come. (The remaining signs when I last played were printed paper with a sleeve to protect from moisture.)

* LOTS of the fairway is chipped wood. Some of those chips are pretty darn big. You can quite frequently be sitting in the middle of the fairway with very unsure footing.
* There is a good amount of next tee this way sort of markers, but they are TINY. As are the mando signs. They're very small and in dull colors, so they're very easy to miss.
* The woods are a little overly punishing. These are some of the densest woods I've seen. There are several tiny trees and branches that seem impossible given the denseness of the larger trees that should have shaded away the smaller guys by now. I feel like one "penalty" stroke of having to throw out into the fairway is fair, even if it's backward. But when your disc hits a tree on the left side of the fairway and then miracles it's way deep into the woods on the right, I've had to take two strokes just to get back to the fairway at times.

I'd definitely play this course more frequently if not for the commute. It's fun seeing it develop and I'm sure it'll only get better over time.

Lots of plaudits to hand out here. The course is installed on really pretty property with lovely, scenic woods. Lots of holes have large, lichen covered boulders by the tees or baskets and the woods the fairways are carved out of seem to be untouched by man until now. The fairways are nice and wide, well shaped and balanced so as to not be biased towards lefties/sidearm players or vice versa. Whether your backhand or forehand dominant, you're going to be competitive if you stay on the fairway and the lanes are big enough that if you miss the fairway it's your fault, period. The other really superb attention to detail is that wood mulch lines almost every fairway which is a great erosion prevention measure.

The course is predominately wooded but begins and ends with fairly open holes. Hole 1 is a slightly downhill carry over a nasty, marshy retention pond. Kiss your disc goodbye if you land in there. Hole 18 comes back the other side of that marsh so there's some natural OB challenge utilized well. The rest of the course is basically good to great NC woods golf where you need to hit lines and place shots. The longer you can make your lines accurately, the more you'll be rewarded with birdie opportunities but a noodle armed golfer with great precision will still be able to hang thanks to good hole management.

The tees are the rubber mats on gravel variety, mostly pretty good. Tee signs are great and once you find the start of the course the flow is very intuitive and easy to follow along. They actually have maps printed out at the kiosk too that would've been unnecessary normally but came in handy b/c it appears that they're building a road into the community next to the park that has cut through holes 14 and 13 (BOOOOOO!). The rest of the course is so thought out that I have no doubt that they'll make good adjustments. Oh yeah, relatively new Innova Discatchers is that's your thing. These baskets are not uniformly at the same height either which I really appreciate. Some a little elevated, some a little low like hole 17's.

This course has a lot of par 4's and par 5's and they're solid, multi-throw holes as they should be. If you played them regularly I suspect that they'd be more rewarding than punitive; I had a drop in birdie on one par 5 on my 1st time playing. Most of the par 3's are very get-able but a couple are very tough, like a 400+' wooded tunnel (hole 17 I think), I don't recall a hole that felt like a secret par 2 except maybe hole 12. But I don't mind the occasional short, really technical hole to mix things up.

Hole 14 is completely missing I think due to construction, could not find a basket anywhere. Hole 11 and/or 10 are going to get altered greatly due to that too, bummer.

I don't love the tees as I am a concrete tee purist. They're mostly good but some of them were lumpy enough I felt more comfy going sidearm. The wood mulch is fantastic so I hate to complain about them but a lot of it is long enough that you can kick it into the back of your other leg as you walk. A very minor gripe.

The biggest con, and it's totally remediable, is that they rough is thicker than that cheerleader that made the squad b/c her mom paid for all the uniforms. You know the one. It's an almost automatic pitch out if you go off fairway and that's saying something if I'm saying it. I'd like to see more scramble opportunity if you land just off the fairway but it's a new course so over time this should arise.

I was slightly underwhelmed by 18's pin placement. The little ridge on the right seemed like it might be a riskier green to help scoring separation a little. Just a thought.

Really well done course, kudos to CADL. It's fun, it's got a good amount of challenge, it's lovely nature and its design is refreshingly good. I would be very tempted to give it a 4 if the tees were flawless and the construction wasn't monkey wrenching the course. There aren't any super spectacular, memorable holes (hole 1 maybe) but the consistency of quality is very high. The terrain isn't as exciting as other courses so they did the best with what they had to work with.

Hole 16 was probably my favorite hole. If you have the arm it's an absolute pleasure to bomb a sweeping hyzer down this slightly downhill tunnel. There's a big pine that's leaning diagonally in it which really frames the hole beautifully as the one obstacle you want to avoid but it should probably come out.

Great tee boxes, and pad!
Very diverse as far as using every throw throughout the course!

Unfortunately the area around holes 11-13 have construction nearby as Clayton expands. Usually not very loud but has rougher terrain and hard to get good footing. Signage by tee boxes are not in place yet but I am sure it is coming soon!

Overall this course is awesome! Very challenging and will use every throw in your repertuar. The volunteers and directors have been working very diligently in the past few weeks to get this course in top shape for the upcoming tournament tomorrow. and with the exception of the construction near a few holes on the back side of the course it plays very well. But beware, no matter what you do, STAY IN FAIRWAYS! The woods even if 1 foot in the woods can be detrimental! Looking forward to playing this hole in the future to see how the course ends up when it's finished!

Mr. Henn and affiliated volunteers have carved an excellent track out of the woods in East Clayton Park. This course features creative tee and pin locations in glacial rock outcroppings that effectively capture the topography of the park.

- The course currently has natural tee areas
- The course currently doesn't have a message board

I look forward to playing this course many more times and anticipate increasing my rating as final polishing occurs. This challenging course will likely be a prime location for future tournaments.