We made the approximate hour drive from Apex to East Clayton to try out this course. It was well worth the drive.

Pros:
- Perfectly maintained park with ample bathroom facilities and good signage.
- Since we played in December, there were no leaves on the trees or much underbrush, so the course was more open than it will be in summertime. I imagine there are places where the rough would be hell on this course. As it is, you can get in some major trouble if you kick into the trees. Many of the fairways are tight, but we found them all to be fair.
- Very nice use of terrain throughout. Many holes have a good bit of personality with interesting pin placements.
- I thought the tee pads were almost perfect. Some don't like the rubber pads, but I like them.
- There's a nice variety of long and short holes...and the alt tees give beginners a much easier experience.

Cons:
- First and 18th holes are near very busy areas of a park. We accidentally started walking across the 18th fairway without realizing it...and then we had to ask some kids playing football in the 18th fairway to move when we played it. That's not good.
- A couple of holes were very soggy. Not unplayable, but very muddy. This is not atypical for courses in the area, but a little fill or mulch would help a lot.

We were pleasantly surprised with this course. It was worth the drive. Nicely kept and challenging.

If there ever was a course that I had a love-hate relationship with... it was East Clayton DGC. This course has the ability to lift you up and tear you down multiple times all within one round, maybe even one hole. Even though it may not be championship level, this course has the ability to test the best of players. But let's get into the pros...

- Clayton is very well maintained for a public park disc golf course. The fairways are always clear of debris and the ground is spread with mulch or dirt, which is much better than the rocky terrain of many other local disc golf courses. The fairway for each hole is always clear and defined and provide ample space to shape your shots. Straying away from the fairway will put you into tree jail.
- This course provides ample challenge for anyone seeking it. There are a decent amount of par 3s, but the par 4s and 5s here will test you multiple times if you want to earn a par, let alone a birdie.
- The tee pads on this course are amazing. They are wide and long, and are encased in wood with rubber for exceptional grip. Most holes have alt pads which provide completely different approaches to the hole. You can tell they went the extra mile to make sure this played well in all conditions.
- The signage on the course is also great. Each hole has a nice, clean sign that accurately depicts the layout of each hole. There are even directional markers to guide you to the next hole, since it isn't always straightforward.
- The baskets on this course are also very nice and are up to tournament standards. There are a mix of regular, raised, and even rock planted baskets.
- There are a good mix of tournaments here and even some larger ones sponsored by Dynamic Discs and others!

I would rate this course highly so there aren't too many glaring issues.
- I would say some holes feel like there wasn't the greatest deal of thought put into them. They cross over other fairways and lack the creative flair that some other holes boast.
- Another one that is only temporary is that hole 18 is temporarily out of order due to construction, so they constructed a haphazard Hole 1 or 18 to replace it. This is only a 150 ft straight throw with created OB so it doesn't play too difficult. At least it has a rubber tee pad for it.

All in all, this is a great course for the area. It provides that pseudo-pro tour course feel while still offering something for any level of player. The challenge will keep you coming back as each hole can be played in many different ways. Although not for the faint of heart, this is a staple of the North Carolina disc golf scene.

Beautifully wooded property. The course is fairly well broken in considering how new it is. Signage is good at the long tees. Although the park has a lot of walkers, joggers, and other activities, hole #1 is the only one where there is any concern for safety - and possibly #18 after the construction is finished. Holes have good variety in length. Elevation change plays a significant role in your shots. A few baskets are raised for added challenge but not in a way that is gimmicky or annoying. For most of the holes, an errant drive penalizes the player in a way that not excessively unfair, as the woods are not horribly thick. Having two sets of tees makes a big difference in the course's accessibility to a range of skill levels.

I particularly love hole #1, even though there is no water in the "pond"... the hole is one of the best because it offers the most strategy on risk/reward when deciding how aggressive off the teebox to be, along with allowing a variety of shot types.

Good mix of shot types is required.

Almost the entire course is carved out of North Carolina forest (not a con!). There are some holes (maybe 3 or 4) that feel like they took a bulldozer through the woods to carve out fairways. So the shot strategy on these holes is simplistic... most people would throw similar shots. They could have been more interesting with more selective cutting that provides the player with multiple options or paths of reaching the baskets. That type of strategy is what separates the amazing courses from the good ones.

The layout of the course and lack of openness means I barely touched my fast drivers. There are long holes, but I typically used fairway drivers for a touch more control to stay out of the trees.

I don't think there is one trash can on the course after you leave tee 1. Not surprisingly, some people leave behind their water bottles or other trash.

Hole #17 could use some more cleanup of underbrush to the left of the fairway. I almost lost a disc in there my first time playing. And I DID lose a disc there my most recent time playing.

Short tees are only marked with temporary laminated paper labels.

There are 2 or 3 holes that could use some more rocks to help get over the mud/standing water.

I really enjoyed this course. I would not have guessed how new it is, because it seems well maintained and easy to follow. It's a great course with the potential for an even better rating after the construction is done and with a little more work. This is my local course, so I will be back often.

This a very well designed course and the maintenance is amazing. The use of the rock outcroppings and boulders here makes the course aesthetically pleasing as well as a challenge. The fairways are nice with a few spots of standing water but this seems to be only directly after a heavy rain. The fairways are actually "fair" without being easy. If you get off the fairway, it is because you made a bad shot and not because some random tree or overly restrictive fairway kicked you there. There are a few really tight fairways, but they are on shorter holes where they should be. This course is quickly becoming one of my favorites in the area.

There are very few things that are wrong in this course. The only real flaw to me from a design point of view is one hole has a tree directly in front and in the center of the white tee. This is not a huge deal and is really just a pet peeve of mine. The only other con is on hole 14, which looks like it was a great hole until the apartment complex next to the park put a picket fence all the way down the fairway and about 25 feet from the basket. This isn't the designers fault because the course was there first. Its just the price of progress. Maybe moving the basket 15 to 20 feet away from the fence may make things better. Its a little scary to throw a disc trying to park the hole and worry about the wind pushing your disc into someone's apartment window and potentially causing damage.

This course is a challenge for right handed players. 75% of the holes finish to the right. Some great long holes. The course is very well maintained.

This course could use cement pads, the rubber pads are uneven.

I will be making the trip to play here more often.

+ Located in a very nice park and seems well maintained

+ Very challenging. Don't come here expecting to shoot the same score you normally throw elsewhere. Very tough, but there is nothing about the course that seems unfair.

+ Most holes are distinctive and interesting with a mix of lengths (and pars) to keep things interesting.

+ Some elevation which is utilized well.

+ Fairways are carved nicely out of the surrounding land.

- It's very difficult to scramble once you get off the fairway as the foliage gets very thick very fast.

- The challenge can lead to some frustration.

I think in the future when the course is a little beaten in, it will be right up there with some of the best courses I've played.

East Clayton is a stand-out course in Johnston County. Over time, as more people give it a try and/or update earlier ratings when the course was rougher and dealing with construction, I expect the rating to go up. I certainly think it's top 25 worthy in North Carolina. It's most certainly better than a few top 25 courses I've played.

+ CHALLENGING. This is absolutely one of the toughest courses in the Triangle. If you want to test your game, this is probably the best track around to do that. And I'm talking about the White tees and the Blue tees.

+ The alt tees are really well done. Many are from completely different angles to the holes -- not just shorter versions of the Blue tees. Hole 1 is a great example of this. From the Blue tee, it's 370 feet over a retention pond. From the White tees, you walk around the retention pond and the fairway is wooded, shorter, and basically perpendicular to the Blue layout.

+ This course made me play so many different discs and every shot I could come up with and then some. There's great variety. I thought it was very lefty/righty neutral.

+ The setting here is really nice. The park is pretty and well maintained.

+ While this course is extremely challenging and heavily wooded, I thought the fairways were fair. Longer holes have wider fairways. There are true par 4's on both layouts and some par 5's on the Blue layout. And these are true par 4's and 5's with landing zones for the 2nd and 3rd shots (not just par 3's with extended distance).

+ The tee pads are large, level, rubber pads on top of wood and gravel foundations. They are very well done.

+ Navigation was simple and intuitive. There is good signage from both sets of tees, Next Tee signs, marked pathways to each hole. You'll have no problem as a first-timer here.

+ New baskets, and I love the recently installed markers for circle 1, helping you see precisely if you are inside the circle or not for putting.

+ Not a ton of elevation, but some. There are some nice, sweeping downhill hzyer holes (always one of my favorite types of holes).

+ Fun and interesting greens, including some baskets on elevated rocks with good risk/reward decisions.

+ This course is up there on the fun factor scale for me.

I struggle to find much to nit-pick at this course. I think many of the previous reviewers who dinged East Clayton for construction, missing holes, or not-beaten-in fairways should give it another shot. It's one of the best taken care of parks and courses in the Triangle.

- If hole 1 played over a nice looking pond instead of a mud pit retention pond, it would likely be one of the most memorable holes in the Triangle.

There's not much to quibble with on this course. Trying to think about the course this most reminds me of and it's a tall task. I don't think I'm over-selling it to say that Castle Hayne, which is a classic NC course near Wilmington, is the most similar to me (types of holes, lengths, variety, the density of the woods, punishing rough, mix of par 4's). The big difference being the feel of the courses (Castle Hayne being flatter, beachier, and probably even tougher rough). I got a similar feeling after playing those two courses too: BEATEN DOWN. Go see if you can tackle it!