East Gold St. Wesleyan Church is a 9 Hole Course with DISCatcher baskets in a horseshoe shape around the church. Each natural tee is marked by a numbered post and each basket has a flag on top to show which way the wind is blowing. There are next tee signs on every basket, which makes navigation fairly simple.

While most of the holes are simple pitch-&-putt design, there are a couple of longer holes near the end of the course that were a nice change of pace. For beginners the course design is pretty well done, with Par being attainable for most beginners. More experienced players will likely be fine with a putter and maybe a midrange.

Hole 9 is either going to feel poorly designed or really fun depending on how it is played. At only 376' long, the basket is not going to be out of reach for more experienced players. But it is located on a narrow strip of grass between two parking lot areas and the risk of scratching a disc up is pretty high. Players who aim for a birdie three using layup shots, with the asphalt considered OB, will get to play a miniature version of a really fun design without nearly as much risk of tearing their disc up as someone who sends it for the green. For those with the arm to try for eagle, it is going to feel overly gimmicky. Luckily I had parked my car between the tee and the basket, and also only had a midrange & putter with me, so I was not tempted to try to drive the green. (As an added bonus, I was able to start my car up and let it cool down while I walked over to tap out my putt.)

There are too many places at this course, where an errant shot could end up in a neighbors backyard, in the playground, the church parking lot, and/or on/against the church or neighboring warehouse. Players with any semblance control probably won't have too big of an issue with this, it is still best to not play this course if there is anything going on at the church.

The course had an opportunity to be fun around Holes 5 to 9, but the lack of maintenance on this section really hampered the fun factor. With knee high grass that had patches as tall as my chest, it meant either playing placement shots or looking for discs that were actually well thrown.

Depending on the line thrown, Hole 7's fairway crosses Hole 6's fairway. It is likely never going to be an issue here, but it means that it might even be a challenge to have multiple cards going if the youth group at the church ever wanted to play.

For the reasons listed above I would struggle to give East Gold St. Wesleyan Church higher than a 0.5 rating. If the church owned the land behind the course, and that could be used to expand the course, it could easily be an improvement. At least if the whole track were maintained better. With the limited space available though, I am honestly a bit surprised there were 9 tees to 9 baskets instead of something along the lines of a 9 tees playing to 3 baskets.

Favorite Hole: 9*

*Only if played the way I mentioned above.

When getting off the highway for gas and lunch I decided to see if there were any courses that I could swing through and stretch my legs at, and .6 miles from the gas station I found this little 9 holes.

With a rating below 1 on DGCR and 3.5 on Udisc I had to examine and see what this disparity was and honestly I don't know how anyone could give it higher than a 2.5 unless it was the only place they had ever played.

The have 9 disc catcher baskets in good working order, and maybe 4 of the 9 holes with a pretty interesting design.

Hole 6 is an interesting shot with a blind basket, and 7 would be the best hole on the course if you didn't have to cross over the 6 fairway to throw it. The intended line is a really wide forehand, but it's by far not the best way to reach the pin.

The final hole is fun with road and parking lot OB, but if you are playing when anyone at all might be at the church cars could be hit.

I feel like someone who knows disc golf helped put this one together. Some of the lines are kind of nice.

The baskets have next tee arrows so at least you can navigate.

The cons unfortunately are not a short list.

On the first two holes the pin is very close to the houses that boarder the left side of the course. I'm sure new players go into their yards and maybe even hit one close by house all the time. On holes 2 and 3 the playground is in the line of fire, and I actually hit one of those basket style baby swings on 3 when the shot was on line.

The grass on holes 5-8 is knee high and there are a lot of brambles. Several groupings of trees add some needed challenge on the back half, but there is a ton of underbrush so getting a disc out is not easy.

Tees are marked by 4x4 posts with mailbox numbers on them and some have sharpie with the distance.

No pads and some of the spots are not very level.

Safety is an issue if anyone is at the church. Kids on the playground, can't play 2&3. Full parking lot, can't play 4,5,9.

The land is not really ideal for a course. Holes 1-4 come into contact with the other activities too much, and the back is not maintained currently. There is actually some half decent land behind the existing course, but the church must not own it.

If holes 4-8 were combined with that land you could probably make a 2-2.5 9 hole course.

Kudos to the church for allowing it to be built, but someone at least needs to hit it with a lawnmower. Trying hard not to be rude, but other than a spot to stretch your legs and practice your putts it doesn't do a whole lot of most people.

You can solo it in 20 though if speed golf is your thing.

-There are markers in the ground. Hole distances are given in sharpie. There are baskets in the ground. That's pretty much all the nice things I can say.

-I would usually say don't say anything if there's nothing nice to say. In this case however, I'd say for you to say something mean from the rooftops because this niner is real bad. Seriously! Get on facebook and say how much it sucks. It sucks due to either overgrowth, blandness, or careless hole design. You could guess why it's bad and you'd probably get the answer right and still be wrong since there are so many issues.

-Hole #2. Wowzers this is bad. There's a playground on the right side and the neighborhood on the left. Seems obvious that there was no encounter with any of the "Not in my backyard" squad. Doesn't mean a hole should be inches away from someone's backyard. And the playground? No reason for this hole to exist. Now there probably won't be anyone here when you play, but I think playgrounds need their designated space.

-#9. Here's a second one because we just couldn't make do with only one here. This hole is awful too! You are sandwiched between the church parking lot on the right and the warehouse parking lot on the left. There's an enormous bush just about a foot behind the basket. Go long, and you are either somehow stuck in the bush, or you hit it and rolled into one of the parking lots. Yeah you saw it, one of the parking lots. I threw an anhyzer over the warehouse parking lot and crossed over the green and landed on the right side, in the church parking lot.

-Tall grass. Tick infested. Lost disc potential on holes #6 and #7 with all that tall grass. The group of trees near #6's basket looks like a disc eater. There's a big messy wood line near #7's fairway. On the first hole, the tee pad is under a tree with tons of low limbs.

-If you play #7 on the right side of the tree line, you'll be crossing #6's fairway. It's not a very long par four, so if you have a big arm you'll probably be compelled to try and reach it. Not that it matters anyway since you'll probably be the only person here if you play it.

-The remaining holes, that I didn't mention are bland.

-Pull the baskets. They'd be better off somewhere else. Maybe a local park with more space. They couldn't do diddly poo here! As coach Jim E Mora would say.

-Had a 3.7 rating on U disc. You kidding me? 3.7?? Subtract three from that. Maybe two and a half if you are feeling generous. This is why you look at the ratings here on DGCR.

Have you ever been to lavish meal where there is so much good food, you can't possibly try everything? You get so focused on the sweets, you didn't even have time to sample the appetizers? Now, picture the opposite of that, and you have the essence of the problems at East Gold Street Wesleyan Church.
- In and of itself, most holes have the bones of a good design. As for execution? Well....(shoulder shrug)
- #1 is a fine, short, beginner-friendly hole. Low ceiling shot throwing under or around branches/trees.
- #2 is a scenic layout with Crowders Mountain serving as a backdrop for this layout. Here's where the issues start to creep in. I viewed this hole as a tight, island green type of layout, with an OB fence on the left and a swingset as an obstacle to throw over or around. Then, after some reflections, and one disc getting caught in a gust of wind and sailing over the fence, I realized it wouldn't take much for a disc to hit a housing unit. Plus, the whole idea of the hole being unplayable if there are kids on the swings.
- #6 & 7 could both be high quality layouts. Honestly, if a big name designer or a big name course had these layouts, I'd imagine they would be viewed differently. Blind tee shots on both, with tight fairways lined by waste high (or taller) grass. #6 is the shorter, 236-footer that plays to the right of a giant oak. #7 is a multi-shot, par 4, 431-footer with the fairway playing to the left and behind the same tree. I threw a short 200-ish foot tee shot to make sure I had eyes on my disc.
- #9 is another hole that seems like it has the bones of a solid layout, but it's just missing something. The left side of the fairway is a small road and a business. When I played, there was someone just hanging out in their vehicle on the left side of the fairway, which took away several routes/shot types.
- Tee sign posts make it easy to spot your next hole. The transition from #6 to 7 could use an arrow or clear path for the navigationally challenged.

Course is somewhat neglected. Ok, actually it looked like the fields where portions/all of holes #4 - 9 play hadn't been mowed in a long time. Granted, it's wheatgrass-esque so not difficult to navigate through. It's more of an issue that you can't spot anything until you're just about on top of said object, be it a disc or a snake.
- Safety issues. As mentioned above, there's an issue on #2. Issues also abound on #4 (throwing along the backside of the church building) and #9 with its fairway alongside the street.
- Several boring holes. For the holes with neither safety issues nor tall grass, it's because these holes are essentially out in the open. #3 & 5 are simple non-obstacle layouts. At least on #8, you have to throw around a large conifer.
- Frustrations for beginners/kids. This course is meant to be beginner friendly. I don't know anyone who got hooked on the game by searching for a disc in three to four foot tall grass or walking around a fence to get a disc.

Somehow, this is a relatively spaced out course at East Gold Church. If you look at the satellite image, you'll see how small this space is. You're looking at less than five acres for the course. With that constraint in mind, it's actually decent.
- Course doesn't offer even much in terms of practice. You could use the baskets for putting or approach shots, but that's it. There's not room for drives. And, with the tall grass in play, you wouldn't want to turn practice time in disc recovery time.
- I liked hole #2. It really is one of the most picturesque backdrops in the area, especially coming from Charlotte. For us Charlotte players, the elevation and mountain backdrop make this feel nothing like a Charlotte course. You're definitely playing foothills disc golf here.
- Instead of a local brewery, there's a nice winery seven minutes away. And for food, you're less than 15 minutes from Red Bridges BBQ Lodge in Shelby. It's consistently rated as one of the best bbq spots in the state. As for disc golf, head back towards Gastonia and play Rankin or Bradley.
- The tall grass is a major deterrent. Playing here when the grass is shorter or winter and this would be a much greater experience. Just don't throw any wheat-colored discs and you should be ok.
- I'm rating this as slightly below average. Regular maintenance will immediately bump up my rating and perception of the course. As is, this is a stat-padder.