Pros:
- free to play, plenty of
- concrete tees
- nice mix of wooded and open holes
- wooded hole are technical, but fair
- fun, challenging, and fair layout
- mostly intutive layout
- informative signage
- fun for all levels of players
- rec center pool on location
- course avoids most of the other park activies
- benches
- bathrooms on location
- plenty of shade
- baskets in good shape, numbered
- information kiosk at the course beginning with a course map
Cons:
- am tees are natural, didnt notice them on non wooded holes
- long drives on hole 3 run the risk of hitting players on tee 4
- pictures on tee signs are hard to see, faded
- some tee sign vandalizm
- basket 18 is really low, like the bottom of the cage is a foot from the ground
- the fairway for hole 17 is basically an asfault road with a blind corner
- directional signage between 17 and 18 would help new players without a map
- 16(A) begs players to throw over a ball field, blind to road traffic and pedestrian hazards
- 18 and 19 (mack) lack personality, feel like fller holes to the parking lot
- baskets in woods are hard to see, could use flags or a splash of color
- multi use park
Other Thoughts:
Fairhope is a splendid park style course that wraps around the perimeter of a multi use park and rec center. For the most part, I feel like they did a great job avoiding high risk pedestrian areas without making the gameplay suffer. The open fairways were well maintained grass, the woods were clean and clear of overgrowth. The open holes were fairly simple, not really that punitive, but the designer(s) found a way to make them fun. These holes featured flat, ascending, and descending fairways. I liked that they allowed players to gradually warm their arms up for the onslaught of technical holes deeper into the round, before opening back up and letting players power their way to the finish line.
The wooded fairways were technical, challenging, and had less changes in elevation. I absolutely loved the woods portion of the course. Holes 4,5 (not flat), and 7-13 were tight enough to discourage the use of most drivers, but long enough to push my distance range limit with a mid. They did a good job making the these holes challenging, but not impossible to hit a good line. Off drives run the risk of being kicked by a tree trunk. Hole 14 was a excellent transition hole leading players back to open park style disc golf.
As for the cons, most were small and not too detrimental to my course rating. I honesty didn't know there were multiple tees until I had fumbled half way through the woods. The am markers that I did notice were short concrete cylinders buried into the ground with barely visible markings. Maybe if the pro tee signs weren't so faded or if they were marked on the map, I 'd have noticed more of them. 16(A) through 19 (mack) were kind of an anticlimactic end to an otherwise stellar course. Maybe (mack) allows player to do a small loop of holes close to the parking lot?
Overall, I'd say Fairhope was a well balanced course, very solid. I liked it so much that I'm tempted to show up for Sunday league play in the near future. I'll definitely be taking a post poolside cool down after my next visit. Here's a pro tip for any travelers: park at the rec center pool parking lot, not the dog park and baseball field parking lot. There wasn't an online map on DGCR, so I added one.