Pros:
Superb piece of property maintained and executed in a way only a true disc golf fanatic can. Risky greens as far as the eye can see - every other pin (if not every) was perched on a ridge, slope, or some other area that truly brought puckering into the thought of blowing by with a missed putt (adding to the pucker factor was the fields of poison ivy everywhere!). Seclusion and private use of the property was absolutely tremendous. I love being able to lose myself in a round, enjoy the peaceful surroundings, and get away from nuisances like road noise, lights, civilization, etc. Extra amenities that can only be found (and respected, not vandalized by worthless and useless chuckers) on a private course add a great dedicated disc golf feel. Ridge to Ridge holes across the valley are always fun to play, and adding a sharp dropoff past the pin on the mid-range holes adds some additional needed skill to your round. I like to be challenged, and while the overall shot selection for my drives here was really easy with midranges and fairway drivers, how they landed or where I wanted them to land was a big consideration. Not only was left-to-right accuracy needed to weave through tree obstacles, but distance accuracy was need to avoid blowbys on the risky sloped greens.
Cons:
One pin placement, and although I like it from determining course record, and overall scoring perspective, I do appreciate how much extra variety a second pin position creates. Poison plants and monotonous setting - they're the biggest factors involved with keeping me from having the time of my life out here, truly living up to the hype surrounding the course, and having finally made it to play after a few years of longing and botched plans. I will continue to rate courses as a travelling player, often on business with limited ability to pack extras, and/or travelling on vacation with family where only the best of the best courses can be squeezed into family plans. I was appalled by the amount of poison ivy and oak. It was all over and it was in bad spots. With all the risky greens here and sloped terrain, the possibility to blow by and be surrounded by plants was tremendously high. Travelling on business, having to quarantine shoes and clothes, and immediately wash to avoid serious reactions is a huge deterrent in having fun, or even playing a course. I got into a lot of poison ivy and had to wash immediately, quarantine my shoes, and even be wary of my bag and discs. If you're severely allergic to poison oak and ivy, be cautious here! There are a few holes just for luck-chucking. Don't ever give Winter Park a hard time for having some 'fluck' holes - the pinball piece of junk hole at Flip (forget which number) coming back toward the body of the course after the long hole is absolutely nothing but fluck with no more than a 2' wide twisted gap the entire way to the pin. So is the second hole after that, throwing into a green protected by a wall of trees.
Other Thoughts:
I was just horribly underwhelmed playing at Flip. It was a great solid course, I'm not knocking the fun factor, design, or owner pride and dedication whatsoever, but there just wasn't the complete variety and balance that I crave in a course. I wouldn't necessarily feel like I had to play this course again when I head back to the area to pick other courses off my wishlist. For that reason alone it does not meet expectations. That being said, the solid design, risky greens, and neat terrain were extremely well utilized. But like Leviathan, all in all, the holes look the same, same type of foliage, same type of scenery, I just don't know how to describe it - the whole course just "looked" similar. I've heard stuff like "every stone and stick is exactly in its place at Flip", and thus entered my round with huge expectations (predisposition was a negative impact for me), and although the caretaking of Bill is obviously evident, feeling that every rock is exactly as it should be leads me to believe some clouded judgment exists from every brain cell being laced with Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. So, all in all it sounds like I'm coming across harsh, yet the course settled out as a 4.25 in my spreadsheet. Due to intangibles of fields of poisonous plants, lack of gorgeous vistas and varying terrain and foliage, I'm gonna round down here (not really necessary anyway). The solid design, secluded setting, and number of holes introduces enough variety to score very high in my Design Category, but I'm going to stay consistent with my system and round down due to lack of great variety. This course in no 5.0. I know I did this to myself, expecting more from such a highly touted course. It's my fault. Flip isn't the only one to suffer not meeting my expectations, Leviathan suffers as well.