Pros:
A course or not a course? Either way, a nifty park to throw in.
To depart from my enigmatic start - this is a totally charming park. Medium hills, thick pines, other trees, lush grass, and a central pond make for about as good a city park setting as you could imagine. I played here as the day was beginning to cool off, and it was lovely.
Three of those elements - great trees, big hills, and water hazards - make for great disc golfing. I threw some really enjoyable downhills, carefully shaped drives, and nervy water carries during my time here.
The seven DISCatchers are good, and their placement carefully thought out to provide a variety of approaches and greens. This is good, since most rounds here will involve rethrowing to the same basket a couple of times.
Cons:
Okay, now the big problem: there are neither tees nor tee signs. Period. This is literally just baskets in a park. The definition of safari golf. Is it even a course if there's no defined layout?
Even if you did follow a layout such as the current 18-hole recommended on a certain app, you're going to be looping back on yourself, throwing across and back over fairways, and undoubtedly running into other throwers if any disc hurlers are out at the same time as you.
I hate to scrape so hard against this course. I really enjoyed most of the tee locations suggested by GPS, which made truly compelling shots. But its capacity, at best, is one group, and its flow is infinitely malleable.
Beyond this, there is a big issue of things being in the way. "Things" refers to people and buildings. Two baskets bring the playground into play, several options play over sports courts or storage sheds, and all of the water carries will put fishers in danger all around the pond. Add in some blind walking paths and mid-fairway picnic tables, and you have a safety nightmare.
Other Thoughts:
I loved playing at Ford Park. It had all the gameplay elements of a great city park course. Unfortunately, its lack of clear flow, on-tee nature, constant human and civic risk, and the inability to play the entire property thoroughly due to high numbers of park-goers all draw this back more than substantially. It's a bit of an impossible rating, but overall I wanted to be nice and called it Reasonable. If you want nice safari golf, go ahead, but PLEASE be ultra-cautious of all the innocent park-sharers.
~Similar Courses: Well, none really. But if you ignore the glaring flaws, the gameplay has the feel of Earlewood Park (Columbia, TN), McCurry Park (Fayetteville, GA), or Tyus Park (Griffin, GA).