Pros:
Fore Palms DGC is what I would term a fantastic urban course. I tend to divide the courses I play into natural settings or urban settings, and Fore Palms is definitely the latter. In terms of an urban course you generally have to rank it based on how well the course designer used the land available to him.
At Fore Palms the land was used very well. The flow for the original 18 is fantastic, and even with the two extra sets of 3 holes for a full 24 the flow is very good. The course also manages to take advantage, to at least some extent, of every piece of terrain available - with holes playing through loose groves of trees, thick woods, wide open fields, and over the one water hazard available.
In terms of the shot selection: the long tees can be a challenge, but are very righty forehand or lefty friendly. The short tees on the other hand require a nice variety of shots. Straight, hyzer, forehand, and forced anhyzer are all available. The putting greens also take advantage of what is available with many of them placed amongst the sparse trees available on many of the open holes - forcing at least some putts to be more than just an easy up and down into the chains.
The course also takes great advantage of the bike/walking paths around to create some out of bounds that will alter your shot selection. In many cases it really does give a nice advantage to a player with more shots in his bag, allowing someone with a better forehand to take advantage of playing it over the OB and fading in bounds on some holes, and the person with the better backhand able to do the same on others.
The course also has fantastic teepads, great and accurate signage, and the baskets are all nice. They aren't the most modern models, but they're well taken care of with no visibly damaged targets. Overall the basic course conditions have been nothing but great - I haven't yet seen a downed branch/tree in a fairway, a screwed up tee sign, or a poor teepad. Additionally there is a convenient putting basket set up near the first tee, but out of the way enough to not interfere with any play on the course. On lighter days one can throw back and forth between one's target and the practice green for a solid mid-game tune-up.
Cons:
There are also some definite downsides to playing Fore Palms. As I said - the long tees are righty forehand or lefty friendly. If you have a strong forehand for a righty or play left handed, you have a very strong advantage over the competition if you can put those shots out into the 350-375 range. For those lacking that range - the long tees could be a drag because it turns into a simple round of safe drive-upshot-drop in.
Additionally - as has been said before here: Although the course designer was given leave to use virtually every inch of space available, hole one was buried in the back corner of the park. If I had not examined the park carefully on the club website's map I probably would have wound up lost my first time out. And I drove into the wrong parking lot at least my first two times out, trying to find my way all the way back there. It isn't a true knock on the course, but working with the parks to get some directional signs is a must.
Finally - the same paved walking/biking paths that create such well placed out-of-bounds hazards, can also be viewed as a negative. The course designer did a great job using what was available, but there are numerous pedestrians on the trails every single day. The course really does bump that public area repeatedly, and it is an absolute necessity to keep an eye on the locations of pedestrians on this course or you will find yourself praying your errant shot (or even some more well placed ones) doesn't hit a pedestrian.
The only negative I can see in the use of the terrain otherwise might be that there are two back-to-back holes playing through the thick woods bordering the course, and then nothing else. Interspersing a few of those alongside (for example) 11 and 12 could help break the course up nicely just as holes 6 and 7 do early in the round.
Other Thoughts:
Overall I gave this course an "Excellent" rating because it really is excellent. I understand that the negatives are strong, and could bump it down a notch - but the overall experience of the course, and the enjoyment I have for playing this style of course, are both high. Fore Palms is a very well designed course, that does what it can to take advantage of the property offered, other than the need to use a little more of those thick woods.
I recommend playing it, and for Jacksonville residents stuck with it as their only 18 hole course - it definitely could be far worse. This is a course that is strong technically, and offers fantastic enjoyability.