The park. Seriously lovely park. The course plays around a nice lake and over the lake a couple of times. When you're not throwing over/around the water you're in typical NC woods style golf, mostly at general Intermediate level distances of <300'.

The water holes were cool. You've got to worry about griplocking a drive into the drink on the right at hole #1, Hole 4 has an uneasy basket location, a blind basket tucked away on the right but all you can see at the end of the wooded tunnel sloping gradually downhill is a finger of green land jutting into the lake. If the basket was on that peninsula, holy crap what a fun but challenging hole it would be. Hole 5, you HAVE to throw over the water but there's a short tee on the little island for those not feeling adventurous enough to get 342' off their drive. For the record, either I've gotten a distance boost or the tees are exaggerating the distances a little. Holes 14 and 15 have water on your right flank again; if you're trying to go for it on 15 you will have to throw over the corner of the lake and over the dam, another test of max D and how much sentimental value your discs really have. Hole 16 is seriously one of the coolest holes I've played in a long time. No lake, but you have a long, multi-shot hole with a wide creek in the middle of it. If you pure the gap off the drive with a ~300' toss, the creek is situated in a way to really make you think about laying up before it or trying to carry it off your 2nd shot (I had a less than ideal lie so I laid up). The basket is another solid throw away from the creek on a man-made base on the hill in the corner. Hole 18 has you throw over another corner of the lake with a valley shot for a really nice scenic end to the round.

The wooded holes decent, some of them are pretty good, some of them are a little rough with their lines and some of them need a little fairway refinement with the correct trees removed. But none of them are outright bad, it just leans towards the "technical" side of placement golf on shortish holes. Long and short tees on most of the holes.

The tee signs are pretty slick and informative and I like how they faced the back of the tee, although my bro thought that was a con. He's more used to them being somewhere off the front of the tee but I like these b/c they're well out of the way and easy to spot from the previous hole. The designer also put some white arrows to make transitions basically idiot proof, a nice touch that I appreciate enough to factor into the rating. Even though this course hasn't been played much and the leaves covered the ground, I was able to locate paths to the next tee easily enough and little pink flags aid in navigation as well so getting lost wasn't much of an issue. Baskets are brand new Discatchers. Pretty good variety of lines on the holes so they didn't feel monotonous.

Mostly "new course in the ground" stuff. The tees are natural and leveled off spots marked by flags. They're okay but some of them are a little rutted or marked with roots so you'll want to stand and deliver for the tight, technical holes. Some piles of brush here and there, especially on hole 13. Some briers but shouldn't be a problem unless the course doesn't get enough traffic next spring/summer. The rough is treacherous, if you get knocked off the fairway you are in instant tree jail, maximum security. Mentioned earlier, some of the lines of the fairways needed some tweaking in my opinion but nothing major.

Biggest cons are hole 11 with the barbwire fence right there on your left flank the whole hole, not great b/c you know somebody is eventually going to get kicked into that pasture. Hole 12 specifically stood out as hole that needed some real fairway refinement, it's obstacle to airway ratio is way too high in favor of obstacles. Hole 15 is a pretty cool hole BUT, you have to throw over the road that crosses the dam, a safety issue best avoided if possible. Definitely needs a new transition cut from 15 to hole 16 b/c the path empties you out midway on 16's fairway. A little too much late trouble on a lot of the holes, i.e. baskets are too well guarded. I prefer a decent green that you can at least get an open look on your putt from a straddle but a lot of holes left you 2 putting for no fault of your own, really.

The course kind of reminds me of a cross between Squirrel Lake and Lake's Edge. Not a lot of multi-shot par 4 type holes but the ones that are there are really great, especially 16. The water holes are daunting but more than fair and avoidable, partially because they don't seem as long as the distances listed on the tee signs. I'm excited by the potential of this course as it wears in and gets tees, could creep into the 4 disc category. As it is, it makes a really nice complement to the nearby Fox Chase, and if you're coming from the south, Oakboro rounds out a nice trio of courses for a satisfying weekend of golf. Seriously one of the nicest parks in terms of nature I've played, I was really surprised for some reason.

For those of you imbibing brewskies out there, PACK IT IN, PACK IT OUT! Already seen some litter out there which is disappointing. C'mon Bubba, Busch Ice cans don't belong on the ground.