Pros:
The first couple of holes here gave me second thoughts about planning a day around a trip to Gordy Road. (to be fair I did not notice that the first hole had a blue tee until I found that the following holes had two tees each and looked at the map) Straight shots down a road for the most part, with water to the left but not really affecting play. I remembered a squarish lake from google maps and was thinking, "eh, another around-the-lake course?" Then I got to 4 which blew away those doubts. What a beauty. Gracefully curving fairway, edged by some tall grass and then dense brush just beyond that on either side. As the path lists to the right, the basket is just at the end of the fairway. It's a hole I want to throw a hundred times before going back to the first three holes.
5 is nice too. A similar look to 4 but a bit shorter with a late gap before a sharp left hook. Then I found out that the pond isn't a square as I thought. 6 is a hell of a carry. It is a long way across, (estimating 370) especially as it will force RHBH players to finish right to avoid ending up in the brink. That leads to 7, in my opinion the best hole on the course. It's stunning from either tee. The blue is another carry, though shorter than 6. Over water, over marsh and onto a wide peninsula. I might actually prefer the red tee. Straight down the peninsula, with marsh to the left and thick woods to the right. If there was ever a time to throw a straight shot, it when stepping up to 7 red.
The remainder of the holes don't match up to that four-hole run but it's solid gold from 8 to 15. Quite challenging golf from either tee from the most part. The tees often present a significantly different look but don't provide a huge disparity in difficulty. From any tee, this course is not for the timid golfer.
New signs that are really fantastic stand near tees that one could have few complaints about. It's all on a really nice piece of land with surprisingly scenic terrain give how close to the highway it is. Located right on the junction of I95 and the Florida Turnpike, it's a great place for an experienced player to stop and play a round.
Cons:
The course could be considered a jack-of-all-trades, but it's really more a master-of-none. It's not a great destination course, because, well, it's not. It doesn't have that feeling of awe. You won't walk away thinking, "can't wait to play there again. There are some good holes but nothing truly memorable and it doesn't play well enough for first-timers.
It's also not a great travel stop. Again, it doesn't play nice with first-time players, and it's a bit too long and a bit too heavy with lost disc potential to be a quick-and-easy, get off the highway and play a round course. Shame since it is so close to a highway.
And though I think it plays better with experience, it's not really an everyday course either. Twice a month on league day? Sure. But I wouldn't want this to be my go-to local course that I play most of my rounds on. The rough is too rough and the inevitable disc searched would get tiresome.
In any case, while I felt the course had some great holes, as an entire course it didn't really pull together. I mentioned 1 and 2 above but 17 and 18 were even more disappointing. I realize that the course had to get from the parking lot to the main section and then back but that's a high percentage of holes that don't work.
But even in that bulk section of the course that sports solid holes, the course as a whole is awkward. There is no flow. Constant backtracking to tees that aren't in obvious spots. Blues and reds with odd spacial relationships. 14 and 15 stuck in that corner where you have to sorta cross part of the front nine. It takes away from it, especially as a first-timer. The navigation could generously be described as spotty. It's just tough to find your way around at times which will leave many a player frustrated.
That won't be the only source of frustration for players on their first trip to Gordy Road. These fairways, though accurately mapped have a lot of places where seemingly good tee shots will leave a disc in tall grass or thick shule. It barely needs to be said that this also not a good place for inexperienced throwers.
The far position for the baskets are often less than excellent. A lot of courses have this issue. The local players want alternate pin locations and of course they want the new locations to be harder. So they put them about thirty feet further along and maybe stick them into the woods a bit. And most places, but especially here, the new pins are worse. They turn holes into tweener holes. They introduce more luck. More than anything, they ruin the flow of a hole. The fairway leads to a logical place and then boom, no basket. It's just over there. I can't count the number of unused pin locations here that made me think, that's a nice basket spot. When alt baskets are added to a course, really they should stay in the standard locations for the majority of the time and be moved for league play and kept there for maybe a week per month. Basically, if the new pin placement is so good, why didn't the designer just put it there to begin with.
Other Thoughts:
Finally, are there any locals on here? Hole info and pictures are incorrect.