Pros:
+ A genuine disc golf experience in mini form, this is a full size course for "mini" discs, with holes up to 250' (8 of them are 175' or longer)
+ This is a course where you absolutely have to have true mini discs (roughly 6" across). Don't expect to use your marker discs if you're going to enjoy playing
+ Par is 66, with 10 par 4's (and a long downhill par 5), so birdies are pretty common. But they felt earned!
+ Good signage, mini baskets are in excellent shape. A map would be nice but not really necessary., You can generally spot the next obvious tee from each basket
Cons:
- No loaner discs in the boxes. This might just be because we showed up in December. But we brought our own mini discs (a Tesla, a Sheriff and a Judge - all great)
- Oh, how trees stop minis. You have to completely recalibrate your expectations when throwing around trees. A mini can be deflected by a firm leaf, and stopped dead by the tiniest branch
Other Thoughts:
~ Having played only one other mini course,where the holes were generally shorter than 100' laid out around a flat open field, Hobson was a surprise. A genuine disc golf layout, with distance, elevation changes, trees, protected baskets, doglegs, etc.
~ There's a review on uDisc where somebody complains that the baskets are too small for his putters. That was a laugh - and then playing the layout, I understood how the hole lengths and shapes could really feel like a putter-only course - for throwing standard putters. Of course, the pars would make no sense…
~ If you have the equipment, Hobson is a fun hour of play. We used it as a way to break up a day of bagging other area courses.
~ There's a real joy - giddiness almost - that comes with chucking mini discs and watching them perform like the bigger ones: OS fades, neutral straight shots, flip ups. I felt like a giant. Now, if I could only figure out how to comfortably grip those little things...