Pros:
The new Hornets Nest course. It's the old friend you haven't seen in years, but can immediately pick things up without missing a beat.
- I'll try to keep from referring to the old layout. That's irrelevant to anyone who didn't play it before. Plus, the course was always undergoing slight tweaks, so there wasn't ever one true 'old' layout.
- Course feels pretty much the same. The biggest difference is that the back 9 isn't as wooded as it was before. The front 9 is now more wooded, so it's a wash.
- My review is based on the Nest layout, so distances will be listed as such. #1 makes you be on your game immediately. It's a tight, wooded fairway at 270 feet. If you miss your line, have fun scrambling for a bogey right away. I hate starting my round on a down note!
- #3 is the best addition to the course. A long, wooded, multi-shot dogleg at 486 feet. The landing area looks small from the tee pad, but it's much wider once you're in the fairway. That begs you to be aggressive on your tee shot. The hole is going to reward shot making with solid birdie 3s.
- Hole #7 is unchanged. It's fantastically simple, yet great. After all these years, why do my tee shots still always end up behind one of the small trees on the left side of the fairway along the road?
- Hole #10 is another classic, a shortened version of classic Web #1 (current Web #10). Between this hole, #11 & 13, you've got a Bradford vibe going on.
- Putting the tee pad on a deck on #16 somehow makes this hole suddenly much better. It's a better play to chill, a better view, and a slightly easier line to hit the gap.
- Tee signs are awesome. The best in Charlotte. With their blue borders, they do however, look a lot like Blu-ray movie cases. Also, there are lots of benches on most, if not, all the holes.
- Park is solid altogether with tons of amenities. I was also impressed that on the Saturday morning I was playing, I saw park rangers and a police car driving through the park at least 4 times. If that's a regular occurrence, that much security presence is a huge plus.
Cons:
Navigation is overly complicated at times. After finishing #9, the directions tell you to walk along the edge of the woods rather than following the path. The path is faster, more direct, and, the same path that's always led from #9 back towards #10. Sometimes, less IS more.
- I'm not a fan of #17. My only gripe about the transition from the old to the new Nest is that the old #16 and/or #17 should still be in existence. Granted, I think the old, old # along the creek should still be there, but that's now part of natural preserve land.
- Some of the benches are rather...far...from the actual tee pads. If you notice the tee pad and the bench are far apart, then they must be far apart.
- I do hope this course doesn't get tinkered with any more. Obviously a permanent #2 must be established. The 'temporary' #2 is the worst hole on the course, so I hope a final layout is established. Other than that, leave the course as is. Why was a tee pad poured for the island #2 hole when it was never going to be a long-term layout?
- The weirdest quirk on the course? When you walk from #9 to the back 9, the first tee pad you see is not for your next hole. No. That's #12. You must walk past it to get to #10. If you're playing the Web, it's not because the tee sign for #10 Web is right there. Just be aware if you are playing the Nest.
- As you can tell, there's really nothing wrong with the course. If you spend your entire round comparing it to an old, no-longer-existing layout, you're missing out on what this course offers.
Other Thoughts:
Hornets Nest has changed; but, really, it's still just as exceptional as ever. This was my home course for essentially the first decade I played disc golf. And it's still the course I feel most at home with, even though it's now 30 minutes away. I'm glad it still feels like the Nest.
- Honestly, this is the most complete new course I've played in Charlotte ever. We like opening our courses while they're a work in progress. So, playing a 'new' course with everything completed - tee pads, signs, arrows, etc. - was surprising.
- I always loved the unofficial 19th hole. Having it now listed as an official hole (and one you must play to get an online round rating), it's not as fun. Now I must care about the risk/reward element of the hole.
- Yes, gaunlets and short, birdie/ace-run par 3s are gone (#11). In their place are new classic layouts. Shoot, with the work done around the baskets on #8 & 9, the holes suddenly became much better.
- I like how the course breaks up the 4 long, challenging holes evenly throughout the round. There's essentially one every quarter of the round - hole #3, #7, #14 & 17. You'll have a tough hole, then a cooldown, before another mountain climb.
- You can easily argue that #3 is the best on the course. It's slightly odd having the best layout so early in the round.
- IMO, I think the front 9 is now more enjoyable than the back 9. What's not an opinion is that the two 9s have a better mix of open and wooded holes. Previously, the front was essentially all open and the back was mainly wooded holes.
- Course is getting a 4.5 from me. This is the only course, of the 240+ I've played, that I'll give a rating bump to because of a bias. It's probably only a 4.0 rating. Being 'my' course, you're getting that half-point bump.
- This is still as much of a must-play as ever. And with the new layout, I think returning players have even more reason to play it.
Thank you for your review. I'll just note 2 things. 1. Benches are sometime away from the short tee's because the short tees are in the landing zones for the Web Layout and we wanted as little interference as possible. 2. Hole 2 teepad was poured because the intention was to have it be a permanent location. Park decided the actual literal swimming was more than they bargained for, they were ok with brief wading. The new 2 will be the permanent #2, however, the basket will be moved to the island for tournaments. New 2 is basically the guantlet back ;-) but now with 3 lines and it will get a teepad soon. It's what we have to work with, for now.