Lake Marshall Lions was the center piece of an overnight trip for me. I left Charlotte at 3:15 on a Friday morning, and teed off here at 8:45. This was the start of a 41.5 hour, 1,000 mile, 209 hole voyage. And I saved the best for first.
- I'm revealing who Keyzer Soze is in the first 30 seconds of the movie. In the two weeks since I played here, I've gone back and forth between a 5.0 and a 4.5 rating.
- In its current state - tall grass, lack of signage, better transitions needed in spots - I feel a 5.0 rating overlooks these couple issues.
- The general outstanding challenge from holes 1 - 18 has only been seen on several other courses I've played. I haven't played a tougher opening hole on any course to date (approaching 500 played courses as of this writing), and that includes courses like Idlewild, Harmon Hills, WR Jackson, Sugaree, Renaissance Park. A 4.5 rating feels like a slight to this layout.
- Maybe a 4.75 is the appropriate rating. Hmmm, a course with a 4.75 rating at worst? Why write anymore. This place is good. Alas....
- I can list eight to 10 holes here that would be the best hole on most courses.
- The opening three hole stretch is one of the best three hole stretches I've ever played. The aforementioned #1 has seemingly every element a hole could have: it starts as a tight fairway, s-curves through the middle portion of the hole, has a valley portion just past that with a steep, wooded drop-off to the left, which leads to water (this area even has warning signs the drop off is so steep), going back up hill through a narrowed section, back to a more open approach to the basket. Oh yeah, and it's 970 feet. If you get a penalty stroke or two on this hole, I think anything from a 4 to a 10 is realistic on this hole.
- #2 is an outstanding downhill risk/reward hole. It's a big drop-off, which makes the 505 foot length play much shorter. I played a mid off the tee to simply keep my disc in or near the fairway. I landed less than 15 feet off the fairway, and I had to shoot an imposing gap just to get back to the fairway. All told, I was relatively pleased with my 4 on this hole.
- #3 is a tough steep uphill shot. 660 feet that's a dogleg left for the first half before curving back to the right at the end. Wow, it took me more than 30 minutes just to play the first three holes and I was already feeling beat down.
- #7 is amazing on multiple fronts. It's one of the most scenic layouts I've seen. A downhill tee shot over water to what appears to be a postage stamp sized green. SPOILER: The landing area is much bigger than appears. There is a ton of land to the right of the basket. RHFH or LHBH shots should be ok. OH YEAH. You cannot see the basket or landing area from the tee. If you're playing solo, like I was, you need to take off after your shot to the edge of the ridge to follow the flight of the disc. From there, it's a couple minute downhill, winding trail towards the basket. It only took me 10 minutes to find my disc buried in the underbrush. Once I located it, it was a pretty simple up and down for a pleasing par 3.
- #8 will be a love/hate hole. Tee shot over water to a landing spot on a peninsula. From there, throwing over the edge of water again to the basket on the edge of the water. Essentially, you have to hit similar smaller sized landing areas than you just dealt with on #7. Let's just say, someone will lose 4 discs on these two holes at some point.
- I'm up to more than 10 bullet points in the pros, and I haven't even gotten to any holes on the back 9. I'll be concise. #11 is a great bomber hole. The view from the tee is great, overlooking the lake. Just don't get confused as I did and throw your second shot to #17's basket, which is the only one visible.
- #12 is the water hole. The entire left side of the fairway is lake. I think the road and beyond on the right is OB. The shot you finally make over the water to the basket, whether it's your second, fourth, or 10th, whether it's from 400 feet or 150, is fun and slightly nerve wracking.
- #18 is a tough, yet great, closing hole. Teeing off over the edge of the water, you dogleg right into the woods, then go up, and up, and up. The entire layout is more than 12,000 feet. And, when the final 500 of those feet is seemingly straight up hill (by this point, I swear I was throwing completely vertical), this final hole feels like 2,500 feet, not just a 'meager' 900.