The alternate course at Lake Shawnee features a little more foliage than its older brother, a few long holes, and of course a touch of water. Since not a lot of stuff is installed, this course gives you the feeling of being in the country when you definitely are not.

The wooded holes are the best here. There are a bunch of tunnel shots, going downhill on the spicy hole 2, uphill on 14, and with more scattered trees on 15-18.

The water shot on 10 is fun, and you're throwing near the water on a few others. The water danger is never oppressive, which I like. You can play a safe shot on 10, but it takes you closer to the sidewalk.

This course does a good job being accessible for newer players while giving big shots for bigger arms. For the beginners, a lot of holes will play more like two-shot holes, that that's okay - they still test their skill. Holes 8 and 18 are going to be pretty hard unless you have a lot of power and accuracy at the same time, but they're not bad holes for anyone.

The open holes are usually a con, but I like hole 7, a long but reachable downhill shot with a few trees in the way that you can flex any kind of S-curve around.

This is a seasonal course, with dirt tees and baskets cabled to nearby trees. Making this a permanent course, even if the baskets were still removed in the winter, would make this course much better.

Some of the open holes are pretty boring. These are 1, 3, 5, and 7-9. They're all pretty long, but they don't feel too exciting. In addition, the par 4's (3 and 5) are pretty easy for their par, but it's made up for by a few really hard par 3's (4, 8, and 18). So it all evens out.

A few holes play too close to the sidewalks, which will probably change if the course ever becomes permanent. Holes 3 and 11 might need to moved slightly, but there's space around the park for additional holes. One of the previous layouts had a 1000 foot par 5 somewhere, which could be cool to bring back.

While I like the wooded holes, there aren't any true doglegs, which could have been an awesome addition to this course. It's mostly because the only par 4's are the open holes, but something like lengthening hole 15 might be fun.

Because this course has no permanent infrastructure added, the layout could change every year or even more frequently than that. But I overall don't mind it; there's opportunity to revisit a lot of design choices that have been made, and continuing to improve the layout. There are also a lot of places for alternate pins - a right basket on 6, and pretty much anywhere on 18.

This course is significantly different from the original course across the street, but the two compliment each other pretty well, having some similar aspects while not being repetitive.

This is a temporary course set up for tournament play. This year it was set up for the Lake Shawnee Open and the Mighty Shunga Open. It remained set up in between the two tournaments, giving non-tournament players like me a chance to play it.

I was pleasantly surprised by the variety this course offered. The front 9 tends to feature longer, more open holes (I think during the tournaments there is a lot of out of bounds on these holes), but also features true tunnel shots on 2 & 5. The middle plays down by the lake with one hole throwing over water and a couple others featuring water behind the basket. The back 9 tends to be a little bit shorter with lines defined by large, mature trees. There is also a lot of elevation change with a bunch of holes throwing up or downhill.

- A few holes play pretty close to a road, and others play fairly close to some backyards.
-The rough is really thick on 2 & (especially) 5. I would guess this can probably slow things down considerably during tournaments.
-All the stuff that comes along with being a temp course: natural tees, no tee signs, difficult navigation (use the UDisc map)

The baskets (which are Dynamic Veterans - 16 white, 1 black, and 1 blue/red) are portable and not all in the best of shape. Since they're temporary, they're all cabled or chained to a tree to prevent theft. I'd bet during the tournaments, they get moved away from the trees. I never found 15's basket while playing, but while I was driving out, I saw it over by 3 & 4 which is on the exact opposite side of the course.

Hole 1 tees off right next to Reynold's lodge, so park there. A playground, picnic shelter, and I think I remember grills and restrooms, too, are on site.

When the course is set up, this isn't a bad place for coursebaggers as there are two courses on site (although it is a slightly longer play - it took me about 75 minutes).

From what I've gathered, this temporary course has been in use for over 10 years. I think the Big Shunga course that's also in town used to temporary but is now permanent. I would love to see this course also become permanent; it was definitely a great course to be my 50th in the state.