Pros:
1) Fairly beginner friendly (no real places to lose discs at least).
2) Awesome variety on this course. It has everything. A carry over or past a marshy area (and up into the woods). A couple of fairly open holes where ripping a driver is a possibility. Even the open ones have some character though with some holes bending right and a few bending left. Baskets tucked around corners or on sideslopes that can lead to rollaways. Then you head into the woods for some technical shot making. Forced fairways but you do have some throwing options on these holes. Then you leave the woods and finish with an easy birdie chance on #12, a massive uphill/sidehill throw to the top of a massive hill. Then, you get to throw right back down that massive hill to a basket that is fairly open, but the wind and terrain account for some difficulty. #14 is a great hole despite its simplistic design.
3) Nice duel (on most holes) concrete teepads (with the #'s painted on the concrete) allow for a different course on many of the holes.
4) Baskets are in good condition except #11. Basically it looks liek a basket from the teepad but when you get closer it is just basically lathe hanging down, and if you hit the lathe it is in the basket I guess??
5) Garbage baskets on the course and overall that shows with a fairly clean course.
6) High level of maintenance. Turf is good in almost all spots which is always a plus compared to the compacted soils/bare turf on many of the older courses.
Cons:
1) Very poor layout in terms of finding the next hole. #2 shoots out of the woods into the open, then you backtrack 180 degrees from where you came on #2. Then you walk through the woods you ended on #1 and behind #2 tee.I actually played #1, 2, and found 5 tee so I played from there and only then did I figure out where #3 and had to search for #4 too. It is not obvious where #4 tee is either, so that can be confusing.
2) #11 basket is unique, but I would prefer to actually throw into a basket!
3) I think the property could have been used better, in terms of layout (#2, 3, 4) and use of the wooded area. I would have omitted #4 completely and maybe rerouted 2 and 3 slightly. That would have allowed for one more or two more int he woods. It just would have been more balanced.
4) #4 is just a bad hole in my opinion! Almost like it had to be throw in or something. It would be ok if the landfil was finished with turf or something but because there are weeds, stone, etc it just isn't a likable hole.
5) Tee signs would be helpful and signage pointing you to the next hole in a few locations.
Other Thoughts:
This was the third course I played in MN. I started at Kaposia and North Valley the morning before. Obviously this doesn;t compare to Kaposia, but it was a very likeable course overall. A couple of small changes would make this course a lot better but the fundamentals are there for a great course. I want to give it a 4 ranking but I can't so I am going with a 3.5! Very enjoyable 3.5 however!