Pros:
Laugardalur DGC is located in a very busy public park in downtown Reykjavik near the cruise ship terminals. The park is named Fjolskyldugarourinn which translates in English to "park."The park was very busy with lots of joggers, walkers, soccer games and families. The course is mostly isolated but I did have to wait on a couple of holes. I also met my first Icelandic golfers, one disc wonders.
There is a nice colored map at the beginning, same as the five hole course I played yesterday. The on-line map is the same and is helpful to have along on your round. There are two sets of tees, the long Whites and the short Reds. From the Whites, the course plays at a Rec level. It's a pitch and putt from the Reds, perfect for kids and families. The White tees are 9 x 4 cinder blocks and the Reds use natural. Both are great for this course. The signs are basic small 4" x 6" on short poles. The first sign post is loose and just sitting in it's hole. The baskets are the Euro Discatchers which are just a shade different colored than the US Discatchers. Each of these baskets is covered in unsightly graffiti. Take the markers away from these Icelandic punks.
The White tees range from 55 m to 101 m. The Reds play from 35m to 51 m.
The holes are a nice combination of open versus tight. # 1, 2, 3, and 7 all have tight to very tight fairways. The rest are more open.
The signature hole here is a tie between # 2 and # 7.
# 2 is 101 m with a 20' wide gap about 50 m out. Then there is another small gap about 10 m in front of the basket. Cool hole.
Then # 7 is a 55m throw down a gauntlet of trees about 20' across. There are about 20 trees on each side perfectly spaced 6' apart. If you can throw perfectly straight for 160', you're gold. If you are accuracy challenged like me, you will likely carom off a tree only to find yourself with a truly interesting throw coming back. I closed my eyes and threaded my second shot through this tight row of trees. This hole is a distant cousin to the famous gauntlet hole at Blue Ribbon Pine in Minnesota only this one is about 150' shorter than their hole.
Cons:
Ugly graffiti on every basket.
Loose tee pole on # 1.
Both the # 3 and 4 signs have been peeled off. Red # 9 has only been partially peeled off.
Recreational length and difficulty.
Busy park.
Only one bench.
Natural pads for the Reds.
Long walkout from 4 basket to # 5 tee pad. I didn't see a Red tee pad here. I easily might have just missed it.
Other Thoughts:
This is the best of the three courses I've played in Iceland thus far. Because of the multiple tees and signature holes 2 and 7, I feel this is a solid 2.5 rated course. It's not designed for the intermediate type players but is perfect for beginners and the total rec players, like myself. Other than a slight hiccup getting from # 4 to finding the # 5 tee pad, navigation was easy and intuitive. If I lived in Reykjavik, besides missing the sun, I'd play here all the time.