Pros:
The Leinenkugel's 18 hole disc golf course is in it's very early stages at the time of this review. It only opened about a month or so ago, so take that with a grain of salt with this review. The main course and the other 6 hole "warm up" course are both located in Casper Park in Chippewa Falls, WI. These are a much needed addition to disc golf in this area. And long overdue imo.
The tee pads here are all concrete. Nice and level, they have nice grip on them too. No compaints with these really, a couple minor gripes (see cons below). One tee pad per hole.
The baskets are Prodigy's. These are a beautiful powder coated red. They stand out like glowing beacons compared to your more standard silver baskets. Not too familiar with my Prodigy baskets but I believe they were T2's. They were the ones that I liked better than the other. One basket per hole and as far as I could tell one position too (at least for now).
The course design is pretty well done. Especially considering the terrain that was available to work with. There's a decent walk, though nothing ridiculous, to the first hole. There's a few lengthier walks throughout from hole to hole as well. Well worth it though since it skips some filler areas to get to the good stuff.
There's a nice mixture of wooded, open, right and left bending shots, uphill and downhill. The space was used well to craft some difficult and memorable holes. Hole 1 is a beast right off the bat. 650 or so foot par 4 that goes straight for 600' before climbing a steep hill to the pin perched just over the crest. Memorable starting hole that can get away from you real quick.
Hole 6 plays back down that same hillside for a short par 3 ace run. There's a couple BRP hole 4 looking shots thru rows of pines, though not as epic as BRP's. Challenging design, you need to play smart, and being accurate will certainly help.
The tee signs here are fantastic. They feature a big and bold Leinie's logo (obviously), hole # in big bold white letters that contrast well with the black background, distance and par. The maps are what take these a step above. They show distances to major landmarks on each hole and they even show the up or downhill grade by the distance from tee to pin. Any applicable OB is shown where needed too. There's not much more you could ask for in these. They just look sharp too. Nicely done.
The flow of the course is generally pretty easy to follow, once you find hole 1 that is. There's next tee signs in all the places with unintuitive transitions and even some where it's pretty obvious.
Cons:
As I mentioned above about cons for the tee pads, these aren't framed in or elevated much above the surrounding ground. Most were pretty dusty/dirty today. Not an issue since it's been bone dry around here in October, but after rains and especially in the spring these look to be a slippery, sloppy mess. Again the course is still brand new. Hopefully some wood chips or something is on the agenda to help with this. Fine today, probably not so much next spring.
There's numerous safety issues on this course, many are pretty egregious for a well established design firm. To get to hole 1 you have to walk across the latter part of hole 18's fairway. Maybe you don't have to, I don't know, but if a trail was cut through the woods and well marked leading you there this wouldn't be an issue. As it was us and the duo that arrived right before us both did this. Completely oblivious to the Starfire, Mortar and Katana danger that could be headed at our heads. Hole 17 has you throwing dangerously close to, or over, people waiting or throwing from hole 8's pad. Just not a good design in these two spots.
Hole 11. Ah yes, the signature hole!!! I loved this hole. You can run and gun at it for a 2, or you can lay up to the short plateau island for what should be an easy lay up for the par 3. Great concept. Me and the wife both ran the pin, and secured 2's with tough uphill putts. The thing is, as I went up the mound to retrieve our discs from the basket, the ground was just crumbling below me. This mound that the basket resides on reminds me of a sandcastle on the beach. And we all know what Jimi said about castles made of sand. Some kind of erosion prevention terracing needs to be done, sooner rather than later or it'll melt into the sea.
A couple holes could use a bit more trimming to open up some outs from the woods, this I have no doubt will be improved due to it's newness. Foot traffic alone will do work in this regard judging by how busy it was. Again, grain of salt with my review.
Other Thoughts:
This course popped up out of nowhere on my radar it seemed. Not surprising really since I'm not on Facebook and don't make it to Eau Claire/Chippewa Falls much. I was excited to play it and catch up on some other course in the area and had high hopes for it. To be perfectly honest, I enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as I was expecting to.
I think with a few modifications/improvements this course will rival Tower Ridge as the must play in the area. It won't for me personally because I like tight wooded golf and this isn't really that, at least compared to Tower's.
I'd recommend this course to anyone traveling through the area though. I hope to see it improve, and I will be back myself. If it does I'd easily bump it up to a 3.5, possibly a 4. Great addition to the area, and contrasts Tower's nicely. Honestly it's just what the area needed. It just needs some tweaks. Fun course, doesn't shine though.