Pros:
18 hole course located in a widely-used community park and sports (baseball/softball, soccer fields) complex.
- The course varies between wooded holes and some open ones - good variety for such a "groomed" park
- Easy to find, ample parking near hole 1, bulletin board/kiosk with helpful, descriptive course map (which I'm finding is too rare for my tastes)
- Restrooms a short walk from the parking lot (also on your way from hole 9 to 10)
- Clean, no trash
- Scorecards with map available
- Nice, new DisCatchers help visibility on the wooded holes
- Mulch/brick circles around some of the baskets as greens/10m circle
- Multiple tee pads on some (most?) holes for variety and/or beginners
- Tee pads are concrete and in excellent shape - they are flush and wider in the back for a nice easy run-up
- First time I've encountered Innova Platinum tee signs - these things are beautiful with an excellent hole map showing accurate features, next tee direction, par and distances for each tee - course map is of similar quality/design
- Good mix of woods as well as open holes and wide fairways
- OB in play on the right side of hole 12, as well as all park roads - water (small creek) barely in play on #3 and #6
- Good elevation changes for an overall flat area - holes 6 and 10 play across small valleys - holes 5 and 11 are downhill tunnels - holes 9 and 18 have baskets up on hills from the fairways down below - hole 15 is a short dogleg shot down a real steep hill (real concrete staircase with railings get you down to the bottom) - the elevation changes are there, but not grueling
- Baskets 9 and 18 bring you right back to the parking lot
- Overall a pretty low chance for lost discs - the woods aren't too thick on the front 9 nine and some of the back 9 holes (although, hole 10 was tight with many trees and hole 16 was a bit overgrown, I felt)
- Professional install - I'm sure the locals were instrumental with the design and they do a great job of upkeep, but it seems the town really poured some money into a quality, uniform installation (tee pads, tee signs, open fairways, etc.) - I even found on the town website that they had an engineered drawing that went out to bid for contractor installation
- A couple of these holes really stuck with me when I was done - hole #2 (although playing alongside a busy park road) was a nice fairly open shot, but some select trees and lightpoles stand in the way, along with the road itself as OB, hole #6 was a cool, short little hole across a little, vegetated valley, hole #10 was a tight window into a wooded fairway, hole #15 was a very unique layout, straight down a steep hill, then hard dogleg left to a blind ace run basket, hole #18 was a nice, open, welcoming finish across the grass with the pin up on a hill as a finale
Cons:
- A few holes run very near and alongside fairly busy park roads (#2, 17, 18 - even #6 could be trouble with an overthrown, errant drive) - had to wait a few times for traffic
- Long tee on hole 5 crosses fairway for hole 6 - have to walk across fairway 11 to get from 13 to 14 (careful of drives coming down 11 if your approach goes long on 13 and while teeing off on 14) - not optimal to have these interferences
- Although navigation is easy with the map, there are a few long walks from hole to hole (8 to 9, 9 to 10, 15 to 16, 16 to 17)
- Holes 16 (basket), 17 and 18 play close to one of the softball fields
- No benches or trash cans out on the course
- Scorecard only shows distances for one set of tees
Other Thoughts:
- Tee sign for hole #6 was missing when I played (hopefully it's been replaced) - tee location seemed pretty obvious though
- Came across a couple deer behind #15 basket
- When baseball/softball are going, you have the luxury of a concession stand
I found myself very torn on this rating. I was all prepared to give it a 4, as I had a great experience and feel that this is a great course - as you can see above, there are tons of "pros", in my opinion. The variety, tee signs, unique features (hole 15), etc. stuck with me after my visit. However, as I began to itemize my review, some of the cons were significant (frequent proximity to roads and crossing fairways) and have to be factored in. If this course were simply picked up and moved as is to someplace away from roads (and the 2 crossings tweaked a bit), I think my rating would instantly shoot up. I definitely hope to get back to this course sometime.