Pros:
Naval Hill DGC is a nice course near downtown Nashville. It's situated on a large, mostly open hill above the Cumberland River, with views to the shipping yard across the river and to downtown Nashville's skyline. It one of the best urban park courses I've ever played. I also realized that my dream neighborhood surrounds the course. I don't know the name of the neighborhood, but they're building some mansions and you can walk to the disc golf course from your front door. If I win the lottery, I'm moving there.
+ The course is beautiful and well maintained -- and the views to the river and downtown Nashville are awesome. It's a gorgeous setting.
+ This is a fair, but challenging course that will test all skill levels. The variety is great, with all kinds of holes and obstacles to contend with: downhills, uphills, open, wooded, hyzers, anhyzers, an elevated basket, fast greens, long holes...it has it all.
+ The layout and use of land are top notch. The hill is huge and steep, but they managed to design holes crisscrossing two slopes, one towards the woods and neighborhood and the other bigger slope towards the river. The elevation is great -- a big plus for me.
+ Navigation was simple and intuitive and there are arrows on each basket pointing to the next tee.
+ The tee pads were big enough and in good shape.
+ This is an urban city park, yet I did not see any trash or vandalism anywhere. It's in perfect condition.
+ That extra hole! Why stop at 18 when you're on a great course?
Cons:
I do have one big con: two holes are bordered by OB that could result in lost discs.
Hole 6 - This is a more wooded hole, with the basket across a small creek, 320 feet down the fairway and to the left (in the B pin position), or slightly to the right, on the same side of the creek, 230 feet away. When I played it, it was in the B position, so I just tried to groove a drive up the middle on the same side of the creek. When I walked down to my disc, I saw a house right on the edge of the fairway, near where the A pin placement would have been, with a big No Trespassing sign on it. I'm sure lots of discs fly into that backyard.
Hole 14 - This is a long hole (391' or 423', depending on the pin placement) playing across the side of the hill with a large OB area to the immediate right. As long and open as this hole is, it's very easy to flip your drive over and land OB. That's not the problem. The problem is, it's an abandoned naval facility behind a barbed wire fence. I did just that on my drive and assumed my brand new disc was gone. After I finished the round, I drove down to the road on the river bank where the front entrance to the naval facility is. I walked around and found a big gap in the fence that someone had cut. I was able to slip in and retrieve my disc. There's a sign that says that the facility is under surveillance, so do this at your own risk. It probably would be better to move this basket placement a little further up the hill (there's space to do this), so that the risk of flipping it over and landing behind the fence wasn't so great.
- Most of the course is very open. It's a nice change of pace from the heavily wooded North Carolina courses I'm used to, but a few too many unobstructed holes for my taste.
Other Thoughts:
This course is a must-play if you're in Nashville.