*Elevation changes
*Well manicured
*pro shop
*scenic
*fun lines

Doesn't force a wide variety of discs to be thrown. I generally use 5 total when I play here.

Competing for best dg property in NC. Even more so now that they have golf carts for rent!

This is a destination for disc golf: 5 star rating as a complete package
Tee pads (large with new turf)
Beauty of the course
Tee signs
Variety of throws required
Basket locations
Fun!!!

Tee signs are not accurate, this is something that annoys me. With range finders common now, Par 3's should be accurate within a few feet. Some were 25 feet or more off.
Kudzu! Be aware of the kudzu and play away from it at all costs.

Probably the most fun course on the property. You don't have to have your A game to have fun and score (A game is needed at the Gorge). If you are driving far and only have one day to play, see if you can rent one of their new golf carts to play multiple courses. If not I would play Boulder then River Run.

The Boulders is the longer track on the North Cove property and it is beautiful. The course is made up of 18 holes that use DISCatcher baskets, nice tee signs, and a rubber-ish style tee pad. The hole lengths vary from 218' to 611' - so players will get the chance to throw all kinds of shots and discs from the tee pads.

Built on the remnants of the old Linville Falls Golf Club, the course is going to primarily be open golfing, but there are some areas where the woods have been cut into to create a more wooded experience. These areas have clearly seen a lot of work, removing stumps and leveling the ground out. Seemed much more worn in than similar areas on River Run.

The elevation usage throughout the course is really well done, and it keeps things interesting. The long downhill bomber shots are an absolute treat to drive on! Many of the greens feature risk/reward elements that create a fun and engaging round. OB & Hazards nearby, placed on mounds with rollaways, and inside the boulder cave on Hole 7.

Hole 7, which is the namesake hole of the course, looks to have three different pin positions: in, on top of, and just short of the boulder cave. If this is the case, that would make for an interesting way to mix things up for a multi-round tournament.

The staff at the pro shop were incredibly nice people and seemed to really love the sport. They seemed to play all over, talking with me about different courses and which ones were our favorites. The pro shop not only sells discs, but they also sell cool beverages and has a nice air-conditioned restroom which was very nice to have since we visited on a hot summer day.

Even though it is a long course, it is designed in a way that it should be fun enough that anyone who isn't a beginner, will enjoy themselves. If you can accurately throw 200' to 250' there will be birdie opportunities on this course for you. Even if you can't, the course is pretty enough to still be worth the trip.

It felt like most of the tees were placed next to trees so that there would be shade nearby on hot & sunny days.

As with River Run, some of the distances on the tee signs seemed a bit off. I don't think they are all incredibly off, but some are just off enough that make you scratch your head thinking, "I could have sworn I threw it harder/less hard."

The course has a few too many holes that blend together for me, and I think this is likely because it is built on an old golf course. Another wooded hole, here-or-there would have helped mix things up. The few times where the woods are entered, feel very memorable.

The Par 4s on this course felt like tweeners to me. Despite playing through an elbow injury, I was still getting birdie looks on all of the Par 4s - and my drives were pretty terrible for the majority of the day. There were areas on many of them, where it looked like an additional teeing area could be placed, to increase the length & difficulty of these holes. Most notably on Holes 17 & 18.

There is a decent amount of disc loss potential all around this course. There is a lot of thick kudzu around a few of the baskets and/or along the fairway. The trees on the sides of Holes 14 & 17 seem likely to be plastic collectors. Luckily it seems the pro shop has a lost & found for discs, but if you don't live near the area, this would still be a major bummer if you lost your go to distance driver.

I really enjoyed playing the courses at North Cove, and I have thought long and hard about what rating I should give The Boulders, as I was a bit torn on what to give it. For now I am going to give The Boulders a 4.0 rating.

The two courses together make a great complex well worth visiting. Between the two courses, a course could probably be built that I would give a higher score to, but I personally am a fan of their decision to have two different courses with distinct personalities.

Favorite Holes: 4, 7, 9, & 13

-Well if you've read the rest, you know that it's definitely eye candy. It's a rather hilly course along a river with some rocks here and there and many excellent rock cropping greens. Accuracy is more important than it seems to be, since many pin positions are dangerously close to OB markers, the river, or bunkers that play as hazards. You still have numerous opportunities to rip a bunch of drivers and would be more likely to tame the long 500+ holes more easily without going out of bounds on the second shot.

-Many of the holes are traditional open holes in a quiet setting in the mountains, but some are a little more interesting and off the traditional spectrum. Like #13. It's one of the more interesting shorter holes around the Western part of NC. It's only 218', so very reachable but not visible from the pad. You are throwing out of what appears to be a small crater and instantly uphill out of a shoot. #4 is down the hill with the OB river directly below you, maybe 25'. You throw across to the other side that is not elevated like the side you are teeing off from. #7 is the infamous rock green where the basket sits inside off. #17 has the most elevation at The Boulders by a lot. Probably by more than 20' than the hole with the second most elevation change. It's an appealing tee shot down a big hill!

-Mark is a really great guy. Don't know if he's an employee or if he's the owner. Nice guy, very helpful. I heard that a championship layout is being made using both courses, so Mark and the staff are clearly determined to make this place a disc golf destination, which they already have. There's a selection of discs available in the pro shop. I think mostly Innova and MVP but I could be mistaken.

-The tee pads are very useful. They have small holes drilled into them, making them drain much quicker and less difficult for players to have a less slippery run up if it's raining.

-Many difficult greens. But very interesting. #7's green is arguably the most unique aspect of the whole course. Several others are close to OB markers, making it a must to play with caution. #9's green is without question, the most difficult. This hole is extremely tough. 375' and tucked into the woods on an elevated rock. 15' footers are daunting on this hole. A short putt for par doesn't get much more scary than this. #12 is behind the side of an enormous hill, almost appearing as a wall in play adjacent to the fairway. The hill slopes downward and ends in the woods where the basket is located. The landing zone is maybe 30' from the pin so you could make a birdie without having an adequate sidearm, but the landing zone is created by two hills. The one in play to the right side, and another one in the woods, creating a "ridge like" green. #16 and #17 are both difficult for the same reason. The baskets for both holes are next to bunkers, making you think before you go for it.

-There's a great balance between the elevation holes and the flat holes. It's not too physically demanding. Fun downhill holes to look forward too. I enjoy #8. The pad is on top of a large hill and the fairway goes through a tight tunnel in the woods and back out into the open over the road. #14 is the best opportunity to rip a driver down a hill without fear of losing a disc. #17 is more tricky because of OB on both sides, but is down a huge hill.

-As much of a travel destination this course seems to be, I don't think it's best to travel here in the summer. There's kudzu. I mean a LOT of kudzu. You are playing on the part of the property where there's tons and tons of it. You could be a few feet off the clear spot and lose a disc because the kudzu gets so rough in spots. It gets out of hand. #3 is where the problem really starts to show. It's wooded for the first half and gently fades left. Further on the left side there's kudzu EVERYWHERE. It was rough enough when I played here for the first time in the spring. But it's on a whole new level of insanity in the summer. #17. You know, the big downhill?! Well, you want to rip it but if you go OB left (very possible as it's not far left), you are 80-90% going to get cut up looking for half an hour and you'll likely lose a disc. This problem is very persistent. The lost disc potential in the summer is probably 80%/round. Wild guess, but probably not a bad guess. You already have to pay $15 to play all day. If you play two rounds here, your expected loss is about $35 to $37. You could lose a few discs because of the messy kudzu. That's a loss much higher than $37.

-Some measurements seem off. It says hole five is 310' feet and the basket is hard to spot from the pad. I've seen players successfully throw that distance and they went 40-50' long in the river. The hole is probably 260'. #15 seems longer than 284'. And I know for sure that #8 is a lot longer than 255'.

-Boulders is a better course than River Run, but the lost disc potential is high throughout the round and it gets very steep in the spots with all the kudzu. I was originally going to give it a 4, but this problem can't be ignored. I don't review courses from a fact based perspective unless it's very obvious since I'm very opinionated. The kudzu is very bad. It wasn't as bad in the spring, so I'd recommend you make your stops here when it is not summertime.

-I enjoy playing the Boulders, but I don't think it's the best NC has to offer. If you love hybrids, you may disagree with me. I love hybrid courses too, I love hilly wooded courses more with some open shots here and there. The views of the mountains are spectacular and make the quality better. I think the scenery has a lot to do with why many people love this course. I like it a lot, but I don't think it's epic. The work put into these courses though is undeniably outstanding. The labor is a well earned 5. Maybe the championship course will truly be epic if it ever comes! Some of the OBs at North Cove to me are a bit too repetitive. Many OB markers in playable spots that I think would be more interesting to see how the hole plays if they weren't there and players had to play from that spot. I think some of them are necessary, but others were pretty silly but at least there's no bunker green here.

The obvious takeaway is that North Cove is a very eye-pleasing course due to its well-manicured fairways, ever-present creek, and numerous large rocks. Formerly a golf course, both disc golf courses play along roughly 3 tiers of shelf created by the creek and the hilly terrain. The course is a bit unrepresentative of the area terrain by being somewhat flat in comparison, with most of your steep inclines or declines occurring on a few transitions between holes. The former ball golf course fairways make North Cove a surprisingly easy walk. For comparison, Stumpy Creek in Mooresville feels much more like an arduous walk.

The holes are all well-executed and many of them have unique or scenic features like greens set with a backstop of boulders or raised baskets looming tall against the Blue Ridge backdrop. IMO the strength of this course lies in its many clever par 3s. Most if not all of these had a fair mix of fun and challenge with sand traps and OB creek keeping them from being too easy. The par 4s are a bit easier if you have a decent arm but generally have a pattern of requiring an early gap to hit from the tee and a green with OB or hazard lurking near by. One feature that I found interesting was that many tees had low ceilings to contend with, keeping the holes from being easily hacked with rollers.

The course does a good job of keeping any holes from being blah. Either a raised basket, sand trap, creek, elevation change, or interesting terrain undulations from the former ball golf course days keeps the holes from feeling too much like wide open field holes that plague most disc golf on ball golf courses. Another nice feature is that you don't really play any decidedly uphill holes. There aren't many huge downhill holes a la Ashe County but there are a lot of little, fun downhill holes. The creek is wide and rocky but a very shallow stream so losing a disc is not likely.

Design-wise the course feels fairly balanced and prompts both backhands and forehands. Most of the holes seem attackable with either style so it's dealer's choice off the tee.

No one in my group had enough working signal to use Udisc, so navigation was a bit of a chore. The tee signs are informative but just plaques that sit on the ground so not easy to spot like a sign on a post. The lack of benches also make it tough to spot the next tee. There was a mowed path to the next tees but the cut length was marginally shorter than the fairway so easy to miss.

I've low-balled the rating a bit because even though the course does a good job of not being a boring, ball golf course type of track, it's still on a really open ball golf course. It would be more my cup of tea if it had some more wooded holes to add a bit of balance (and shade in the Summertime). The other thing is that it's not a terribly hard course either. All of the holes seemed very scoreable and I got the impression that in a tourney, if you're not birdie-ing every other hole you're probably losing ground to the field. Much of this is due to soft par 4s.

The tees are like rubber floor tiles you'd see in a gym or rec. center. They were really grippy when it was warm and dry but a bit slick when my shoes were wet. I didn't feel unsafe using them but they were definitely different.

I think it would look better if the raised baskets had some sort of support besides just the skinny pole. It's a little rough on the depth perception when the basket looks like it's just floating in the air.

I'll likely boost the rating a bit if they add a more challenging layout. As it stands it will likely be a darling and very popular course among the filthy, unwashed masses of disc golfers that prioritize mowing schedules over actual course design. But for a pay to play course I have no problem with them trying to appeal to the widest spectrum of players possible instead of catering to the elite level players.

The Boulders Course at North Cove is simply spectacular. Cut green grass, spectacular views, and adequate but prevelant OB are the theme here.

I absolutely love the layout of this course. It's a bit of a hyzer and power flex shot favored track but with frequent out of bounds and elevation, there is lots of variety. Not to mention, there is a lot of variety as far as distance which makes for a good mix of midrange, fairway, and distance driver shots.

Quality tee signs and baskets made this course easy to play and navigate. UDisc provided any clarification needed on transitions but nicely mowed paths from basket to tee made for little phone checking throughout the day.

This course is really unlike anything I have played in the carolinas. Although it's quite a drive from well....everywhere, it's well worth the hours of travel and some greens fees for such a unique experience.

I love that there is a smaller beginner course that keeps entry level players off the bigger and more challenging boulders course. We had a group of 9 drive up on a Sunday and rarely found ourselves waiting on other groups and the players we did see weren't out of their league. While this isn't the most important factor, it was a pleasant surprise.

Teepads- while the size of the pads were more than adequate, I was not a fan of the rubberized material. The pads were slightly slick in the morning from dew and were too grippy in the afternoon which resulted in some very sore knees from not allowing for smooth rotation. While concrete may have not been an option, I do wish a better alternative existed.

Other amenities- the lack of trash cans on the course was apparent. A pack in pack out course is fine by me but a can here or there would have been nice.

Invasives- there is still some poison ivy and other invasive species that could use some killing. Wood chipped greens on a few holes would also really add a nice touch. The pro shop is very basic and would really benefit from merchandise, more snack options, and perhaps some scorecards. Staff was very friendly though and I expect these critiques will be improved upon as the new owners settle in.

Overall I was blown away with this course. It's probably in my top 5 in the state and hands down the best golf course overlay I have played in the eastern United States. High marks to Innova for a fantastic job.

My worry with this operation is sustainability and longevity. I hope everyone will travel to play this course and help keep this business afloat. I'm sure maintenance costs aren't cheap and I mean this wholeheartedly, WE CAN NOT LOSE THIS COURSE!!! This is a special place and it's hopefully long history has just begun!

Home to two contrasting layouts, North Cove offers a fantastic day of disc golf. It's close to nothing, yet on a Friday morning, the parking lot was packed.
- The Boulders course is worth the price of admission. The tougher, longer, and more diverse of the layouts, this is the jewel. River Run is just the added bonus allowing you to enjoy some excellent layouts while ignoring a lot of so-so-ness.
- Creativity. The course is built on an old golf course. With it, you have some remnants of the old course coming into play. I've never seen sand traps on a course before. Using them as OB, especially when you place the basket just beyond one, as you see on #16 & 17. What a fantastic added challenge.
- Elevation and rolling hills are going to be your best friends on certain holes (#1, 4, 7, 14, & 17) while being your biggest adversary on others (#3, 13, 15, & 18). Throw in slopes that play along the left side of fairways on some holes, and you can find a disc ending up in no-man's land.
- I loved the use of the limited water. There's a small river (ok, it's really only a glorified creek that's not more than two to three feet deep at the most) that comes in to play for a number of holes on the front side. The best of these are #4 (one of my two favorite holes on the course) and #6, with the entire fairway running alongside the water.
- #4 is one of those holes you'll be tempted to unload a series of disc on. Even if that means you have to take your socks and shoes off and retrieve a handful of discs from the water, it's time well spent. It's a downhill, 275-footer that starts on the right side of the creek. The basket is only 20 feet or so on the opposite bank of the creek, so you're essentially throwing over top of the water for most of the disc's flight.
- Tight basket locations put a tremendous emphasis on accuracy on approach shots. You're throwing to a basket in the rocks on #7. You're throwing through a gap on #8. You're throwing to an basket in a tight opening on the right side of the fairway on #12. You've got your sand traps as factors on #16 & 17. And you've got a tough tee shot on #18 followed by an elevated basket to close out the round.
- A couple of big bomber chances. #14 is wide open and downhill at 611 feet. #17 is downhill at 556 feet. But a reminder, a disc that fades too far left is going to be in trouble, along with OB. After 30 minutes of searching, I had to abandon my lost disc in the thick stuff on the side of the hill. #17, by the way, was my other favorite hole on the course. Loving a hole, while also losing a disc, speaks to this layout's quality.
- Oh yeah, the scenery. Tons of picturesque aspects on this course. Mountains as backdrops. A gorgeous creek. Lots of rocks, hence the Boulders name. Just take in this place and realize this is a disc golf course. Not disc golf in packed city course (cough, cough, most of the Charlotte courses or Richmond Hill), but a high quality property 100% devoted to disc golf. This is the future of disc golf.

I felt it needed a little more punch. I wanted one beg-for-mercy, take-no-prisoner par 5. Most of the longer holes were easy 4s. The only tough spots were the OB factors on #17 and the need for a quality tee shot on #18. Contrast the long downhill holes with a tough, uphill, winding layout.
- For as great as this place is, they did have to create a lot of the challenge. Being an old golf course, there are wide, cleared fairways. To combat this, there are baskets in unusual places, such as in tucked-away spots or hugging water. You see this some on this course, even more so on the River Run course.
- A couple hole distances seemed off on the tee signs. #3 was off by a good 150 feet unless I found the wrong layout (tourney tee perhaps)?
- Course could use a couple more amenities throughout. Trash cans and benches would be nice. As would a couple more next tee signs on the long/blind transitions from one hole to the next.
- You're not close to much, so come prepared. The clubhouse has basic drink and snack options. Otherwise, you're several miles to the nearest gas station and 30 minutes to the closest town, Marion.

It should come as no surprise that Boulder does feel more like a round of (ball) golf than disc golf. This is a much more varied layout than most courses. Layouts overwhelmingly make sense and are well-designed.
- A subtle touch to this course is that the toughest stretch is the final set of holes. Get your birdies when you can then be pleased with your pars.
- That said, there are plenty of birdie chances. I thought I played ok. I didn't think I had a bad round. Then I saw my estimated round rating on DGCR, and realized I actually played poorly. Perhaps I should have been more aggressive at times instead of settling for pars.
- The course flowed seamlessly. It never felt repetitive from one hole to the next. You're never going to get in a comfort zone. If you're off on one part of your game, it will be exposed before long - i.e. discs soaring too high, discs fading too much, big skips on approach shots, etc.
- Almost no filler holes. Sure, pars aren't too difficult, especially the par 4s. But, as mentioned above, if you're only getting pars, you're falling behind. You have to be aggressive
- #1 might be one of the best holes in terms of all positive aspects of this course: scenery, challenge, and elevation factor. If you're going to judge a course by first impression (in this case, your first throw), this tee shot captures the course. If this were a Dave Portnoy One Bite Pizza Review, he'd love this course.
- Getting crazy, I can picture the course holding a 24 or 27 hole mega tourney capturing the best of both courses.
- This is so, so, so close to being a 4.5. It's right in that 4.25 range. The only thing holding it down is that it's a bit too easy to be in the same category of other 4.5 rated courses such as Ashe County, Sugaree, Nevin, Rolling Pines, etc. Consider me too harsh for 'ONLY' giving this course a 4.0. It's a must play for all players in the western half of the state.