Pros:
• Easy to find and fairly easy to navigate
• Nice baskets
• A good mix of fun and challenging shots
• Beautiful park with additional activities (e.g. boat rentals, fishing, nature center, walking trails, picnic areas, etc....) and facilities (e.g. restrooms, water fountains, etc...)
• Warm-up areas everywhere with a practice basket or two (?)
Cons:
• $5 is a bit much to park but you can see where the money's going
• Goose poop - Yea, what're going to do really? They were probably here first.
• People, roads, cars, and houses, can be in play on a couple holes.
• Tees are a little small in spots
Other Thoughts:
Tips
• There's a strip mall on the opposite side of I5 from the park that has food, gas, stores, etc...
• You can either park by #1 or by #18. It's your choice as to when you want to do the walk between course and car.
Random Thoughts:
Let me first point out that the day we went, almost every basket was in the long position and some were in the loooooooooooooooong position. This is not a complaint, at all. But it did bump up what I considered a good 'beginner' course in the old configuration to what I would now call an 'intermediate' course. There are times where you are going to be quite close to fences, roads, and water so you do need more than a fair amount of control to keep out of trouble. Although, with that said, if you play 'amateur' style, this does mean you have quite a number of par 4s to have fun with. Not that par is easy. It's not. But it's doable for the average to above-average player. But even so, I took two outright rookies with me who had only played a few rounds prior and they enjoyed the course. What does help is that there aren't any elevation changes so that means the challenges are primarily distance and obstacles (usually trees). Navigation can get a little tricky being as the angle of the pads and the angle of the pictures on the signs aren't quite what I'd call intuitive when you're trying to find those long basket positions, but with a little study, we found most of them within a couple minutes, even those that crisscross a bit with other holes. The only real time we got lost moving between holes was between 16 and 17 and part of the reason for that is the sign was gone (or broken?). Speaking of which, the signs are quite fantastic. Nice job. The only minor complaint is the lack of basket position markers. Again, you can figure it out but it'd be nice if you didn't have to. As for the shots, I did quite a bit more thinking out here than on an average course. Flight paths aren't necessarily obvious and with the additional distance, you have to have a plan for how you're going to approach the basket. Personally, I really enjoyed the challenge of it. It forced to me use almost every shot in my bag, which is a nice change of pace.
Bottom Line: While it's not what I'd call 'as beginner friendly as it once was', it's a very good course with a number of interesting challenges and shots, not to mention, it's a brilliant expansion and use of the space. Bravo to the course designers and volunteers for what is a noticeable improvement on the old course. I'm looking forward to coming back to check out the new Gold configuration.