Pros:
1) Initial impressions check all the right boxes for a park course setting. Ample parking, Hole #1 starts and Hole #18 ends directly beside parking lot, Practice basket clearly marked and easily findable right near Hole #1, brick and mortar bathrooms and port-o-johns throughout the park, trash cans at or near most holes, beautifully maintained.
2) Right in Dynamic Discs backyard so no surprise that course amenities were top tier. Large textured concrete tee pads (most holes had multiple, sometimes up to 3 separate tees), Full color tee signs with hole map, pin locations, distances for each alternate tee, and suggested flight lines. Recruit baskets in great condition throughout.
3) Multiple pin locations available on every hole which allows a large amount of different setups and difficulty levels to be created.
4) Park maintained flawlessly, grass cut low, no visible trash, limbs and debris were cleared, no eye sores to speak of. All non-disc golf related amenities were top notch as well and looked in new/renovated condition from the playgrounds to the sports fields. Despite the typical Kansas lack of elevation, this park does an incredible job of making itself beautiful, especially for being a multi-use park.
5) Surprisingly difficult in areas (depending on pin location and tee used). For a park course there are some hefty distance throws required on a few holes that ask you to hit a very specific window. Hole 1 and 2 definitely require some power right off the bat and then I love how the course immediately shifts gears down and Hole 3 requires a controlled fines shot, the Hole 4 ramps up to a tight gap control shot, and then Hole 5 ramps up to a tight gap control shot that requires distance to reach. Each hole kind of builds on the previous starting out and I love that in course design.
6) Water features shine on this course, Several creeks snake throughout the course and help provide natural OB and shape to some unique holes whilst the pond at the center is well utilized and played around. There are probably 2 signature holes in this course, Monkey Island, and the Peninsula hole and water is present on both, though much more daunting on the Peninsula hole.
7) There is tons of video footage of the course and it's many layouts on YouTube for those interested in making their first trip here. I put this in the Pros because a lot of courses don't benefit from having quality footage out there, especially when this course used to be utilized by the Pros for the GBO back in the day. The footage allows you to see what you are up against before deciding to come play, and can give you that "ah I remember this hole" feeling when you step up to the tee.
8) Lightly wooded with a solid mix of distances, several tunnel shots, several wide open bombers shots, several short very technical green landing zone shots. This course delivers in so many areas and excels at them while managing to not be oppressively difficult. It provides a challenge and asks you to meet it.
9) While the Monkey Island hole I mentioned before is iconic, it isn't extremely difficult. But Hole #12 the Peninsula Hole is both as iconic as it is difficult. The hole is basically shaped like the number 7, with the top half of the 7 jutting out into the pond and is probably only 20 feet wide the entire way with water on both sides. The main fairway is riddled with trees and there is no good landing zone. Your knees knock knowing if you glance off a tree you're going left into the water OB. And the drop zone shot from 50 feet straight out onto that sloped and curved peninsula is scary. Worse yet is trying to go out over the lake and land the Peninsula from the tee. Really gets your heart pumping.
10) As a predominantly LHBH player I absolutely loved to see a course that was fair and had a solid mix of left to right holes for once. RHFH players will love this course. Though most of the shorter technical holes are left to right, most of the long distance power holes are right to left, so it is pretty fair.
Cons:
1) Park golf in a well loved and utilized park. There will be lots of people spread throughout that you may have to politely let know you are about to throw. Luckily this is Emporia, and practically everyone knows what Disc Golf is and understands that they might be in your way temporarily and are happy to move.
2) While well laid out and very little long walks between holes, navigation can be a bit tricky unless you know where you are going or are using something like U-Disc to assist. It's not always intuitive where you should go next. Hole 5 to 6 you are required to walk partially back up hole 5's fairway to get to 6 tee pad. And hole 17 to 18 tee pad walks across hole 4's fairway on the walking trail (only an issue is hole 4 is in the long pin position)
3) I'm big on Hole #1 and Hole #18 should be great holes that introduce and conclude the feel and theme of a course and at Pan they do not do that. Hole #1 is a pretty basic wrap around a baseball field fence, though the fence height, trees and distance required do make for a difficult rather than bland hole, it's not unique. Hole #18 is a very weak short sloped hill Par 3 with nothing iconic or memorable about it. This trip however, they did make 18 iconic. Normal Hole #18 pin was removed and placed in the the long position (which appears to be Hole #19 when all baskets are in place as I saw new tee pads and signs for that). This created a daunting long dogleg right par 4 that finishes down a tight tunnel into an open grove of trees. A much more iconic and powerful finishing hole, BUT one that requires you to walk all the way back up the fairway to get off the course and back to the parking lot.
4) While there aren't many what I would call bad holes out here, the more iconic and memorable holes come in the middle of the course and it doesn't have a strong finishing stretch 15-18 are all pretty simplistic without much room for scoring separation down the stretch.
Other Thoughts:
This is a must play when in Emporia. Probably not a stand alone destination course from far away, but I could certainly see people from KC or similar making the trip down.
Subtle Kansas elevation put to as much use as they could, but trees are your main concern, followed closely by water. Course is probably closer to a 4.25 rating because of all the things it gets right, but will settle in at a 4.0 because of the Cons listed above. Challenging course overall, but not extremely difficult. It has a lot to live up to with the bevy of outstanding courses in Emporia. In my opinion the perfect challenging Recreational/Intermediate course layout for what they had to work with when designing it.