Pros:
Shelby Farms Park is a big, beautiful park; the course plays out over an expanse of lovely rolling (presumably) former pasture land.
Plenty of long-ish holes, a good place to really open up on your drives. Also a few more technical shots.
The fairways are well maintained, and the course seems kept relatively clean--not much litter to be found, which is nice.
Cons:
Course layout has changed, making it difficult to navigate for a first-timer without local help.
Mostly wide-open, which makes some of the holes a feel a little repetitive.
Teepads are way too small for the distance on most holes
A couple of damaged pins, still playable but could cause added difficulty.
Other Thoughts:
This was my first time playing Shelby Farms, and I was impressed with the beauty of the course and the park in general. However, navigation for a first timer was extremely tricky. A course map at the first tee would be very helpful, as would indications on the teesigns of the direction to the next tee, but neither were available.
Some teepads do not have signs and are not easy to see from the previous pin. I found out later that the course layout has changed from the photos posted here, with new holes added in the woods after hole #3. I missed these holes and played the "old layout." However, since some (but not all) of the existing teesigns have been renumbered for the "new" layout, I got lost several times looking for the correct next number.
Finally, the teepads are very short, and runups from beside or behind are not always possible due to terrain. It looks like some work is being done to lengthen a few of the pads with bricks laid behind them, which will help. But not much of this had been completed when I played.
I did like the course and would love to play it again knowing the layout a little better, or with a local to show me around. With some navigational aid it would be a lot more friendly to non-locals, and a lot more fun.