Pros:
Free course with nice upkeep.
Cons:
Design quirks and little use of the beautiful land.
Other Thoughts:
For rating a course I base my ratings on 50% design, 20% course upkeep, 10% basket, tee, tee sign, and signage, 10% amenities, and 10% that special something that defines a course.
Intro:
NOTE: The course seems to be going through a minor redesign which may have had in impact on this review. I'll try to highlight those areas and adjust the review as I play in the future.
Tully Lake Disc Golf Course is a course hosted by the Army Corps of Engineers at the Tully Lake Dam complex. The course is extremely easy to find as the main road (Rt. 32) drives right over the dam. Parking is on either side of the road. Hole 1 is adjacent to parking on the East side. The grounds contain walking trails and I did see people walking their dogs, crossing my fairway on more than one occasion.
Design:
The course is a mixture of wooded and open holes. Holes had a good variety of straight and left or right turns. Length significantly varied with some holes being very short (hole 3) and some being long (hole 10) to extremely long (hole 8). Some holes feature minor elevation drops with a few offering significant elevation change. There are very few (one or two) blind shots and even then the disc is in sight for most of its flight. Fairways seemed loosely designed except for those that followed fire roads and multiple routes were available. Undergrowth along fairways was of a medium nature and an errant throw could pose a challenge for recovery of par. There is one hole where water significantly comes into play (hole 1 left side) and one where a spillway threatens to eat a disc (hole 9 right side) . Some targets are well guarded (hole 18) and some are parked on minor hills (hole 14). There are a few holes (11-13) that seem to be pure luck as trees inside the fairway are so dense that no discernable or adequate fairway exists. The new pin position on hole 18 is in a spot where the fairway does not continue to (at least that I could see). Overall, the course design while nice, does not seem as well polished as it should for a course it's age.
Course Upkeep:
The course appeared to be kept up adequately. Cut logs and trimmed brush piles were observed, placed mostly out of the way of the main fairways. Still though, fairways contained a large amount of saplings and tripping hazards. Course was mostly clean with just a small amount of trash observed. There were trash barrels located throughout the course and coffee cans at most holes for cigarette butts.
Basket, tee, tee sign, and signage:
Baskets are in good condition. Almost all tees are textured cement bases. Tee signs are present at all tees showing direct of fairway and distance. Possibly due to the redesign, distances on some signs varied with those listed on the score card and also angles of fairways did not match with those on the actual course. If unfamiliar, I suggest walking the hole first and not relying on the tee sign for shot planning. Signs are basic in design and offer limited references. Next tee signs were at some holes (3 or 4) but I felt more should have been present. I did have to refer to my map printed earlier for directions to the next hole on a couple of occasions. There were a few temporary signs due to the redesign (holes 9 and 18) for new basket/tee pad position and also giving better course directions (holes 5 and 10).
Amenities:
Located on the other side of the road of hole one I saw two picnic tables with grills (there may be more). There is no practice target (unless you count the basket for Hole 18 right by the tee box for hole 1). There is a very nice billboard with tournament/league info, a course map, lost and found drop box, and scorecards. There is a port-a-potty by the tee box for hole 1. I did not notice a source of water. Benches are at almost every tee. There are no bag hooks. Small whisk brooms were at most holes to clear tee pads. There was no location to practice warm up drives.
That "special something":
The signature hole for this course is hole 1. This is the only hole that really takes advantage of the dam. There are some other interesting holes such as holes 8 and 10 (both long holes with an immediate turn and following a road) but nothing I would classify as very "special".
Conclusion:
This is a course I wanted to love but left needing something more. Little things seem to get in the way of it being a high caliber course. At the end of my round I was unable to classify the course as overly challenging or overly easy, it felt balanced. I would not hesitate to take someone here for their first experience with disc golf as it is fairly beginner tolerant. It is not a course to be missed if in the area but it also isn't a course I feel the need to play again repeatedly.