Pros:
Lots of good things can be said about the Tumble Tree Disc Golf Course and the Opelika Sportsplex it calls home. After all, it has a lot to offer. Combining an assortment of hole types and lengths, the layout should scratch most golfer's itch. There are open holes, water shots, wooded shots, and enough out-of-bounds to keep the sharpest of shooters honest. And speaking of sharp shooters and wooded shots, be ready for some tight lines and a premium on accuracy in the woods. Those who do well with precise drives and can work and shot shape their mid's will have an advantage on the wooded side. And again, once you get out in the open, controlled drives will keep you out of trouble with the OB walking trails that tend to follow some of the fairways.
From the long pads, a slightly longer thrower than average will give you an edge over your noodle armed competitors. I felt like some of these long pad shots due to terrain and shape made reaching the basket tough for the average recreational player, but just slightly. But for them, again playing longs, birdies will not be easy to come by. That will make upshots really important and playing clean on the short holes will help erase mistakes. Open/Pro level players will sail through the course with little to no trouble except those that struggle with tight wooded fairways. On paper at least, its not a daunting course at all. I think for the locals who play here a lot, I can imagine this being a course where they can have drastic swings in scores. Some days them tearing it up, and some days the course beating them up. Note that wind will ramp up the challenge on the nearby out-of-bounds holes.
The duel tee pads, positioned short/long and colored red/blue, give you a chance to mix things up depending on your mood. Combine that with what is often three possible pin placements on the holes, and you have yourself a well diversified course. Some thoughtful basket positions on mounded peninsulas, tucked into trees, near water, or otherwise in challenging positions keep things fresh. It's worth noting, some of these alternate positions really change the hole, both in terms of length and shape, sometimes dramatically. Although except for a few holes in the heart of the course, there is really no drastic elevation changes. Still, it appears that the designer took advantage of the available land to bring it into play as much as possible.
Blue Mach 5 baskets are in great shape and something I don't see often in my area. It was nice to play on something different. They are pretty good catchers and I like them. Concrete tee pads are here and serve the purpose but were slightly smaller than usual. Some are also better than others. It appears that original tees were installed and then a second set added later. Sometimes they may have added a short pad, other times long. Some of the new pads appear to be a series of precast masonry slabs (perhaps intended for A/C units) lined up three in a row. While they aren't as roomy or as level as a poured slab, they get the job done. Several times, the course takes advantage of the hard surface of the walking paths for tees and are indicated with spray paint. The tees signs are nice but are lacking many of the new improvements, pin positions, and so on. Let them be more of a crutch for navigation than totally relying on them for a portrayal of reality. Finally, benches were at a lot of the tee areas and rounded out the embellishments. Oh, and with this being a really nice county facility, I would venture to guess that you could always count on the grass to be cut/managed.
Cons:
Most tee signs are at the short pads. More often than not, you reach the long pad before the short which means walking up to the shorts then back to the longs if you are unfamiliar with the course. And with outdated info or missing new pin placements, you may find yourself walking up parts of the fairway to get your bearings or find a basket obscured by trees. Some intuitive disc golf sense will get you through the course but expect a little bit of looking around time.
In my view some baskets are way too close to the next tee pad. I'm remembering hole two's long pad which was nearly inside the circle of one's basket. Some are worse than other while other times holes just seemed to play too close to one another. Probably not a big deal most of the time, but during tourney's there are a lot of offenders. I don't think a lot of thought went into imagining where golfers would be on following holes and line of sight issues (Holes 1, 4, 5 all sort of get too close for comfort for example). I say that keeping in mind that I am not easily distracted and can generally play through things with little to no interference. For some reason it just got in my head. Couple that with the walkers and other park users you'll see on parts of the course, and there are lots of distractions.
Other Thoughts:
Note that if you are looking at pictures posted in 2013 here on the DGCR site, the trees have grown a lot. Some shots where I am told folks used to throw over certain areas are now too tall forcing you to take tighter lines. Hole 8, which evidently used to be one of the tighter and tougher wooded holes, has been drastically altered by a new road which completely removed trees from the left side. Now, it is still a challenging par 3 but the trees have been replaced with a new OB road following the left side. It's an interesting hole and quite frankly adds to the diversity of the course. It's also where some good use of elevation comes into play. That said, I heard a lot of locals who seem to miss the old wooded hole.
The Sportsplex was nice and had clean bathrooms, plenty if parking, and other amenities. Overall the course and park are well worth a trip. I feel like this is a 3.25 rated course but bumped it to a 3.5 as it had a pretty high fun factor to me.