Pros:
Good variety of holes, open, partially wooded and heavily wooded. Good use of the elevation available, just about every type of elevation you can imagine.
Several of the baskets and tee pads have been replaced, but more are needed.
Located in a beautiful State Park, with no admission charge. It is located between Kingsport and I-81, so very accessible for all the activities, campground, fishing and boating lake, swimming pool, soccer, golf and horseback riding.
All of the fairways are wide enough to hit a line, even the more wooded holes. The open holes add some distance, but not overly long.
Some holes have multiple tees and multiple basket positions.
19 holes on one side of the park road and parking, then another 8 on the other side. I'm guessing these other 8 were added later, after the 1980 opening.
#27, one of the coolest finishing holes you will find, more on that later.
Cons:
Several of the baskets and tee pads need to be replaced. I lost count how many of the baskets had chains covered in rust, including #1. Although they have started replacing tee pads, several are small and have bad dropoffs.
There are 4 holes on the open hillside at the start of the course. It seemed pretty easy for errant tee shots to cross fairways and interfere with others, especially on #1, with the park road down the left side, most players are going to play away from that, toward #18 tee and #17 basket.
A long, tricky downhill walk from #1 to #2 tee, however I don't see another way to get past the playground to the other side of the course.
#4 tee is in an awkward position, in an open area, just off the main route to #13 basket. If people on both tees aren't paying attention, it would be easy to get beaned.
The Tees signs are pretty old and basic, they look like original equipment.
Other Thoughts:
One of the original Disc Golf courses in Tennessee, it was great to play this piece of history. These courses usually have a lot of short, putter or mid-range holes, while there are several, #2, #14, #15, #16, #19, #20, I've seen courses from this age with a lot more. They do allow for ace runs.
I started by mentioning the variety of vegetation and elevation, along with those, the distance is varied pretty well also. Everything from the shortys mentioned above, to several holes around 400'. I'm not sure I agree with #1, #5 and #6 all being 400' and Par 3s, the later two being the best of these. Both are valley tee shots, past partial woods (#5 toward the green and #6 off the tee), and finishing uphill. #18 is just under 400', but downhill and curving left, probably one of the best looking holes on the course, especially with the basket tucked in the edge of the woods.
The most interesting of the wooded holes is #10, straight, slightly downhill with a huge hardwood tree framing the basket. The other wooded holes are wide enough, if you miss key trees, to get close to the basket.
#15 is the most memorable and fun and the short holes. Straight downhill, just 188', once you hit the gap, there is a small creek to clear just before the basket.
Another fun downhiller is on the final 8, #22 is just under 300' and drops 30-40', the fairway is framed by a little used park road on the right and some thick rough on the left, let it fly, but keep it straight!
We've all played tight tunnel holes, maybe straight lines of pine trees, or bamboo, or just thick trees, but how many have you played down a tunnel of large rock embankments down the entire length of the hole? #27 is such a fun way to finish your round, the basket is probably normally in the 300' position, but at about 175', you have a rock outcrop blocking the right half of the fairway, get past that and you have a shot at birdie. Get stopped by that and you need a straight upshot to save Par.
It would be nice to see this course get some love and new equipment. They are certainly making other improvements to the park and the golf course appears to be in excellent shape. I'm sure this course started out with some high ratings, but I don't feel it is still at the 3.77 level. It appears to be very popular (since I have seen people playing every time I have been near the course), probably because there are holes for all types of players, but in its current condition, Winged Deer Park is a much better course.