Pros:
Wellspring is a classic disc golf course. You feel like you're stepping back to the earlier days of disc golf, and can sense of how far it has come since the 1980s. That said, enjoy the tradition, but don't expect to be wowed, or overwhelmed by anything the course has to offer.
- Solid, heavily wooded course. The first 16 holes are all in the woods, ranging from narrow/nearly non-existent fairways to more open, ho-hum layouts.
- Very good use of elevation. There aren't any extreme elevation holes, but a majority has solid aspects of uphill or downhill shots, or a little bit of both. You see this from the very beginning, with #1, being a tight uphill layout, and have it continue throughout the round.
- Course has plenty of birdie, and ace chances. It's short enough that on most holes, you can be aggressive with putters and mid-range discs off the tee. It's almost a great course for beginners.
- Along those lines, I really appreciated that you had a chance to salvage any shots that went off the fairway. On most of the wooded holes, if your shot strayed into the trees, there was still enough room to make a shot towards the basket, instead of being forced to simply throw back into the fairway. It still brings in a solid risk/reward factor, but it's not going to automatically mean you're looking at a bogey.
- Course has 2 sets of tees. For the most part this is a pro, but there's a slight negative to them. Having two tees is always good, but there's only one hole that offers truly different look from the tees - #13. On several holes, the pro & amateur tees are right next to each other, or one behind the other, where you're essentially throwing the exact same shot.
- I loved having the small creek weave its way through the course. On almost every wooded hole, there's a small bridge, or bridges, over the creek. It's mostly shallow, so no real chance to lose a disc. Only potential risk area I noticed was on #4, where it was up to 2 feet deep.
- Very nice scorecards and maps online. Not that you'll need the map, because the course flows so well. The maps is more handy on some of the holes with blind tee shots.
Cons:
Tee pads are, ahem, antiquated. They're short and narrow. It's not a problem on every hole because many are so short, but on other holes where a run up is needed, you might be better off throwing from the dirt next to the pad.
- Metal baskets in the woods are always a bad combination. They're hard to see in the shadows or among the trees.
- A couple holes are squeezed too close together. The biggest culprit is #4 basket is only about 30 feet from #5 tee. If you're on #5 tee and there are people behind you, you'll need to keep a close eye to make sure no discs are flying your direction.
- The course is almost too short. If you take away #17, the short tees average only 205 feet, the longs average only 222 feet. Along the lines, it'd be nice to see a little more variety in the tee pad layouts.
- It's also a slight letdown to have 16 straight wooded holes, only to end with the only two open holes. It'd be a much better finish if you ended with one of the more of the difficult wooded holes, such as #1 or #15.
Other Thoughts:
After several holes, I was having major dejà vu. Then I realized this course is a slightly scaled down version of Reedy Creek - from distance, fairways width & challenge. The only major difference is that Wellspring isn't overcrowded with college kids.
- I really enjoy the isolation and beauty of the course. You really feel out at nature playing both here and Cedarock.
- It's great coming to a park and having two good courses to play. The fact they're polar opposites means you're going to get a little bit of everything playing both.
- There were some really fun, and challenging holes here. If you're throwing straight, you're going to see plenty of birdies and score low. #3 stood out to me as the epitome of this course has to offer. It's a 208 foot hole (205 from short tees), tight fairway over a slight ravine. A good tee shot will give you a tap-in birdie, an average tee shot may give you a long, difficult birdie putt, and a bad tee shot will find the trees, forcing you to scramble for par.
- Don't talk about about a course BD likes. He'll thumb you down.
- This is a solid course. It's more fun than challenging. All things considered this is a good, average course. Nothing overly special or unique here that you won't find at other courses - Reedy Creek, Cornwallis in Durham are similar.