Cons:
The struggle of trying to justify the counting of it as a course played.
- LAYOUT FLOW - Par2 Trail has perhaps the oddest transitions I've ever encountered. The course is literally played in a small city's old downtown setting. First, the course starts by an old rail station. After two long putts… excuse me, I mean after two holes, the course jumps to another park. This requires walking through a parking garage and crossing one busy street. Only a 500-foot gap in play though. After two holes at the second park, I then needed to walk about 1300 feet and cross three more city roads to play two more holes. The last two holes are in a fourth park across the street from tee (6).
- WALK BACK TO THE CAR - It's a 3000 foot walk back to tee (1). I crossed at least 5 city streets. I had a lot of time to think. Like about how much I didn't like that this course even exists. It felt really weird walking around downtown Dalton with a pair of red putters.
- NAVIGATION - Map-less first timers will not be able to figure the course out.
- SIX BASKETS - Perhaps I caught a bad day, but holes (3) and (4) at the outdoor amphitheater, were gone. No basket, no sign. Seems like they could have been pulled for an event. Perhaps they'll be back. This was a big factor in my rating score. I think this shaved off about a quarter of a point of my rating score, perhaps more.
- AMENITIES AND EXTRAS - As noted, Average baskets, T3s from Prodigy. Tees are natural with no defined throwing line. There is also a white vinyl tee sign at each of the six remaining holes. It has a hole number, par and distance on it. There are no other amenities or extras.
- HOLE VARIETY - All short putter runs.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - I went with 25 percentile. The second leg and fourth leg look nice. The third leg is awful.
- TIME WAITING - Prepare to wait in busy settings. Cars, bikes, pedestrians and trains could all come into play. Hole (8) may need to be skipped if park users are sitting near the basket.
- TIME PLAY - Because of the gaps in play and the long walk back to the car, this one takes longer than one would think. I was here over 40 minutes as a solo. I could have zombied thru two and a half rounds at nearby Dawnville in the same amount of time.
Other Thoughts:
Interesting course yes, but I personally don't think it works. It's severe lack of intrigue and its cumbersome nature, places it firmly on my "never playing again" list. If I lived within 200 feet of tee (1), I doubt I'd ever throw the course. I'd probably just practice between the first two baskets. No reason to check this out unless you are a hardcore course bagger in my opinion. The course is unlike any I've played to date. This is the kind of course that reviewer bennybennybenny plays, and then he writes an epic saga about it.