I usually rate courses on three category levels. It helps me to stay objective and not get my own personal feelings mixed into the review.
Category I, "Essential properties of a good course"
Baskets: (condition, make, etc)
Tee Pads: (material, condition, level?, etc)
Tee Signs/Maps/Markers: (present?, condition, clarity, accuracy)
Category II "Combine with cat I to make a great course"
General Course Design: (flow, loop back to start?, crossing fairways?, well defined fairways, etc)
Foliage Maintenance: (underbrush?, poison oak?, stinging nettles?, blackberries, etc, trees trimmed accordingly, grass cut regularly?)
Benches & Trash bins: (present?, condition?, emptied regularly?)
Category III "bonus attributes to make an excellent course"
Elevation: (present?, optimized?, etc)
Epic Holes: (There are some holes you will never forget throwing)
Camping
Restrooms
Running water
Variety of hole distances
Variety of shots required
Mix of tight technical & Open bombs
Overall challenge
Parking
Scenic beauty
Crowded or not?
Regular events to participate in
Attitude of locals
and on and on and on.
From your post on writing a good review. In this case, the local is the damn owner of the course. If anything, he should be trying to please every customer that walks through the door and pays their $5, because word travels fast.
Question, how many people here have played at Blue Ribbon and got their disc in the water? How many of you have used a rake to try and find that disc? Or how about seen anybody go into the water with the rake to try and find it? I know I have seen it numerous times, and this is my first year ever going to Blue Ribbon. I do not recall anywhere on my scorecard (I have one in front of me), or any signs next to any of the ponds/creeks that state that you can not go in/use a rake to find your disc, therefore it would not be a rule violation. Hell, they have a damn rule stating that if you find a disc with someone elses name on it while searching for yours, to turn it into the pro shop. That basically calls out, "Check the ponds/creeks at your own risk for your disc, but don't be a Dick (as the sign on the back of the pro shop door reads)." Nobody in my group has ever broken that rule while searching for our discs. We have found about 4-5 in the past month alone (a Thank You would be appreciated here). Every one of those was turned into the pro shop.
So here is my group of 3. I am on one side of the pond on hole 19 with a rake searching for my friends disc. One of my other friends is in the pond with the other rake (he had waders on because he lost 2 discs earlier this year, one of which was at Blue Ribbon and had his name and number on it, and the waders make it so your clothes do not get wet.) The owner comes up and asks what we are doing. We tell him we were looking for our friends disc. He then tells us that we can not use the rakes to look for our disc. We ask him, "If you can't use them to look for your disc, then why does the course provide them?" He then threatens to have us removed from the course for not following the rules. I ask again, where is this rule posted? And why do they have a rule that contradicts that rule? If he had simply said to us, "You can use the rakes to find it from the edge of the water, but you can't be in the water, it is a liability issue." we would have been cool with that, but the threaten to have us removed without any further explanation then "You can't use the rakes to look for your disc"? That's just bull****! On top of that, on the way to our cars (we left immediately, didn't even feel like finishing the last 8 holes), he was standing behind the pro shop watching us walk by, while another group stood 100 feet to his left with a rake in the creek looking for their disc.
I ask you. If you walked into your local Wal-Mart and were looking at clothes, and didn't put the pair of size 34 pants you were looking at back in line with the other 34's, and instead put it behind the... 40's, and a manager walked up to you and threatened to have you removed from the store because you were breaking a rule, would you rate them a 3-4 out of 5 and want to go back just because "The store is clean and well maintained and you can find everything you are looking for"? Hell no! You would find the next closest store that sold the same stuff, and go there, even if the store is not quite as clean.
