A World Class Experience. Rollin Ridge blows away everything I've played as of this review (290 courses).
PROS:
+ 5 STAR CHARACTER + It's hard for me to envision a course with more amenities and comfort items. It has everything. It starts off when arriving. The first thing I noticed was the two practice baskets with one of them in a raised position, a first for me. The second thing that stood out was a netted enclosure, and upon further inspection I realized it was a driving range, also a first. Third, the clubhouse and spacious deck. The deck has numerous picnic tables that over look the ninth hole's black basket location. Along the west side of the deck and along the outside clubhouse wall, is a giant course map with all the tee and basket distance combinations. There are scorecards with map, pencils, bug spray and community board postings. A door to a restroom with a sink is along this wall as well. And then there's the inside of the clubhouse itself. A bar with numerous stools, a pool table, a lost disc rack with hundreds of returns, over a thousand new discs available for purchase, a guest book sign in, a map to pin where a player has visited from, etc. etc. It's simply amazing.
+ TEE EXPERIENCE + Three large and beautiful concrete tees at just about every hole, Orange, Red and Black. They may not be the widest I've played but they are still five to six feet wide at front and tapper wider in the back, the optimal shape. The stone work and flower beds around many of tees looks amazing. Hands down the most visually stunning tees I've every stepped foot on. The tees are well shaded and provide wind blocking at about 80 to 90 percent of the tees. There is seating for what seems like 8 people on every hole. The hole signage is sensational. Beautiful and color coordinated showing all the obstacles, all the tees, all the basket locations and the direction to the next tee in most instances.
+ 54 BASKETS + While standing on the first tee I noticed the omission of basket location indicators at the tee. So I ran down fairway to check the location, thinking how can a top course omit such an item. Just as I finished my thought I looked up and saw a MachX at each of the three positions, Orange, Red and Black baskets. There are 54 MachXs to shoot at out here, 3 at each hole.
+ MULTIPLY FORMATS + With the 3 tee and 3 basket set up, there are nine playable options at 16 of the 18 holes, and 6 options at (7) and (16). This combination gives the player the option to never play the same layout twice. Want a quick round? play Orange to Orange. Want a long difficult round? Play Black to Black. The combinations are endless.
+ NATURAL BEAUTY + In my top 3 for most beautiful courses I've ever played. As mentioned above stunning tees. Perhaps it was the time I played but there were lots of wild flowers blooming along the open holes. Lots of older pines and mixed deciduous trees to throw through. Several fairways designs are worthy of pausing to take out a phone and snap a picture. Lots of well done woodworking along the course, from benches, to errant disc protection, to bridges, to hole (14) with its wood-crafted backdrop and to hole (8) with its 100 foot long teeing deck .
+ CHALLENGING + The Black tee to Black basket combo looks championship level difficult. A par 69, 8,851 foot layout with lots of shop shaping and needle lines to thread through. My guess is that only players with a rating of about 970 or above will break par on a routine basis.
+ NAVIGATION + Not flawless but really good for a course with this type of set up. The only confusing area was (6) to (7) and (14) to (15), in which these holes all kind of converge a bit. The course map on the scorecard helped and there are numerous directional signs along the layout.
+ UNIQUENESS + Among the top 5 most diverse layouts I've ever played. Sweeping par 3s, Several par 4s, a couple long dogleg left par 4s and a couple par 5s. Open holes through heavily wooded holes. Lots of tunnel fairways, tee shot gaps, pockets left and right and basket windows to hit. Shot shaping will be a major requirement. I personally would not call any of these fairways as poke and hope shots. I've seen many much worse offenders in Florida and also on a couple John Houck courses (no disrespect to John Houck, I love his course designs). There are also few water elements in play on holes (1) (2) and (18), and some moderate elevation changes. Most notable elevation is on (10) which is about a 40 foot down shot from the Black tee.
+ SKILL LEVEL FRIENDLY + Other than players with less than 50 rounds in the bag, Rollin Ridge will appeal to all the remaining skill levels, even pro players.
+ MAINTENANCE + The course grounds were in immaculate shape. Seriously how many people do they have here keeping up the grounds? Several holes had well thinned out fairways and edges. Only bad ricochets or throws well off line will end up in some thicket.
+ PAY TO PLAY + Only five dollars to play? Are you kidding me? Please take my money.
CONS:
There is nothing of substance wrong with Rollin Ridge. All the listed cons below are nit picking items that come with making a course of this caliber, or they are site issues.
- FORGIVENESS - As stated above, I thought all the lines were fair, but just because they're fair, doesn't mean they are easy. Several lines were less than 10 feet wide. Ricochets in the wrong direction or grip locks could be very punishing. There is a swamp along much of hole (2) and a menacing small pond on (18) between the Orange and Red basket. By looking at the disc return collection, you can tell people lose plastic out here quite often.
- BOGGY - As mentioned in many other reviews, there are a few holes here that appear to not drain well. (4) (5) (13) and (14) seemed all slightly boggy during my round. I kept my feet dry the whole time, but I could see some issues after heavy rains.
- POISON IVY - I spotted poison ivy a few times along the layout but it was always a small plant. I wonder if they come through on occasion and take it out.
- BEGINNER FRIENDLY - I wouldn't advise bringing newer players here. Way too many trees here for players not adjusted to throwing discs on a fairly precise line. The short Orange to Orange layout looks best served for rec level players with over a year of experience. I brought my mom with me to play this one, and although she loved the sheer beauty, she got a bit frustrated hitting trees, hole after hole.
- PARKING - One of the better gravel parking lots I've seen, but still gravel.
- TIME PLAY - Rollin Ridge is going to take a chunk out of a player's day. My group of two spent almost 2 hours on the course. Plus we spent another 30 minutes mulling around the clubhouse after the round. I just didn't want to leave and time will just fly by here.
OTHER THOUGHTS:
I played Red tees to Orange baskets and it was perhaps the most enjoyable round I've ever played. I drove into Reedsville (not in Brillion) a bit skeptical of its top ten rating but was left blown away by the totality of the experience. At round conclusion I considered Rollin Ridge to be best course I had ever played and my scoring method backed my initial thoughts up. Rollin Ridge is the first course I've rated as a A+, something that I thought wasn't possible for a long while. I definitely hope to be back in the next couple of years as I do get back to Wisconsin once or twice a year. I want to try the Red To Red configuration or perhaps even see what kind of licking the Black to Black configuration can dish out. I can't recommend this course enough, you need to plan a trip here.