Graham Creek - The Preserve

@scottpguth

73

General comments: Spectacular property. Shaded, wooded (even the open holes have wood lines on the edges), so not particularly windy given proximity to the coast. First 11 holes are some of the best designed woods golf you’ll ever play. Coming off hole 11 I thought the course was criminally underrated on UDisc. Then holes 12-17 are open, park style golf with an inefficient layout, relatively weak design, and not much variety to offer. These holes (especially the par 4’s) could benefit from having a combination of either open/bomber tee shots followed by tight/placement upshots, or the reverse. All of the open holes play from east to west, so if wind is coming from the west the stretch of 12-18 will be miserable. Many of the distances on udisc are substantially off. Some tee signs have distances…those all seemed to be correct. Bring a range finder. Reviewer context: 940-rated, right handed, forehand dominant, throws 350’ forehand, 375’-400’ backhand. Prefer woods golf. Played on a beautiful day in March 2025. Underbrush was reasonable to find discs in, but seems like it might be gnarly later in the year. Hole-by-hole comments: 1 - 3/3. Good difficult forehand or backhand turnover to set up a birdie putt. 2 - 3/3. Beautiful, tight woods fairway. Tough to par. But possible to birdie. 3 - 3/3. Perfect difficulty for 280’ hole. 4 - 2/3. A bit too short for how easy the fairway is. Still good. 5 - 3/3. Phenomenal use of mando. 6 - 3/3. Amazing. 7 - 3/3. Perfect. No notes. 8 - 3/3. So unique to force a tight backhand turnover at only 250’. And the degree to which it forces this exact shape but is still fair is exquisite. 9 - 3/3. Absolutely perfect execution of a precision/placement game forehand par 4. Requires 2 perfectly executed shots to be C1 birdie even though it’s only 480’. 10 - 1.5/3. A bit too easy compared to the front. The gap should be narrower for being such a short hole. Trees around the basket pump it up a bit, but still soft. 11 - 3/3 cool how different this is than all prior holes. Unique in that it rewards power by offering the wider right gap. But if you don’t have 330’ of pure hyzer distance you’re forced to flex a tighter, much more dangerous inside line. Could benefit from either a mando to make the right gap scarier. 12 - 1/3 only thing it has to offer is variety in that it’s an elevated basket. But it should be more elevated to make it harder, and the teepad location causes unnecessary walking. Same shot shape and variety could be achieved by having the teepad much closer to 11’s basket, and the 12 pin closer to 13’s tee. 13 - 0/3 forces a route, but leaves open many options for that route. BUT DONT PUT BASKETS WITHIN 30’ of PROPERTY BOUNDARIES!! Very reasonable misses go over a barbed wire fence with several NO TRESPASSING signs. Pin should be moved away from this. 14 - 1.5/3. Variety in that it’s the first open, long par 4. But should probably be longer from the blues. And again it follows too close to a property boundary, although not egregiously so like hole 13. 15 - 0/3. 483’ from blue tee. Tweener distance without offering anything unique. Maaaybe a bomber’s par 3? Either way, bad layout to have 16 tee closer to 14 pin than 15 tee. Wasted walking when you have the space to avoid that, and without a cool hole carrot at the end of the walk. 16 - 1/3 393’. Unremarkable. 17 - 0/3 not a real tee shot now that sapling pine trees are growing. Tee pad should be shifted left to road. Tweener par 4.5 distance, especially for how narrow and obstructed the fairway is. 18 - 2/3. Moderately demanding tee shot release.

@kurdelski

100

Signage is terrible. But otherwise this course is fantastic. The lines are very difficult but fair. Amazing shot variety and mix of wood, open, long, short. The blues were spot on difficulty and I bet the whites are a ton of fun. A thinkers course for sure.

@eflanagan

64

Lost a pink pa-2 on the right side of hole 3! Reward if found!!

@jaybowser

92

Really hard to believe that EMac designed this course, maybe some signage or tee signs would help, but even with UDisc everything was very confusing. A very excessive amount of walking from basket to the next tee, and the whole back nine is stock shots over an empty field. I came on vacation with four discs, and by hole four I was down to only two remaining. The rough is very rough, And we even got to finish out with the parking lot on the edge of circle one for hole 18‘s basket, resulting in a good amount of damaged vehicles I would imagine

@randyblythe1981

73

I had high hopes with this course when I saw who designed it. There is no main sign, no tee signs, no signs showing where to go. A few tee pads are turned in the wrong direction and would be better if they were a little to the right or left.

@beastvalkyrie

99

Fun front 9, pretty typical woods course with a few open holes. But the back 9 is nothing.but zig-zagging across an open field just to get you back to the parking lot. My suggestion, play rhe front 9 and walk straight back. If you have plenty of time play Pecan Hollow across the parking lot for a nice 27 hole day. Much more fun course if you like a challenge.

@mastamixinmatt

101

BEAUTIFUL COURSE! Course is nicely kept in a great area near(very close) Orange Beach. Blue and white tees available with an array of shots available. Stay in the fairway in the wooded area!

@jzoltanski2

122

Make sure you have Udisc to navigate the course, stay on the fairway in the woods or be prepared to search for discs. Overall great course with defined fairways, just missing tee signs

@emerson6201

49

Course was good but the gnats made it unbearable. Literally would never play here again unless it’s between November and beginning of February.

@aggiejonathan

109

Beautiful course with fun shots. Bugs weren’t bad. One of the signs was pointing the wrong way and udisc was off on a couple holes but otherwise great course

@borisbecker475

225

If said "designed by McCabe" there would be tee sign, arrows to next tee. Needs more lovd

@lafish

58

Really fun course, the front 9 is wooded and the back 9 is wide open. Good mixture of technical and distance shots. My only knock is there are not signs at the holes. And a few were difficult to find. Otherwise. This was a fantastic course. Definitely worth checking out.

@isuaggie

149

Always fun and challenging mix of wooded and open holes. Tight on the front and opens up on the back.

@skymtb

61

The course is so well maintained, like they just came and mowed the open areas, maybe they did. Signage could be better, had to rely on uDisc for some navigation. Definitely will be back.

@hillsdalecj

51

Technical woods holes mixed with open park style. Huge fan. Beautiful property, disc golf dedicated, Zuca friendly, awesome to play in the winter. (Though I could imagine the undergrowth on hole 7, 10, 2, 4, and a few others might be a bit much in summer). What’s great: 1-Forces you to throw some short putter/mids off tees and then allows you to open up distance drivers on some shots - great distance variety. 2-Great course to combo up with Pecan Hollow (or PPP or the Prairie). 3-The setting - you feel out in nature. Love the painted distances on the pads though most are now faded off. Favorite hole: 2 Least favorite hole: 7

@bwunsch

71

Perfect

@brandonbrown

55

Absolutely beautiful course! A good mixture of heavy woods and open fairways, but no elevation makes for an easy walk. Tee signs could use some love.

@sammcmalone

69

Solid course. Very murky through the woods (rained recently).

@lukeawilliams

64

Long fairways and long par 3s but definitely still a lot of fun.

@strevdisc

97

Well maintained and beautiful course, a good mix of wooded and wide open holes. The entire set of three are so fun and nice to visit when in OB.