Hole #1

Hole 2

Hole 3

Hole 4

Hole 5

Hole 6

Hole 7

Hole 8

Hole 9

Hole 10

Hole 11

Hole 12

Hole 13

Hole 14

Hole 15

Hole 16

[image redacted]

Hole 17

amateur tee

Hole 18

PDGA. Map

This is currently my least favorite course. Not because it sucks, but because it is the most technical, most luck-requiring-for-a-good-score course I have ever played. Almost every hole has a 10 by 10 window in which to throw your disc off the tee. Water comes into play on a few holes, and the constant up/down elevation changes challenge you to be at your best. If you’re a righty, I suggest bringing several different types of turnover discs, as this course has more turnover shots than straight shots.

Hole #1

Starts off innocuous enough. The basket is about 260 from the tee, to the left of the plastic-covered tree in the middle of the fairway.

Hole #2

Of all the 24 holes at this course, this was my favorite. It’s tight and technical, but the fairway isn’t completely lined by trees.

Hole #3

Things start to get a little bit more narrow here…

Hole #4

Trust me; you would rather be in the fairway and short than anywhere off to the left or the right.

The basket is 125 feet up from the base of the hill, behind the mess of trees in the middle of the fairway.

Hole #5

Again, you want to be in the fairway. It doesn’t matter how far down the fairway you get.

There’s no shame in taking a sure 4 on this hole.

Hole #6

There aren’t many good shots from the tee here. An overhand shot seems to reliably end up in the best spot.

Hole #7
Hole #8
Hole #9
Hole #10
Hole #11
Hole #12
Hole #13
Hole #14
Hole #15
Hole #16
Hole #17
Hole #18
Hole #19
Hole #20
Hole #21
Hole #22
Hole #23
Hole #24

This course is located directly behind the fire station in Oshtemo Township, about 5 miles west of Kalamazoo. There’s 18 holes, and the back 9 was probably twice as difficult as the front, so plan to get all your deuces early. There was a practice basket off to the other side of the parking lot from the first tee, but not a lot of space to throw some practice bombs. Also, it is highly recommended that you don’t bring any alcohol to the course, as it is explicitly forbidden and these West Michigan police folk often suffer from small penis syndrome.

Hole #1

Real straight and fairly tight to start off. Basket up to the left about 325.

Shot from behind the basket back towards the tee.

Hole #2

Another tight shot. This course has a lot of them.
Hole #3

Missed hole 3. Will try and get pictures soon.

Hole #4

This was a really tough hole. The basket is about 450 feet, straight ahead. Unfortunately, the straight line is blocked by 5 big trees. I threw a flip-up hyzer shot over the left side of the fairway and it worked out pretty well for par. If you have that shot, I suggest throwing it.

You can see here that an attempt at birdie is doomed for failure.

Hole #5

More narrow fairway action here. At the time it seemed obnoxious.

The hole is about 550 feet, with a tight tee shot and a big sweeping hyzer upshot. Pars were rare among our group.

Hole #6

A short little forehand shot to the right was the easiest hole all day.

Hole #7

The easiest hole all day was followed by the most difficult hole all day. The hole is shaped like a backwards S, with an immediate dogleg right off the back tee, 250 feet of straight fairway, and then a dogleg left towards the basket.

Even 4′s were tough to come by.
Hole #8

Another short and relatively easy hole, though the fairway is quite narrow.
Hole #9

Lots of long and tight holes on this course.

Hole #10

This was my personal favorite hole. The fairway is split in half by a dozen or so pine trees. You want to be to the right of that row of trees.

Hole #11

Another fun hole. Requires a long hyzer shot to the fairway from the back tees.

If you’re in the fairway you have a good chance at par. Otherwise, you’re screwed.

Hole #12

Throw straight…

…and you’ll end up down here.

Hole #13

Hole #14

I heard this course used to be harder, and then the PDGA forced the park to remove a bunch of trees and other obstacles so as to reduce the amount of luck involved in getting a good score. I’m not sure they removed enough.

Hole #15

This hole was pretty mean. The fairway is littered with man-sized pine trees, forcing a tall shot off the tee.

This shot from the amateur tee shows how full the fairway is.

Hole #16

This was my least favorite hole. The window to throw your disc through from the tee is maybe 5 feet by 5 feet. Not fair.

Hole #17

You can see the line of trees that they cut down to make good scores on this hole “less lucky”. I still threw a thumber.
Hole #18

This hole is a bit confusing, but the basket is actually down a hill on the left side of the fairway.

Looking back at the fairway from behind the basket.

This was another beautiful disc golf course closer to downtown Madison, and this one is absolutely free. Maybe not the most difficult course, but definitely a fun one to play. There are lots of birdie opportunities and also a lot of holes where you can pull out the long distance drivers. Elevation changes appear on almost every hole. There are pro and am tees for every hole, too. Glass bottles are technically not allowed on the course, but we didn’t have any problems. The mosquitoes here were pretty ruthless, especially once you get into the woods. Bring bug spray.

Hole #1

A pretty simple, straight uphill shot to open things off. The basket is just to the left at the top of the hill.

Hole #2

Another straight shot here on hole 2. Because of the shadows we couldn’t really see where the basket was from the tee pad, but it’s dead straight.

The basket is well-guarded, making a birdie very difficult.

Hole #3

I like these long, downhill shots. There are no trees here, so you can really just throw it as hard as you can.

Hole #4

This was the first tough hole on the course, especially from the blacks. You have to get a good turnover shot from the tee, and it has to be far, too. You can’t actually see the basket from the back tee, so I snuck around the corner to get a look at it.

Hole #5

I didn’t get a picture of the basket on this hole because we were being pressured by the group we were passing, but it is setup on the top of a wall at the top of the hill heading into the woods to the right. The tree at the end of the fairway provides a large obstacle if your shot hyzers off to the left.

Hole #6

For some reason the lighting was all screwy on this hole and the dozen or so pictures I took all came out fuzzy, but you get the idea.
Hole #7

This was probably the most difficult tee shot on the whole course. There isn’t much space in between all those trees on the left.

Even after getting around the first group of trees, the basket is well-protected against any upshots.

Hole #8

Low ceiling and a tight, uphill left-turn make this another difficult tee shot.

Hole #9

More low ceiling trees, this time with a right turn.

Hole #10

Another long hole starts out the back nine. That, along with the scenic, sloping fairway makes this look like a ball-golf hole.

Hole #11

Nothing fancy about this hole. One of the easier ones on the course.
Hole #12

And then it got hard again…

Hole #13

The best line is the hyzer line just to the right of the center trees. At least, it was for me.
Hole #14

Here’s another straight, low-ceiling shot. I picked the wrong disc and ended up way left of the fairway. Please trust me when I say you really don’t want to do that.

Purty.

Hole #15

Long. Staight. Don’t miss the fairway.

Hole #16

Hole #17

I guess I could have circled this basket, too, but it’s in between the two trees straight ahead.

Hole #18

The hole curves a little over to the right, with the basket being along the left-most edge of the fairway.

I thought this course was awesome. The $5 fee to play seemed a bit steep at first, but it became wildly apparent that the money garnered through this pay-to-play system was put right back into the course. There are dual, concrete tees on every hole, and each hole also has 3 separate pin locations varying in difficulty. They only have one location setup at a time, but playing a tournament here would be very interesting if they kept moving the baskets. There is a practice basket for putting and enough space to get in a good warmup. It wasn’t very crowded, but I was a little surprised to see a lot of beginner golfers. Gotta start somewhere. When reading these posts, keep in mind we are playing from the pro tees.

Hole #1

It was pretty windy while we were out at the course, which made this seemingly easy, straight shot a bit more difficult. There is a lot of space behind the tree if you want to take the hyzer route, which I did.

A tough 35 footer if you end up in the tree.

Hole #2

This was another wide-open straight shot, however the 30 mph headwind made this a tough golf shot. The pin is about 400 ft. up on the left side.

Hole #3

Another straight shot.

Hole #4

If you look closely you can see the basket down there to the right of the barn, in-between the trees. A slight anhyzer was the shot here.

Hole #5

You can’t see it here, but the basket is over that little fence and down into the trees about 450 ft.

The hole really clears up once you get past the first set of trees, so don’t be afraid to huck it down there.

Hole #6

This was one of the more interesting holes on the course. There are 3 rock stands up there, each one protecting a different basket location. It’s a pretty short hole, but plays a lot longer because of the late incline.

I put my disc right off the front of this first rock stand. Luckily it was good plastic and didn’t get fucked up.

Hole #7

Another fun hole. The straight route to the basket is almost completely covered by growth. I went with the big hyzer shot with a very overstable disc. Just aimed at the top of the tree line in the back and let the disc work itself back towards the basket.

Landed about 15 feet away for a deuce. There is a drastic falloff behind the basket, so you’ll want to be careful when putting that way or you’ll end up with a bogey.

Hole #8

One of the more picturesque holes on the course. Forehand was the shot here.

Hole #9

The basket is almost impossibly buried down to the right. A safe shot up the middle or slight-right is the way to go. You’ll want to get as far down the fairway as you can to give yourself a shot at a long putt.

The basket is next to my friend Cory up there. You can see I didn’t give myself a chance at the long putt.

Hole #10

Back to another mostly wide open hole. The tree line protecting the basket is about 375 ft. away and downhill, so getting there is decently easy.

Here you can see the wall of trees guarding the basket (center-right). This made deuces nearly impossible from the back tees.

Hole #11

The hole really clears up once you get around that first bend. This was the longest hole on the course, if I remember correctly.

Hole #12

Here’s a look at the signs they have on each hole. You can see each of the pin locations and where they are relative to the tee box. These are probably the nicest signs with the most accurate hole drawings I’ve ever seen.

Another pretty hole. Basket up to the right.

Another tree-protected basket. Makes upshots more difficult that I’m used to.

Hole #13

This was another real long hole. You’ll want to keep your tee shot low to get some glide down the hill.

Hole #14

Hole #15

The holes really started to get longer here on the back 9…

There you can finally see the pin, up to the left.

Hole #16

The basket on this hole was actually a lot more to the left than it may appear by looking down the fairway. I suggest going over the trees on your left.

Damn tree.

Hole #17

The pin is sort of hidden from the back tees here, but it’s about 275 up to the left.

Hole #18

A straight 315 ft. shot to end the round. One of only a handful of ace-able holes.

This will be my first real effort at actual, worthwhile blogging, rather than linking to other blog posts, articles, videos, etc. If I suck, I apologize, I’ll hopefully be getting better the more I write. If you have any ideas or suggestions for future content, leave ‘em in the comments.