Allegan Jaycee Park covers a smallish, flattish piece of land on the Kalamazoo River right in Allegan, MI. The main attractions at the park appear to be a skatepark area, pavilion, walking trail, and 9 hole disc golf course.

The course opens with three easy holes in the front of the park. After hole 3 you will walk along a trail onto a boardwalk through a small marsh. It's a bit of a walk, but I was so surprised by the abrupt change in scenery that I didn't notice. Then the course got a little more interesting. Hole 4 tees off just in front of the river. It is a fun little 167' throw away from the river with brush on either side of the fairway. The basket is located in the middle of a monkey bar set. This reminded me of my childhood playing "object golf" with an Ultimate Frisbee on the local elementary school playground. In this case, the presence of the basket makes the monkey bars unusable but from a DG perspective I appreciated the hole.

The next two holes are very short, at 79' and 76' respectively. However, they are very tight throws through the woods and water is in play on both. On hole 5 a low watery area next to the river is just to your left. It will take a touch of anhyzer (for a RHBH throw) to score an ace here. On hole 6 you have to carry a small creek (it will only take a 30'-40' throw to do so) and apply a little more anhyzer (RHBH) to reach the basket. There is a walking bridge behind the basket to easily cross the creek. Neither of these holes belongs at a championship level course, but they aren't gimme aces either. The water hazards are small enough that beginners will be able to retrieve any discs that go in.

The tee signs are nice. They show hole number, distance, and a color map of the hole. They also have dotted lines directing you to the next tee.

The baskets are yellow banded DISCatchers, all in good shape. There is also a nice practice basket that is located on a pretty steep hill. It's good for practicing uphill and downhill putts, which aren't present here but I like the option for local players to develop that skill to apply on other courses.

There is some nice signage near the first tee showing the rules of disc golf, etc.

The course is extremely short, and will be pretty easy even for recreational players. Only holes 7 and 8 are substantially longer than 200', and both of these have no obstacles between tee and basket other than some brush on either side of hole 7's relatively wide fairway. Holes 1-3 are each 150'-200' throws with zero obstacles between tee and basket. The finishing hole 9 is only 150' with one tree in front of the basket.

The course is quite flat other than a slight downhill off hole 8's tee. Speaking of hole 8, it plays across the park drive. It's not a blind shot but I am still not a fan of this design decision. Also, there is some brush covering maybe 30' between the tee and the park drive and no clear path through it, so you have to walk around.

Actually, come to think of it the park drive could be in play again on hole 9 if you throw past the basket.

The tee pads are just dirt or gravel.

There is a kiosk near the first tee, but the only map on it shows disc golf courses in Michigan that have 18+ holes. Meaning, this course isn't even on it. Maybe that is only funny to me...but anyways, pay attention to the dotted lines on the tee signs, as without them it would be a little tricky navigating this course for the first time.

As the review title suggests, there is another Jaycee Park DGC about a half hour's drive northeast in Kentwood (suburb of Grand Rapids). That course, while in itself not a destination, is certainly superior to this one. I don't mean to poke fun at this course though. It is a solid option for beginners and locals to come get a round in, especially with few other courses close by.

The designers of this course did a decent job fitting 9 holes of disc golf into this small park. It's not too cramped, and it's not too close to the other things in the park. The woods in the area come into play on a few holes and give you some somewhat tricky tee shots and approach shots.The signs at each tee pad have a nice design and are also helpful. Unfortunately, those signs are the best things this course offers.

Most of these holes are way too short. In fact, for two of them, you only need to use a putter, and it feels like your playing a disc golf version of miniature golf. Most of the holes are too wide open and have almost no obstacles to worry about. Two of the wooded holes are a little too narrow. You have to backtrack quite a ways to get to the third hole. Not all the holes have tee pads, and the ones that do are small and consist of gravel. That gravel just doesn't feel right when teeing off. I'm used to standing on something more solid and leveled, like cement, when I tee off. It's awkward to feel uneven ground shifting beneath my feet when teeing off. Most of this course is almost unplayable if it's rained recently, and the gravel tee pads can be real messy, sometimes even flooded. Also, I know this park doesn't have room for a full 18 hole course, but I've always found it to be a turnoff when there are only 9 holes to play. It doesn't take long to play 9 holes in disc golf, especially when they're real short like these holes.

I've heard that the intention of this course is for it to be beginner-friendly to help introduce people to disc golf, and it definitely is. Even with that in mind, some of these holes are still too short, and most of them are a little too easy. It's too bad there isn't a normal-sized 18 hole course in the area for more experienced players to play at, because this one is way too short and easy for them to play. It won't necessarily be a bad experience for beginners, but it definitely won't be as good as it could've been.

When you open a new jar of jam, it makes that fun little vacuum packed swishing noise. I can hear that swishing noise here at Allegan Jaycee Disc Golf Course. I'm always a little amazed when someone actually spends the funds to build a course this tiny, but still I am pleased to have another course in operation.

This little park has a skate board park, a dog park, an awesome children's play fort and a open space in the middle. The disc golf course basically plays around the park in a clockwise direction. There is a disc golf rules sign and a practice basket sits on a hillside beside the skate park. The tee signs are simple 4" x 4" poles with a house number on them. Someone had written the distance on the side with a Sharpie. Thank you for doing that. The tee pads are small (about 8') and filled with packed dirt. Right now they're nice and level but I wonder how they'll be in time. The baskets are Discatcher 28 models with a number on the yellow band.

The course is short to minisculy short but those two tiny holes, # 5 at 79' and #6 at 76', really made the course for me. # 5 is a mostly a little putt through a wooded fairway. You will need to put a little anhyser on your shot. It's not quite straight on but should collect lots of Aces. # 6 is only 76' but it's trickier. You need to throw over the creek (about a 22' water carry), under a hanging branch and throw an annie between two trees. It will see some Aces but not as many as 5. Holes 1, 3, 4 and 9 are also easy Aces. The remaining holes are reachable, as well.

I thought # 4 was fun, as well. It's a 167' hyser but you need to keep throw low under the branches. And the basket is set under an old frame of a ladder, monkey bar thing.

A couple of pads don't quite face their basket.

I have questions about the pads. I hope they pack down very hard.

Navigation was easy except after # 3. A nest tee sign would be great here. Actually, just today I saw these excellent next tee stickers on the baskets at Garfield Park in Grand Rapids. Every course should have them. They're great navigational help.

I had to wait on # 9 for cars and walkers. Not a big deal. Just be courteous.

After the top of world shot on # 8, the descent is very steep. Will be treacherous in wet weather. At the bottom, it crosses a small wetland area, maybe 20' wide. I think some steps are needed getting down and some kind of a walkway across the wet area.

I think the course designer did a commendable job squeezing this course into this park. Hopefully, it will see a large number of younger players and families frequenting it. I understand there aren't a lot of discing options around these parts. If I lived here, I'd chase those Aces all the time.

It's the only course that is truly close to where I live.

The possibility to instantly add to your ace totals (holes 5 and 6 so far)

Park is descent looking, right along the river though water never really comes into play

Maybe a good place to bring kids to introduce them to the sport.

Short short short. Nothing even breaches the 300 mark and most of them are below 175. I've never seen a course with par 2's but this one really has me questioning whether there is such thing as a par 2.

Minus one or two holes there really isn't much line shaping necessary or variety of shots necessary. It is beneficial to have a little forehand on 5 and 6 but that's about it.

With lack of variety and distance comes lack of need for discs. I played this entire course with a roc3 and a putter and scored a 19...

Multi use park with fairly heavy foot traffic, dog park, skate park, playground, grill area...aka, lots of non-disc golfers around. While these don't really get in the way too much it certainly doesn't add to the feel of the round.

tee pads are neither a pro or con, they're tiny and packed gravel. Update: The gravel is starting to wear pretty quickly at the front of the tee boxes causing warped footing. Still passable at the moment but this type of tee box will need regular upkeep.

Parking near hole 1 is like 5 spots? and it is the same place people would park to go to the skate dpark. So if the park is busy I could imagine times when you would have to park and walk...

Not the fault of the course designer or anything and I think it's wonderful that they got the funding to put in a disc golf course but they should have found better land.

Update: I added an half star- I was shown an "alternate tee" to 6 that turns it in to a touchy little shot with the river meandering through the fairway. Though the tee area is a little peninsula on which you can pretty much only throw a stand still it makes the hole much more intriguing.

As this becomes a park that I throw a little more often due to its proximity and desire for a quick round I have started drawing up some alternate tee areas around the course that make it more entertaining.

Also if you draw some really strict OB lines using the walking paths a few of the holes can become a little more interesting.

Couple fun additional holes if the park isn't busy: tee off from the walking path next to hole 3 and throw to the hillside basket next to the skate park. This is probably about a 600 foot hole and if you play all the cart paths as rivers it's a pretty nifty little hole. After playing this hole throw from the top level of the skate park down to the hole 9 basket (again using walking path as OB). I'm sure there are more interesting made up holes within the park. Maybe something over the bridge between hole 3 and 4 but that might be a little dangerous if there are walkers.

Aesthetic--plays through a large multi-use park. crosses walking paths and park roads but steers clear of the playground for the most part. Just watch your throws. "Disc golf zone" signs dot the landscape.

Baskets-- brand new disCatchers pro 28s. The yellow band is useful on the two short throws as the woods are a bit thick here

Teepads/signs-- not bad for what this park is. Wooden frames filled with gravel packed nice and tight. I will say that the teesigns do NOT point to the next tee though the locals have added arrows to the top of the 4x4's to indicate basket
position.

Routing and nav--some good and some bad here. The flow is somewhat intuitive but after 3 you have to cross a bridge/boardwalk where a "next tee" sign could be useful. I shall make a map and it'll help

Uniqueness-- the basket in the arbor and the two short short baskets add a different dimension to this course. 4, 5, and 6 make this course and without them this is a boring course.

Short-- where it isn't short, it's wide open. the short holes save this course.

It's odd to me that the local club didn't want this course "out there" for four months after it opened. I just found this on disc golf scene and checked it out. Plan for a full course here? not sure where they will put it but it could be interesting.