Good woods practice course. Not so long to be overwhelming but long enough for typical woods gaps seen on longer courses. Alot of people use the park (on the weekends, in particular), including the paved trail and the wooded trail between nos. 6 and 7. Stunningly, in such a small space, there are three pads and one basket for each hole (as noted previously by others). The wooded fairways vary in tightness and required lines. Nine holes means you are done very quickly. Of course, you have a choice to play longer by going around a second time or playing two discs at once (perhaps from different pads). The possibilities here are quite varied as the 3 pads are often not just lined up behind one another. Two may come from one direction with the third from another direction.

Not really a con, but if you like an open shot, your best bets are nos. 7 and 8. And those are not unobstructed; either the tee or the green has trees to get around or get through. Though a lot of people use the park, the disc golf course can feel isolated, especially at the more interior holes. I think if you have any concerns about that, come on weekends. I had both a weekend outing and a weekday outing on my long weekend trip to Ann Arbor-Detroit. During the weekday outing, there was one homeless guy asleep at the marina. Several kayakers and runners/walkers as well.

While the bridge to the usual entrance to the park is out, you want to come into the park from its southside. Off Main Street N from downtown or S from Route 14. I think it's a lovely local course, but it's definitely not a destination course. So pair it with other Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti-greater Detroit courses.

-Very unique design featuring 3 distinct 9 hole layouts.
-Great beginner wooded course

-Some redundant holes, but limited land is the cause.
-Very dark wooded area, almost hard to see on an overcast day.

If I had enough private property I would design something very similar to create multi-variety round possibilities. Longer of course with golf cart access.

1.) Course is located on the outskirts of Ann Arbor. It close to downtown; a beautiful course that helps you "escape" the city life for an hour or so. There are also walking/running paths that run alongside the disc golf course.

2.) Tee pads are concrete.

3.) Course is well-maintained and clean. Fairways are covered with wood chips, something that I have never seen before. This stood out for my boyfriend and me. In addition, garbage cans are located at every hole.

4.) Baskets are all in good condition and double-chained.

5.) Course forces you to be technical. All of the holes are tightly wooded with many trees in the fairways, along with the river that runs through the course. Course is definitely challenging, but not too hard where it deters you from ever playing that course again.

6.) Each hole has three tee pads: pro, amateur, and rec. My boyfriend and his friend threw at the amateur pad, and I threw at the rec pad.

7.) Free to play!

8.) There are some longer walks between a couple of holes, which is something I always personally enjoy.

1.) Although the flow of the course was good, the navigation can be difficult, especially if you have never been out there. From holes two to three, you must walk on the walking path and take a singletrack trail to the hole. From holes seven to eight, there is a decently long trail covered in wood chips to that hole. The best recommendation I would have is to bring a map of the course, especially if you want to play some of the pro tees. I know on hole two, the pro tee was on the opposite side of where the amateur and rec tees were. You wouldn't know, unless you have played the course before, or brought someone with you that has.

2.) Signage was mediocre: hole number and feet away from the basket. There wasn't any par numbers on any of the holes, and a basic map would have definitely been helpful in some of the more tightly wooded holes.

3.) Personally, I thought the tee pads were too short; they could have been just a foot or two longer.

4.) Parking could be limited at the moment. The city is doing construction nearby, and many of the construction workers have parked in the course parking lot.

I have a bad habit of assuming that most 9-hole courses are just mediocre. This wasn't the case at Bandemer. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and this is definitely my new favorite 9-hole course. It was definitely a pleasant surprise, and I could see myself going back there to throw.

9 hole course tucked back in a park outside Ann Arbor.

Three! concrete tee pads on each hole. Red, White, and Blue (from easy to more difficult). They were all in good shape. Each tee offered a very different line, which really helps the replay factor.

Mach 3 baskets, all in good repair. One pin position per hole. Most of the pin positions were well thought out, with guardian trees or other topography to increase the challenge.

Plenty of fun lines here. The distances aren't overly long, but they are mostly wooded, and nearly every tee position offers some sort of obstacles to have to work around. Also, the tees are varied...they aren't just extra distance. Nearly every tee offered a completely different shot.

Navigation was pretty easy, with next tee signs (with distances on them!). There's also a large map at the beginning of the course. Each hole had a nice 4x4 post at each tee pad, with the color displayed prominently, and distance on the post.

The tee pads were a touch short, and were somewhat raised up on some holes. I don't have a big runup, so it wasn't the biggest deal to me, but if you do, you're probably going to hate many of these.

As it stood when I was there, the course was pretty rough. Apparently there had been a lot of recent work done, and there was still quite a bit of brush around. It wasn't a big deal, and to be honest, it felt like they overcleared on a few holes.

This isn't the toughest course around, even with its good fun factor. As a 900 rated player, I played the White (Int) tees with three discs, and shot a 24. The Blue tees did seem to offer more challenge, though.

This was a funky, and fun, little course really tucked away. Getting to the course is a little weird. That little bridge when you pull into the parking lot? Yes, you CAN drive across that. Follow the road to the end to find the course.

This is a nice course for beginners, as the Red tees aren't too tough. I had fun running the Whites with three discs, and I assume I'd enjoy the Blues as well. Ann Arbor has some good discing, and if you have the time (it won't take you too long), this is definitely worth the stop.

**Literally downtown Ann Arbor, and directly off of M-14 & Main st. makes it incredibly easy to get to. Also, leaves you in downtown a2 free to go to any of the restaurants, bars, hotels etc.

**Solid concrete pads for all 9 holes at 3 tees that generally provide unique challenges/approaches from each location, sturdy baskets and nice small-ring chains.

**Well-shaded, pretty heavily wooded area makes for a pretty comfortable round even in 90+ degree heat.

**Despite the woodsy setting, fairways only leave select tease-trees surrounded by mulch/packed dirt and roughs are usually light enough to find a lost disc in. Tip: look up when searching for discs here, lots of grabby small trees and fallen branches and trees tend to hold discs that float into the shule.

**Really great opportunity to work on your short game/technical aspects here, lots of odd trees that force different shots and discs out of the player's bag.

**The course flows very well when playing 1-3 then 4-6, then 7-9.. if playing multiple rounds, getting to play holes 7-3 feels like a nice consistent stretch of playing, but between 3-4 and 6-7 you have to walk a decent ways to the next hole. By no means is it 'far' but its a longer walk than any of the holes are ..

**Can be a decent amount of litter on the course.. very few garbage cans are present on the park, I would hope the city will add a few at some point, but I doubt they will.

**Very few places to sit, Hole 1 and Hole 6 have picnic tables, but that's about it. Not a huge deal since the course is short, but after 2-3 rounds, it'd be nice to have.

**No hole allows you to really open up. Two come close, but one (#3) is a blind dogleg right from the blue tees, the other (#7) plays over a field (one of the rare moments not in the middle of a forest) into the woods, where trees deny the satisfaction of a long flight with aplomb.

**Plays fast even when the park is really busy. I'll play 27 (a round from each tee box) in about an hour and a half. Can be a pro or con, depending on what you're looking for out of your round.


**Overall, this is a gem of a spot in the middle of downtown Ann Arbor. It's not super challenging, but it does provide plenty of opportunities to work on your game in a really pretty fun setting. Could be easily worked into a tour of SE Michigan if you were hoping to hit multiple courses in a day.


**Kudos if you can find the hidden river spot (its to the right when approaching hole 7) with the split tree and tagged up bench. Beautiful spot to relax for awhile mid-round.

Minutes from Univ of Michigan's campus and the heart of Ann Arbor. Particularly well suited to beginners, avid recreational players and a "friendly" round for intermediate players (not much to challenge the Pro level player here). Red, white, and blue tees truly provide significantly different levels of difficulty and shot variety. Allows players of different skill levels to play a round together while allowing everyone to match the challenge to their skill level - no one has to feel over-matched or under challenged. Holes are laid out prety nicely and the triple tee pads often require distinctly different approaches to the same basket.

Flows reasonably well and getting from hole to hole is easy most of the time. There are a couple of holes where the next tee bit of a hike, but they've posted some "Next Tee" signs after those baskets to get you going in the right direction. There's a course map posted near 1st hole - navigation's pretty easy if you remember which holes have a decent walk to the next tee.

Distance to pin is clearly displayed on a post next to each tee pad, and although each hole isn't mapped out on them, you can usually see where the basket is as you approach the tee or with a relatively short walk partway down the hole.

Course plays pretty well and makes for a quick, fun round. I like playing from the different tee pads to make a more complete round and work in a bit of variety.

Park is generally well maintained: baskets in good shape.

Practice Basket neat 1st tee.

Fairly low risk of disc loss, although the brush in some spots is thick enough to swallow drives that get away from you.

Although I'm not a big fan of nine-hole courses, I have to admit that multiple tee pads provide quite a bit of variety in a relatively compact area - minimizes negative impact to the environment as less area gets beat down and subjected to abuse.

If you intend to play this as strictly a nine hole course (i.e. play only the red, the white, or the blue tees), it really doesn't provide very much shot variety. Variety really only comes into play as you move among the different sets of tee pads.

Although course plays well, it has a pretty rough look to it and really isn't what you could call a scenic setting. Has some rough, nasty, patches right in the middle of a few fairways. If you like neat, manicured fairways, this isn't your type of disc golf.

Tee pads are shorter than on most courses - wished I had more room to work on many of my drives.

Elevation change is not really a factor, at least not enough to make you change your approach to the shot.

I've been noticing more trash strewn about the course the last few times I've played here.

Closest course to UM, only about a 2 1/2 mile walk from: Central Campus, North Campus, downtown Ann Arbor. If you're a UM student without a car, this is the course for you.

With three sets of tee pads in such different locations, it's a good idea to look around to make sure someone else isn't throwing off another tee at the same basket.

Fairways comprised of wood chips/mulch mean discs tend to skip a bit more than they do on grass. This can help or hurt depending on the circumstances, but you might want to account for it.

Pretty well wooded - feels like a typical Michigan course: favors players with a strong short and technical game. Big bombers are sure to find this course frustrating, and will be happier throwing at Ponds of Lakeshore (about a twenty min drive from Bandemer).

This is a great course, Nicely maintained and great if you like a techinical course where you need to help sneak it past trees. The three tees helps to give you variety when wanting to play 18 versus 9.

Kind of a bummer it's only 9. The course leaves you wanting more. As others have reported it can get very buggy due to it being so close to the river and with wetlands surrounding it. A passing train can be a little annoying when teeing off.

Recommend you play in a group the first time. It helps on some of the holes to have a spotter since it can be easy to misplace a disc under some of the fallen trees/limbs.

The tees are well marked. Having pads is a good thing, though they are a little short. Each hole has three tee spots which is nice because you can play it three times and basically have different holes.

The bugs were ridiculous, i found myself killing a mosquito every time I stopped moving, this makes it a little hard to concentrate.
When you take a shot and walk up the fairway, you have to look at the ground the whole time because of the random stumps and sticks.
Mud was an issue as well, if your disc goes left or right just a tad too much, you will get mud on your shoes.

Could be a very nice course. The mud and tree stumps are really the only problem.
Bugs are natural and can only be stopped to a certain extent. I do advise bug spray. Other than those things its really not that bad.

Absolutely phenomenal par-3! Multiple tees on each hole change the landscape and approach. Mulch bed keeps things dry on the fairways. Steady crowd but never too busy; always friendly people. Most holes are tight and accuracy is key, however there are a few open areas for clean drives. Play through once on the blue tees, and then go again from the whites or reds. A quick and fun course. Aces possible on almost every hole.

No cons that I can think of.

**update**
this course has lost a bit of luster now that I've played it a bunch.

Exit off Barton Drive from M-14; park is on the left. Drive past the car park and over the bridge; course is around the bend.

Course is very clean, with well marked signs, even on long walks between holes. Bring something to drink.

**update**
to make all my ratings consistent, i will drop bandemer down to a three star, since it is only a nine-hole course. but still a phenomenal one!

Really close to downtown Ann Arbor. Within biking distance if you live in town. If you know your way around the Ann Arbor trails you can ride them all the way to the park.

Three concrete tee pads at every hole is a definite plus. The placement of each tee is well thought out, and can completely change the way you approach some of the holes. Even though it's only 9 holes you could play a round from the reds and round from the blues and still have it feel like a fresh challenge on the second round.

It's hard to describe exactly what it is I like about this course. I play it a few times a week, and I still have a great time when I play.

The course itself looks a bit rough around the edges. The last reviewer wasn't exaggerating about the shredded wood everywhere. it looks essentially like they walked a giant wood chipper through the woods, missed a few trees, and then stuck a basket at the end.

Like most courses I've played the mosquitos can get pretty bad, so grab the spray.

The long path to the last three holes has a tendency to get a little muddy (it takes you around a low lying area) and with the amount of rain we've gotten it's getting a little overgrown. Not bad enough to be any sort of problem though, I just thought I would mention it.

If you live in Ann Arbor, it's definitely worth a visit.