Burchfield Park is a sprawling multi-use complex located just south of Lansing, MI. There are plenty of amenities to attract both DG'ers and non-DG'ers to the park, and plenty of space to keep the two groups well separated from each other. This review is for the Renegade's Trail course (formerly "Devil's Den" as I understand it), which is one of two 18-holers on site.

This course offers two teepads and two baskets per hole, creating four official signed layouts (the only exception to this is hole 17, which has a single basket in the center of a man-made island formed with bound together tree trunks). I played one round from the short tees to the long baskets, then a second round from the long tees to the short baskets. This was like playing two different courses. Of those two layouts, I would say that the short tee to long basket layout was definitely a little tougher - and both layouts were plenty tough for a noodle arm like me. I'm pretty sure I still would have enjoyed the shorts to shorts too, and plan on trying that for my next visit. The shorts to shorts would be a challenging but forgiving round for newbies, and recreational players could probably finish around par. The longs to shorts and shorts to longs will be plenty to challenge most disc golfers. The longs to longs provide a championship caliber round. As if these four layouts weren't enough to choose from, you could pretty easily play holes 1-8 and 18 for a 9-hole layout.

By Michigan standards, Burchfield Park is fairly open for the most part. However, there are enough trees and bushes on almost every hole to make you think and shape your shots. Ball-golf-style sand traps and other designated OB areas add some extra challenge on many holes. Elsewhere, a few holes play along tighter fairways in wooded areas. Hole 8 may be the tightest, and also has a marsh area defining the left side of the fairway. Rolling elevation changes are used well on many holes. The hills are not extreme here by any means, but overall I think there is either some elevation change, or trees to work around, or both on every hole.

The baskets are a mix of Chainstars and Chainstar Pros, all in good shape. Several baskets are either raised on mounds or sunk in small depressions ("anti-mounds"?), adding extra intrigue. Many baskets have flags on the top to help with visibility.

All 36 of the tee pads are concrete. These are narrower than most concrete pads I have seen, but long and in good shape.

The signage here is good. The tee signs look brand new (updated since photos here were taken) and are located at both long and short tees. They have a map of the hole, distance to each basket from the current tee, and all the other info you would expect. The navigational signage is omnipresent and very clear, differentiating between next long tee and next short tee where needed.

The other amenities are top notch. There are two practice baskets, and a wide open driving range between them. There is a real restroom at the parking lot. There are benches at most tees, and trash cans periodically. There are even water bottle filling stations at strategic locations throughout the course, which I used many times during my visit on a 90 degree day. The fairways are very well defined and were freshly mowed when I visited. Maintenance was impeccable throughout the course.

With all of the other outstanding amenities, I was surprised to not see a kiosk for this course. It almost looked like there used to be one, but the space was now taken up with an advertisement for a mountain biking track in a different section of the park. Next to this was an empty scorecard box and a sign in front of it to use UDisc instead. Navigation is fine here as stated above, but why not have kiosks and scorecards?

There was a weird low wall about 100' off of hole 2's long tee. I think it is intended to increase the challenge on this hole (i.e. you are supposed to throw over it), but I felt like it was kind of gimmicky.

Dirt drives are in play on several holes. I think these drives are more for park maintenance vehicles and not really open to the public, so only a very minor concern.

Although the fairways are pretty wide, the rough lurking next to them is thick in spots. You will want to keep a close eye on your throws that drift off course. I wouldn't say disc loss is likely, but it is possible.

The mix of Chainstars and Chainstar Pros is fine, but the way they are mixed was pretty much random as far as I could tell. It would be nice if it was consistent (i.e. all short baskets are normal Chainstars and all long baskets are Chainstar Pros, or vice versa). Not sure if preferred tournament layouts have something to do with this.

There is a fee of $5/car for a day pass to enter Burchfield Park, and an additional $5/person fee to play disc golf (there is a discount for Ingham County residents, and a yearly pass option available). Your fee covers an entire day of disc golf at this course and the other 18-holer on site, River's Edge. River's Edge is currently closed due to construction in that area of the park, but starts from the same parking lot as this course when open. All of the fees are payable at a staffed booth just inside the park entrance. Credit cards are accepted.

This course is very, very good...but besides the minor Cons mentioned above I think it just kind of lacks that "it" factor that a 5.0 rated course would have in my book. The park is very clean and well-kept, but there aren't any panoramic views. The individual holes are all good, but there weren't any that I will remember vividly next year - or even next month. Still, this is an amazing course that is absolutely worth the trip on its own. Throw in the fact that the River's Edge course is also on site (when it reopens) and you have a must-visit disc golf destination!

Devil's Den boasts multiple amenity-laden, mostly open layouts to provide fun and challenge to every mood and skill level. More than any other non-ball-golf course I've played, Burchfield Park's Devil's Den course puts disc golf on par with our more well-known brethren. Every hole is outfitted with dual concrete tees and dual Chainstar pins, each of which features a large flag identifying the hole number and layout color. Boundless amenities add to the professional sheen, including benches, next tee signs, well-built wooden structures/obstacles, and on the 92 degree day that we played most recently, large water jugs strategically positioned throughout the course to refill bottles. Maintenance was impeccable, with every hole mowed and devoid of trash. This is the kind of pay to play experience that makes me happy to shell out a few bucks ($3 entry fee for Ingham County residents, $5 for non-residents, plus $4 per player) for a superior round or two.

The design is pretty solid too, with the dual tees and pins offering different looks as opposed to simply added length. All layouts are what I would call open strategic, where hitting the preferential landing zone is helpful but not essential to achieving low scores. This is a high fun factor course which maximizes the time spent throwing discs while minimizing the time spent searching for them. There's a clear skill level division on display in the layouts, with short to short offering a good layout for casual and rec players, short to long for intermediate, long to short for advanced, and long to long for pros. The long tees add an especial layer of difficulty, begging higher skill levels to attack the holes with nontraditional shots (i.e. rollers and, on Hole 2, a thumber or tomahawk tee shot). Old sand traps play as OB, and finding them is not as difficult as you might think. I speak from experience... Individual hole highlights include the gauntlet Hole 11, with its heavy premium on hitting the correct (left side, but not *too* left) landing zone to score well, and Hole 17, an attractive island green playing as a fun little late-round gut check that isn't punishingly difficult.

The Hole 18 Gold green deserves special mention, as a landscaped rock outcropping resplendent with a small fountain that wraps up the round in a neat little bow. Little touches like these make Devil's Den feel like a cared-for priority at Burchfield Park, a breath of fresh air compared to many other county park courses.

For a busy park, the area Devil's Den sits on is pretty exclusive to disc golf. The dirt road to and from the maintenance building sees a little bit of traffic, but the non-golf foot traffic on the course is almost zero.

There's a decent amount of overlap between the Holes 11 & 15 fairways, and it's not too much of a stretch for drives to end up in the way of another group. Golfers should be aware of players on the companion hole and adjust accordingly.

I would've preferred a little bit more hole variety (flat and sparsely wooded is the name of the game), but most of that can be found on River's Edge, the other course on site.

Off the fairway, the rough can be a little thick and laden with poison ivy, but it's still much thinner than River's Edge.

Devil's Den is the rare public course whose generous amenities nudge up the course quality and rating by a measurable amount. Even if the open design style isn't your bag, only the most sour discer could leave here feeling like they didn't get their money's worth.

Well groomed and roomy enough fairways, 4 courses in one, benches at all holes, picnic tables at many, shade available at each tee, insulated water jugs with drinking water were placed at about every 4th tee in summer, variety of throw skills required, friendly people, worth the price of admission, bathrooms and water at main building, next tee signage, flags on top of baskets with hole numbers. The short tee to short tee course is challenging enough for an advanced player with might be playing with rec players.

The rough most likely has poison ivy. Could use next tee stickers on each basket to help you find the next tee post signs. The rough is thick. Navigation at tee 12 gets tricky.

Could use some thinning of the rough adjacent to some of the narrower fairways and/or some trails hacked into the rough to facilitate finding a disc in said rough. Read other peoples reviews if you want to know about holes.

Very Open
Well Groomed
Mildly challenging basket positions
Great options for all skill levels with the Short/Long tee and basket positions
Signage at each tee box

Only con I have is that there are a few holes near the road but it really is not anything to complain about

As a newer player, I really enjoyed this course. There isnt a ton of spots you can lose a disc. There are lots of fields edged by tree's used on this course which is great for a newer player. I can throw hard but not accurately yet so there is a lot of space for my discs to fly and not get lost. They have some really neat basket positions too within the trees which force you to make a great drive, or a good mid range shot to get in position for a easier putt.

Overall, I really think this is a phenomenal course for newer or intermediate players alike. Or a great practice spot for higher level players who can make the difficult shots that the long/long requires.

- Dual Tee/Basket locations
- Manicured
- Lots of length as well as short technical
- Pay to play to keep the riff out
- One of two excellent courses in the park

Hard to find many cons with a course this clean and well taken care of. It can take a little longer if you get stuck behind a group of newer players because of the length. There was quite a bit of Ivy in the rough (that can be extremely thick so pay attention to your shots)

One of the few courses ive played that I had a hard time nitpicking at least 1 or 2 holes. Well worth stopping and even traveling to. Ive only played twice, one round being a tournament but it seems to be quiet and secluded during weekdays. Looking forward to going back

This is going to be a fairly short and concise review as I will direct you to BogeyNoMore's review further down. He (I assume) nails it. I will just add a little bit of peanuts to his butter.

This course is what I imagine a disc golf course is like that is created like a ball golf course without actually being on a ball golf course. Pristine as can be. Truly have to hand it to the maintenance crew of this course, just spectacular. Hell, I saw only two random beer cans on the whole course and their presence was shockingly obvious.

How cool is it that in essence this course offers four courses in one? Two tee pads with two baskets on most holes. Diversity. I ended up playing long tees with gold baskets. One of the longest courses, if not THE longest course I have played. It was great.

Once again, see BogeyNoMore's review for agreed upon cons.

A few I might add.
I would have liked to seen more shorts on the longs. Weird I know.
Elevation was lacking, no fault of their own, and I'm from Ludington, so that doesn't help either.

In my changing top ten as of right now, and in my top 3 of maintained courses in the states. Go play. This course is going to take multiple play throughs to even feel it's greatness. Amazing job to those that are involved in the course design and maintenance. bravo!

Long/short Baskets AND Tees

Two sets of descriptive teesigns on every hole

Course and park maintenance is top notch from the mowing to benches and trashcans throughout

Many pin placements have small, but interesting factors such as being on small knolls or sunken into bunker-like craters.

The long tees and pins are definitely long, but definitely fair and don't try too hard to prevent access either down the fairway or to the pin.

17 and 18 provide an exciting finish with 17's island shot and 18's beautiful fountain.

Fairways are definitely fair, but if you find rough it can be punishing either from very dense tall grass or poison-ivy laden brush.

Mostly an open, placement shot course. However I didn't feel like the long tees requiring many max distance drives were that repetitive. River's edge helps to mitigate the open ness of this course.

The mando on #2 is a little strange but it adds to the professionalism of the course.

DD compliments River's edge almost perfectly. If you play this one after River's Edge, it's a nice opportunity to let it rip and blow off some frustration from it's heavily wooded counterpart. This is one of the premier 2 tee 2 basket courses in the state of Michigan. The man-made O.B. features have really shaped up nicely since conception; I actually think there could be more permanent OB features in and around the fairways and if that were to happen I would seriously consider this course a 5*. What it lacks in constant elevation it makes up for in trickier pin placements and distance off the long tees.

Two sets of tees and baskets on every hole, creating four course configurations.. This flexibility extends from an intermediate course (short tee to blue baskets) to a very long pro-level course (long tee to gold basket). I played the long tee to blue basket layout, and it was still quite long with two holes over 600 feet. The longest configuration has two holes over 1000 feet (Holes 5 and 6), eclipsing Hudson Mills Monster and Leviathan in terms of sheer length.

Most holes are meadow holes, with vast, green mowed areas. Hole 2 has an innovative wall obstacle in front of the long tee, with several holes having sandtrap-like hazards . Tree sparseness on the meadow holes is about right, rewarding skill. Lots of cunning pin positions show course design expertise. Simple yet effective signage at the tees and between holes. Has two complete sets of long, high-budget concrete teepads. My favorite was Hole 10, a grassy meadow hole with isolated patches of thick forest protecting a basket about 360 feet away. Not surprisingly, this hole is similar whichever tee or basket is selected.

Has nailed a lot of details, with picnic tables, trash cans, and water jugs (a life saver on a hot day, being a fairly open course). No smoking course, but the sign at Hole 1 specifically allows for beer and wine (but not liquor). Another small perk.

Some of the meadow holes are a little too close together for comfort (Holes 11 and 15 are the worst offenders). The short wooded holes form a minority, but have the feel of filler holes. Some of the long tees could be tricky to find, often requiring backtracking. However, the short tees are easier to find, and all baskets have large, visible flags (blue or gold).

Though large areas were recently mowed, many very rough, disc-eating areas were present. Not the best way to create challenge...I did not appreciate losing my favorite driver on the 300-foot Hole 14. The best courses south of Cincinnati in north Kentucky (Lincoln Ridge and Idlewild) deal with this issue better. $40 for an annual pass ($4 daily fee), with a separate charge for golf ($3) means you might have to make one more ATM stop when you're running late.

Course versatility, challenge, design features and amenities make this far and away the best course in the area. Congrats to the Lansing for finally getting a pro course..

Sorry for the length, but there's a lot worth mentioning, starting with a beautiful course in a beautiful park that was fairly litter free. Everything 1s well maintained and in great shape. Attention to detail is apparent everywhere you look.

• Disc Play:
+ Trees and elevation well utilized throughout; nothing huge but definitely a factor - keeps you engaged the entire round.
+ Fairly open design allows for numerous routes to the pin. Most holes are sparsely dotted with well-placed stands of trees and brush, forcing you to make decisions on the tee. Relatively few holes were "point and shoot."
+ Really doesn't favor lefties/righties, FH/BH/OH... it favors players who can adapt their game to avoid obstacles (including judicious use of OB) and execute. Evidenced by some tee signs displaying different distances for lefty/righty routes. Provides plenty of variety. You may not need every shot in your bag... then again, you might.
+ Wonderful execution of dual tees with full time dual pins (and some occasionally masterful placement) allows you to select the level of challenge you want. Yellow tees are longer than the blues, and typically have tighter/tougher lines to hit. Yellow pins were not only much longer, but better protected than the blues, with trickier approaches... so well done it merits elaboration:
• Short Tees/Short Pins: fun for experienced players without being too intimidating for beginners.
• Long/Short: increases distance while requiring more accuracy off the tee.
• Short/Long: requires even more distance than Long/Short plus greater accuracy on approaches.
• Long/Long presented a suitable challenge to local Pros I saw playing.
Consider that sometimes the tees/pins on a given hole are at different elevations, and the "season to taste" layout scheme truly provides expansive variety as well as red, white, blue and gold level challenge, allowing any skill level to "appropriately" use pretty much every type of disc off the tee.

• Equipment: Wonderfully maintained, everything's in tip-top condition.
+ Quality tee markers at all tees show layout, pin locations and accurate distances along - some even show different distances for different routes.
+ Yellow/blue flags on baskets help you spot Chainstars hidden among the trees from a distance, and help gage wind.
+ Concrete tees are level, large enough for reasonable run-ups, provided excellent footing and in great shape.

• Routing/Nav: Course is fairly well secluded from other park activities - I've seen very few non DG'ers in this section of the park. Flows pretty well for the most part, but there are a few spots where finding the next tee is less than intuitive. Fortunately, they've provided plenty of help:
+ Signs with the next hole # and an arrow pointing the way.
+ Mowed paths from green to next tee scream "that-a-way."
+ Map on back of scorecard.
+ Concrete tees and tee markers are fairly easy to spot as you make your way around the course.

• Aesthetics - Plenty of eye appeal and some special touches (11's long tee and 18's long pin) show they put time, effort, and money into this. Nicely manicured fairways, tees and greens all look wonderful (I hope they hold up well to traffic over the years). Feels very much like country club disc golf, everything's nicely groomed and beautifully presented.

• Extras:
+ Clean bathrooms with running water located near the parking lot.
+ Scorecard/map & pencils available near parking lot closest to 1st tee.

This really is a great course. It doesn't need gimmicks like:
• Gimmick 1: The wall in front of 2's long tee is artificial, contrived, and stupid. The ultimate Mando? Perhaps, but playing long tees to long pins is challenging enough. Toquote Ronald Reagan "...tear down this wall!"
• Gimmick 2: 17's "reverse" island green, where the "green" is defined as OB. Fascinated at first, my 2nd time around, I realized it's just dumb: if you hit metal off the tee and chain out, you take a stroke? That's BS. Tourney rules (posted on a temp sign) called for a conventional island green: land inside the zone or shoot from the drop zone with a stroke penalty - makes a lot more sense. But unlike the wall, you can play this however you want.
• Not that the course lacks shot variety, and maybe it's just me, there are no tunnel shots that really force one specific line and dare you to execute it. If nothing else, their more claustrphobic nature changes the feel of a hole. While Devil's Den requires you to hit some tight windows, you never have to thread a shot a long way through a gauntlet, nor does it have even a small smattering of densely wooded holes. These elements would make the course more complete.
• 11 and 15 play parallel and close to each other. While I was playing 15, a disc thrown from 11 came fairly close to me - there seems to be enough room available to avoid this.
• Much of the rough is the kind of low lying prairie grass, weeds, and burrs that serves no purpose other than to make looking for discs miserable and frustrating without affecting disc play. More on point, bad shots aren't necessarily penalized.
• While the tee distances seem quite accurate, the fairway shapes/pin locations as illustrated often seemed exagerated, to the point of being misleading in some cases.

They got all the big things right, and most of the little ones, too. Attention to detail and little touches are everywhere. The result is a 1st class course that's polished and suitable for any tournament or player.
• Not sure how typical wind is here, but it definitely affected my disc choice and shot selection on this relatively open course.
• One element (employed on 2-3 holes) I haven't seen elsewhere: baskets sunk into a large depression in the ground. Hence, approaches that roll are likely to help rather than hurt, as they roll toward the pin at the bottom of the pit... those who throw rollers might really like these. Intriguing perhaps, but could be listed in cons to the extent they minimize risk reward, and provide no incentive to lay up whatsoever.
• I can't really complain about the $5/per car entry, plus $4/per player fees because everything's thought out and kept up so well you'll never wonder "Where's the money going?" It's steep for one solo round, but with a 2nd quality course onsite, and all the extra touches, it's hard to argue that it's not worth it, and only a bit more than Hudson Mills or Deerfield park. If it bugs you, bring friends to split the entry fee 'cause this gem's worth sharing.
• You pay the entry fee coming into the park, but where do you pay the add'l disc golf fee? There's no collection/donation box or attendant anywhere near the courses. The person collecting the park entry fee never asked if we were playing DG, so all I paid was $5 entry fee. If they truly want the add'l $4 to play, make it obvious and easy to pay it.
• While some of cons seem unnecessary (wall, reverse island green, even the sunk pins), at least they're the result of trying too hard, rather than mailing-in something that's "good enough." That said, effort doesn't factor into my ratings. Don't come here because they tried - come here because they succeeded.

Overall, this is a phenomenal course that could stand on its own anywhere. The good news is the few elements I thought were lacking are present in spades on River's Edge. They're so dissimilar that they provide a sort of disc golf Yin and Yang. Two high quality courses that feel and play so completely different from each other make this a splendid location for mutliple round tourneys and a no-brainer destination if you can get here.

- Pro tees / Pro Baskets
- Wonderfully maintained
- Wide variety of difficulty
- Very long course

- Sort of confusing for a first timer. The next hole doesn't start until after the Pro basket which can sometimes be hundreds of feet further.
- Some of the signs were missing
- No bathrooms
- Very long course

Hole 17 is a 100 ft basket surrounded by an island of sand. You must land your disk in that island or else it is out of bounds. I LOVE this concept! Very creative.

- Great variety in distance
- 4 ways to play every hole mixes it up.
- great mix of open holes and woody narrow holes
- cool features like a 10 foot wall and OB sand traps.
- Very well taken care of
-soon to be another 18 hole course on the property

- None really that are worth not playing this course, like others said the rough and ob areas can be dangerous, wear pants.

just a really fun and difficult course. A lot of love and effort was put into this gem, I will definently be buying a season pass.

The course is laid out very well. Nicely manicured areas and great landscaping around each hole and down the fairways.
The course is pretty 'open' with only a few holes within trees.
Great signage and pointers to all the tee boxes and pins.
Super friendly staff that drive around and ask for input and how the course is playing for you that day.

Price - Sure, the course isn't that expensive and the cost goes towards the upkeep of the course itself. Lots of areas to mow, maintain, and such. However, $4 dollars to play for each person + the cost to actually get into the park (which is $3 for Ingham County residents and a bit more for non-residents). $7.00 to play could turn off a few players. But it is still worth it.

Some of the holes are super long, which could be a turn off to a few players. The longest hole (in the long tee to long basket setup) is 1019 feet. Wow.

The tee-pads are different than what I'm used to playing. Only about 2.5-3 feet wide, but 10 feet long. I'm used to maybe 4-5 feet wide and about 7-8 feet long. Not particularly bad, but threw me off at first.

The banner which gives details about the course before the first tee pad is littered with grammatical errors which, of course, doesn't hamper the course at all, but it does look bad as it is missing words, adds too many in (like "into to"), and has numerous misspelled words. Just doesn't look good at all. *I say this knowing that my review here could contain some grammatical mistakes, but I'm going to go out on a limb and state that mine aren't nearly as obvious or 'bad' as the banner at Burchfield.

I just moved up to Mason, MI from Columbia, SC and decided to check this course out this past Saturday (9/3/2011). I can honestly say that this is the best course I've ever played.

I haven't played on that many courses, but compared to those courses (most being in SC, but also in NC and one other in MI) this is a great course. Four different ways to play with some pretty iconic holes. That 10 foot wall on hole 2 is pretty daunting and the 18th basket up on the water-feature is just picturesque.

Very well maintained, awesome staff that plays and cares about the course/game as well, and from what I'm used to awesome weather. All this and more combine to make a wonderful course just outside of Lansing, MI

- great options with long/short pins/tees
- lots of nicely designed holes
- variety of short/long holes
- well marked posts (good map on their website too)
- has not seemed to get backed up when I am there
- only one hole where discs would get lost in water
- they have new tee signs that show the layout for both long and short setups. Great addition!
- there are maps and score cards at the first hole now!

- some rough looks like it can get very rough
- some pins are pretty well hidden from view for first timers (take a map)
- a couple of long pin to long tee holes are SUPER LONG which takes some fun out of it (so we just play short)

I love this course, it's my new favorite. The course if beautiful and well designed. Many of the holes have interesting landscaping and obstacles on them. (like the 10 ft wall!)

I'll be playing here a ton since I live so close...this is a wonderful place with lots of variety. There's also an awesome park all around it with boating, fishing, hiking and a playground. And in the winter you can go sledding/tobogganing too!

** New tee signs are a nice addition, along with the course maps and score cards that they have at the first hole. These show me that they are constantly improving and maintaining this course.