River's Edge provides a solid technical complement to big brother Devil's Den, making Burchfield Park a well-rounded disc golf destination. While Devil's Den borrows its design style more from ball golf, River's Edge is all disc golf, comprised of chiefly wooded holes of varying lengths and difficulty levels. Split into two distinct halves, the front 8 serves up lots of elevation change and more traditional park-style holes (the best of which is Hole 2's drive down the toboggan run), while Holes 9-18 play long and mostly flat along the scenic Grand River. These back fairways are the heart and soul of the course, with deceptively tight lines that are juuust open enough to tempt a distance driver off the tee. Most of these holes offer multiple routes to the pin, some of which are sneakier than others. As a result, bombers who struggle with accuracy are at a disadvantage to noodle arms who can hit the right gap with consistency.

In preparation for this year's USWDGC, River's Edge has gained short pin positions on nearly every hole. Interspersing these short pins with the classic long positions should give some much-needed flavor to the back 10 in particular, breaking up some of the design monotony in that portion of the course.

River's Edge is typically less trafficked than Devil's Den, but that could change with the addition of the short pins, which make this course a lot more accessible to casual players (~5100 ft for all short positions vs. ~6800 ft for the classic longs).

Despite clearly being the second fiddle course at Burchfield Park, the maintenance is still good to great. You won't find much to gripe about in the mow and trim department.

Concrete pads play to Chainstars in good repair. Most (if not all) holes have a bench at the teepad.

There's a troubling lack of design variance on the back 10, with very few features distinguishing the par 4's from one another. With any luck, the new short pins should help break up some of this monotony by at least providing a greater variety of hole distances.

That said, almost half of the new short placements on the back 10 are at awkward "tweener" distances relative to the tightness of the fairways - four holes play between 337 and 381 feet. For most skill levels, having a look at birdie will rely a lot more on luck than skill.

Holes 7 & 8 are frustrating "path golf" that force a single line to the basket along a tight fairway that jogs at odd angles. The best plays are a backhand and forehand flex, respectively, with greater margin for error on Hole 7. Hole 8 is short but merciless, with a dramatic rollaway green potentially punishing even the most perfectly executed shot. These two holes taint an otherwise fair design.

The majority of the course plays in a lowland on the banks of the Grand River, quite literally at the river's edge. At worst the course is prone to flooding, and at best it carries a near-omnipresent squishiness. The worst parts are off the fairways, but close enough that you'll probably find yourself throwing an upshot from the swamp at least once per round. Hole 11 is especially marshy to the left of the fairway.

Mosquitoes on the back 10 can be thick enough to carry you away. Don't leave home without bug spray, even when the weather has been dry. I'd recommend "deep woods" varieties (40% DEET and above).

Although the short basket positions are a welcome addition to the course, the 100% short pin layout feels a bit underwhelming. Mixing A & B positions for daily play after USWDGC would give the back 10 some much-needed variety of length while making the course enjoyable for a wide audience.

Burchfield Park is pay-to-play ($3 entry fee for Ingham County residents, $5 for non-residents, plus $4 per player), but you'll definitely get your money's worth between the two courses on-site. This ranks up there with Mason County Park, Hudson Mills, and Kensington as a great Michigan destination complex.

- AWESOME 2nd hole from the top of the toboggan hill
- several other signature holes make for an exciting round
- great wooded change of pace from the original course
- Even though it is wooded, plenty of room to air it out on long holes
- tough water hazards, variety of forehand/backhand challenges
- Great signs so far, could be more permanent
- the tees that are poured are great, they'll finish the rest next season
- ANOTHER WHOLE COURSE in the same park!!

- a bit of monotony by about 14 holes or so, the back 10 feels like it needs one or two changes in the middle to break it up
- odd break between holes 8 and 9, make playing "front 9" impossible
- dangerous water hazards on the last 3 or so holes, if the river had been at spring levels I would have lost a disc or two this fall

I think this course needs a minor layout change, you could take hole one, and then head over to where roughly hole 7 (I think) is...play through 6,7,8 and then figure out a new (shorter) number 9. Play 10 through about 15 and cut out 16 (the long one that ends in the corner of the river causing a long walk back with nothing to do). Then work it out where you play 3,4,5 that we skipped before...and end with hole 2 off the hill. This rearrangement of the holes will get rid of all of the long walks, and end you at the parking lot where you started with the best hole on the course.

The park is awesome, and there are now two AWESOME courses here. Well worth the drive and worth playing both of them repeatedly to get the full flavor of the park. This is a must-play in Michigan, and the best place in the Lansing area.

This layout features several fun "character" holes, their existence here making the round more than worth my time even with the awesome original course just across the park beckoning me to play it some more...

The course is pleasantly challenging to this former mediocre AM-1 player. The lack of fully-wooded holes on the other original course is reversed here.

The setting is beautiful, tranquil, and features some elevation (where that is also mostly lacking in the original course across the park).

It is a treat to play during fall leaf season.

The walk from #18's basket back to your car is among the worst logistical blunders I've ever seen on a good course; it ends almost 2/3 of the way to the very back of the layout, and you even traverse a few other holes' fairways to get back!

There are at least two other long walks that seemed unnecessary. The denser wooded area essentially enables you to design anything you need, and yet there were another couple of huge hole-length walks out there. I would understand if those areas were chock-full of world class character holes, but they were merely adequate.

The woods holes, although welcomed due to their presence lacking in the original course, seemed to get repetitive after awhile. A bizarre "Z" shaped hole later on didn't cure that, though, because it's all layup and no risk. Maybe it's a work in progress?

While some welcome the presence of a ubiquitous water hazard, I'm not a fan of a large river with strong currents running parallel with lengthy wooded holes, even if it is beautiful. There was a basket placed in such a way that I chose to pick up my 40' putt for birdie and just called it par instead. Had I missed my putt, my putter likely would've been gone. I'm only a fan of water hazards if you can reasonably fetch your Disc.

The excessive walk from #18's basket back to the car took off major rating points just on its own.

I LOVED the first several holes, especially #2 from on top of that skiing hill (or whatever it is). #1 was wonderfully challenging too with its narrow window at tee-off, side-sweeping elevation, and punishing evergreens on the right. I know you've got a good hole when I take a six and smile about it.

The back portion of the design is all wooded, and for the first three of them or so, I loved being in the tight woods after being out in the open all day...but it did get repetitive.

I hope they continue to work on the weird "Z" hole. It has potential, but as it stands, it's not a good golf hole. You basically can only lay up conservatively along its entire length. I have faith that some risk/reward elements will be devised for it since it's so new.

Aesthetic-absolutely beautiful course in a beautiful park. on the same property as the original course but completely and distinctly different.

Challenge-this course is a helluva challenge. B3nder and I both got our asses handed to us compared to the original course. hugely long holes through dense woods with plenty of risk v reward.

Baskets-Discatchers, new and grippy (powdercoated) relatively visible in the heavier woods on this course. probably need some reflective tape in the future to increase visibility.

Originality-the toboggan hole (#2) is mind-blowing. stepping up to the pad the first time is awe inspiring.

Teepads-when all of them are installed, they will be nice concrete wide and long.

Routing/navigation-SUPER EASY!! I can easily say, there are more "next tee" signs here than are necessary.

Teesigns-temporary I'm sure but they are descriptive and easy to use!

Teepads- where concrete is not present, there is turf which is uneven and a bit wonky in most places

Repetition- the back 9 or 10 is very repetitive and I feel that the available property isn't used to it's full potential. Very LHBH and RHFH friendly.. RHBH, not so much.

Risk v Reward- yep, here too. the river on the last few holes isn't really used very effectively. it's there and it's very "in play" but it feels like it should be more utilized.

When we first hit the second hole, we though this course was epic! as we went along, it was very repetitive and uninspired. Very strong start but a very weak finish...
Excited to see where this course evolves to.