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Calumet Lake DGC reviews
7
0
Not quite the middle of nowhere, but close 2+ years drive by
Reviewed:
Played on:Jun 24, 2018
Played the course:once
Pros:
Calumet Lake DGC is roughly a 20 minute drive from MTECH/Houghton. Calumet is a legit town with fast food, gas stations, and other services visitors to the UP may be happy to see. Maybe an odd thing to include in a course review, but if you're traveled through the UP at all you'll realize civilization is pretty sparse and you don't want to try running on fumes to make it "just a little further" before stopping. Towns can sometimes be a splattering of summer houses and seasonal businesses.
Anyway, the course is a pleasant surprise. It's a 27 hole course set in a large park. Everything past hole 5 or so is dedicated solely to disc golf. Parking is pretty good, though it's a bit closer to a few baskets than I'd like to see. It could also fill up quite easily on a major draw day like a tournament but I believe there was "overflow" parking a bit down the road. I never had a problem with it the 3 or 4 times I played the course.
A set of bathrooms are available near the parking lot. They are permanent vault toilets. They are in good repair and were fine when I visited.
The course looks to be designed with two setups in mind, a "Red" position and a "Blue" position. There is a large wooden announcement board next to hole one telling you what the current setup is. I played the "Blue" course.
The first 9 holes are a real treat, some of the best I've played. Hole 1 starts with a tricky set of offset brush/wood outcroppings that need either a laser-beam shot or an S-curve to navigate. . From there it plays next to a lake in open lawn (with a few trees for obstacles). One of the best features is a gully/creek you end up throwing over. Not a huge risk of losing a disc due to the shallowness and size, but enough of a nuisance that you'll feel pretty good about not having to walk down it and fish plastic out when you make the throw.
After 4 relatively open holes, you go to the woods and pretty much stay there until you reach hole 20 or so. The wood holes generally give open lines and never felt overly punishing or unreasonable. Due to the course layout, there's not too much brush to lose discs in as it's mostly just border stuff separating fairways. Some of the holes in the woods have an interesting rolling/undulating quality to the ground which makes skip shots dicey at best.
Once you get to the final 9 you begin to break out of the woods to what I would describe as a meadow. The hole distances begin to stretch out here. I'm not sure any of them are under 300 feet at this point, but I threw these for fun rather than score so I could be wrong. They're definitely not ace runs in any case.
There are several opportunities to go back to your car/parking lot as you progress through the course due to the course layout.
There is some sort of teepad for all holes - I am thinking pavers. They were flat and fine.
Some benches available here and there for sitting. Excellent signage though I personally felt a few of the basket descriptions were a bit off position-wise. One of the best treats of the course was somebody put up white arrow signs pointing to the next tee on darn near every hole. They REALLY helped with navigation. Somebody sharp put these up because there was no question on where they were directing you.
Anyway, the course is a pleasant surprise. It's a 27 hole course set in a large park. Everything past hole 5 or so is dedicated solely to disc golf. Parking is pretty good, though it's a bit closer to a few baskets than I'd like to see. It could also fill up quite easily on a major draw day like a tournament but I believe there was "overflow" parking a bit down the road. I never had a problem with it the 3 or 4 times I played the course.
A set of bathrooms are available near the parking lot. They are permanent vault toilets. They are in good repair and were fine when I visited.
The course looks to be designed with two setups in mind, a "Red" position and a "Blue" position. There is a large wooden announcement board next to hole one telling you what the current setup is. I played the "Blue" course.
The first 9 holes are a real treat, some of the best I've played. Hole 1 starts with a tricky set of offset brush/wood outcroppings that need either a laser-beam shot or an S-curve to navigate. . From there it plays next to a lake in open lawn (with a few trees for obstacles). One of the best features is a gully/creek you end up throwing over. Not a huge risk of losing a disc due to the shallowness and size, but enough of a nuisance that you'll feel pretty good about not having to walk down it and fish plastic out when you make the throw.
After 4 relatively open holes, you go to the woods and pretty much stay there until you reach hole 20 or so. The wood holes generally give open lines and never felt overly punishing or unreasonable. Due to the course layout, there's not too much brush to lose discs in as it's mostly just border stuff separating fairways. Some of the holes in the woods have an interesting rolling/undulating quality to the ground which makes skip shots dicey at best.
Once you get to the final 9 you begin to break out of the woods to what I would describe as a meadow. The hole distances begin to stretch out here. I'm not sure any of them are under 300 feet at this point, but I threw these for fun rather than score so I could be wrong. They're definitely not ace runs in any case.
There are several opportunities to go back to your car/parking lot as you progress through the course due to the course layout.
There is some sort of teepad for all holes - I am thinking pavers. They were flat and fine.
Some benches available here and there for sitting. Excellent signage though I personally felt a few of the basket descriptions were a bit off position-wise. One of the best treats of the course was somebody put up white arrow signs pointing to the next tee on darn near every hole. They REALLY helped with navigation. Somebody sharp put these up because there was no question on where they were directing you.
Cons:
The course is "Under construction". All 27 holes are playable, but 1-16 are the ones that are fairly polished, with cleared brush, no stumps, flattened ground, etc. After that you'll start to see shrub stumps, raw dirt, and more foliage. Generally they are not bad to play on, but if you're going to lose a disc it'll be on the last 9 holes.
I did end up skipping 26 I believe. 25 and 26 more or less share two sides of a meadow. At the time I played it hadn't been mowed for quite some time and it was pretty wild. To drive a point of how wild it was, I threw a drive maybe 300 feet past a slight change in elevation that landed dead in the fairway. I trudged up through the weeds to more or less where I saw it land and began to search for it. After a minute or two I found it, along with a 2nd disc about 5 feet away somebody else had lost. In the fairway. At that point I finished 25 and walked 26 to a more playable hole. Worth noting that 27 had literally been mowed the day before by some sort of neat all-terrain mower they had (I'd skipped the final 9 the night before due to fading light and happened to come across a fella working on the course).
Once you're in the woods you're a long ways from bathrooms and whatnot. The course does bring you back to the parking lot a few times but when you're in the rest of it, there's no real shortcuts to get back. Not the end of the world, but plan accordingly.
The bugs exist. Honestly I didn't think they were very bad given the time of year, but the first 4 open holes can deceive you into not putting on bug spray. Put on bug spray. After using it they weren't an issue.
The middle 9 are kind of unremarkable. It's a lot of similar wood shots asking for a gentle left or gentle right finish. If you can get by the trees, they play pretty similarly. Would have been nice to see a more demanding dogleg here and there. Maybe the Red course incorporates this.
Fair number of blind baskets, a lot of them due to slight elevation changes or being tucked behind some trees/brush.
I did end up skipping 26 I believe. 25 and 26 more or less share two sides of a meadow. At the time I played it hadn't been mowed for quite some time and it was pretty wild. To drive a point of how wild it was, I threw a drive maybe 300 feet past a slight change in elevation that landed dead in the fairway. I trudged up through the weeds to more or less where I saw it land and began to search for it. After a minute or two I found it, along with a 2nd disc about 5 feet away somebody else had lost. In the fairway. At that point I finished 25 and walked 26 to a more playable hole. Worth noting that 27 had literally been mowed the day before by some sort of neat all-terrain mower they had (I'd skipped the final 9 the night before due to fading light and happened to come across a fella working on the course).
Once you're in the woods you're a long ways from bathrooms and whatnot. The course does bring you back to the parking lot a few times but when you're in the rest of it, there's no real shortcuts to get back. Not the end of the world, but plan accordingly.
The bugs exist. Honestly I didn't think they were very bad given the time of year, but the first 4 open holes can deceive you into not putting on bug spray. Put on bug spray. After using it they weren't an issue.
The middle 9 are kind of unremarkable. It's a lot of similar wood shots asking for a gentle left or gentle right finish. If you can get by the trees, they play pretty similarly. Would have been nice to see a more demanding dogleg here and there. Maybe the Red course incorporates this.
Fair number of blind baskets, a lot of them due to slight elevation changes or being tucked behind some trees/brush.
Other Thoughts:
If I were in the Keweenaw/Copper County area and I had to pick one course to play, it would be this one without a doubt. If I were driving through the area and I was looking to make a detour to play a course, I wouldn't hesitate to put an hour drive into getting here, maybe even 90 minutes. It's a very legit course in a pretty remote area.
The course is a work in progress, and it's quite evident. I saw folks working on clearing brush and fairways twice when I went out. Piles of cleared sticks and brush were everywhere, waiting for disposal. I liked that I was able to get a "Beta" version of all 27 holes, even though the last 9 were in rough shape. I'm curious to see how it all comes together. At the pace they seem to be going at I'd say they'll have most of the rough edges smoothed over this year and it will likely be polished by the end of next.
I really dithered on what score to place down. When I'd gotten to hole 7 or so, I was willing to place this as one of the top 3 courses I'd played, it was that good. The fairly standard 2nd 9 diminished my view a little bit. It still stood in my mind as a good course, but I was surprised that they sort of lost that spark. The back 9 may make or break it. They look promising - again, they seem to want gentle left or rights, but the holes travel a little longer and there's a little bit more interesting terrain to work with.
I guess the only other notable thing was that there were a number of holes in which the basket chains were bunched up and tangled at the top instead of hanging freely. It was easy enough to fix (the chains were simply held up by the bottom ring getting draped on one of the top bolts) but it was a bit annoying to have to walk up and fix the basket, then walk back to throw my approach/putt. Only saw it during one of my visits but I hadn't seen this sort of behavior on any course before. Hopefully it's a case of transient players being young as opposed to a regular thing.
The course is a work in progress, and it's quite evident. I saw folks working on clearing brush and fairways twice when I went out. Piles of cleared sticks and brush were everywhere, waiting for disposal. I liked that I was able to get a "Beta" version of all 27 holes, even though the last 9 were in rough shape. I'm curious to see how it all comes together. At the pace they seem to be going at I'd say they'll have most of the rough edges smoothed over this year and it will likely be polished by the end of next.
I really dithered on what score to place down. When I'd gotten to hole 7 or so, I was willing to place this as one of the top 3 courses I'd played, it was that good. The fairly standard 2nd 9 diminished my view a little bit. It still stood in my mind as a good course, but I was surprised that they sort of lost that spark. The back 9 may make or break it. They look promising - again, they seem to want gentle left or rights, but the holes travel a little longer and there's a little bit more interesting terrain to work with.
I guess the only other notable thing was that there were a number of holes in which the basket chains were bunched up and tangled at the top instead of hanging freely. It was easy enough to fix (the chains were simply held up by the bottom ring getting draped on one of the top bolts) but it was a bit annoying to have to walk up and fix the basket, then walk back to throw my approach/putt. Only saw it during one of my visits but I hadn't seen this sort of behavior on any course before. Hopefully it's a case of transient players being young as opposed to a regular thing.
