Calvary Church in Plainwell, MI has been rebranded and is now known as "City on a Hill". The disc golf course on site has clearly not been affected by this change. It does not appear to have undergone any changes since the time of Christ - but nonetheless is holding up okay. It consists of 9 holes sandwiched between the church and the US-131 freeway.

This course is either a pitch-and-putt or ace race depending on who you ask, with all holes between about 150' and 225' long. However, there are always a couple of trees to work around. I thought the designers did a fine job of incorporating a good mix of fairway shapes into the small space available. Off the top of my head there are a couple of gentle left handers, a couple of right handers, a couple of straight fairways, and #8's extreme left hand curl. I threw 3 or 4 different discs off the tee.

The baskets are DGA models that look pretty worn, but still caught fine. They could use some tape on the rungs pointing toward the next hole, but the paths between holes had been mowed recently when I visited so navigation was straightforward. The course flows well from hole to hole and loops back to the parking lot.

If you really overthrow hole 3 (which is only a 200' throw), it's possible that your disc will clear a 6' high fence and land close to the southbound lanes of the US-131 freeway. That same fence defines the left side of the fairway on hole 5. And as you might guess, the noise from the freeway is impossible to ignore throughout your round.

Hole 9's tee pad is in hole 8's fairway. A playground can also come into play on the finishing hole. Both of these could cause issues if other people were around.

The tee pads are small rubber mats. It looked like these were basically an attempt to patch over worn-in natural dirt tee areas, without first repairing and flattening those areas. The result is uneven, concave pads that likely collect water any time it rains.

The tee signs consist of rough information Sharpie'd on the top of small wooden panels. These panels are mounted horizontally on top of tall wooden posts that are also labeled with mailbox hole numbers. Hopefully you are at least 5'-6" tall or so, or else these are going to be hard to read. I didn't really look at these much, to be honest.

The course is flat and short with no water hazards. Purely recreational level of challenge. Anyone who can throw 200' is going to be trying for deuces on every hole, and likely getting a few of them.

No kiosk, trash cans, benches, porta potty, or practice basket.

Other than the safety issues, this little course honestly isn't a bad play for what it is. After throwing my arm out at Yankee Springs Golf Course and pinballing off 3 trees per throw at Pine Lake Recreation Area earlier the same day, I actually kind of enjoyed throwing two quick rounds here.

This one definitely isn't worth going out of your way for, but since it is about the easiest on/off US-131 possible and right between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, it's going to be not far out of the way for a lot of people. I am planning on bagging the Kalamazoo area courses this summer/fall and will be coming from GR, so I honestly might stop here again for a quick warm up or cool down. You could complete a round here in 30 minutes, and that includes the time to get on/off the freeway!

Calvery Church appears to be coming up a little short in the collection plate on Sundays. Everything about this church and the adjoining property is shabby looking and could use some paint and TLC. There are some cheap looking lawn chairs around the church. Maybe they have hired a homeless guy for pastor. The basketball hoop by hole 1 is broke off and is an eyesore.

The disc golf course has the same feel. It's just kind of grubby and unkempt. The grass doesn't appear to have mowed anytime recently. The kiosk is OK but has no information. There are small garbage pails around the course but every one is overflowing with cans and bottles strewn on the ground. The signs are kinda strange. They have a number and a board that faces up, like it's there for writing down your scores. They were perfect for me jotting down thoughts about the course. My notes have never been neater.

I wouldn't quite say that this course is on life support but I would say that the course is very, very sick in need of some serious medical help, and soon.

The actual course is not that bad of a design. There is nothing overly dynamic nor are there any signature holes but there are 9 little recreational holes to fill your disc golf urges. You can see that there has been some play here lately. I think every hole here qualifies as an Ace Run. There is some rough along # 3's left side but other than, there isn't much danger

General shabbiness everywhere.

The grass needs mowing.

Pitch and putt distances.

Garbage is piling up.

Lacks challenge and creativity.

It's a shame this course is being put to seed. With some basic maintenance, it would be a nice little beginner course. You can tell it gets some play by the amount of garbage that is piling up around the pads. Probably not a course you're going to go out of your way to play but local beginner and rec types could have fun playing here.

- Baskets, compaired to the other 9 holers in the area this is one of the few that has actual baskets.

- Navigation - every tee has a different colored box to show you were it is. Everything flowed well and it seemed the fairways were mowed to show you which basket you are shooting at.

- Tee pads while they are a little short and rubber they are better then the sand boxes it appears that everyone has mentioned before.

-No real difficulty. They are all pretty much ace runs, but they do have a little bit of shot mix up.

-By the highway (also a plus as it's easy to get too) but it's very loud.

-Hole 8, appears to have two shots, one that is a huge weight hyzer that the tee pad doesn't really face the basket and one small like 80ish ft hyzer spike. Not sure if they moved the basket and made a new tee.

From what i read on the other peoples reviews it looks like they are trying to fix it. This isn't anything that is a destination, but if you are coming north to go to Kzoo or battle Creek, this is a quick stop off the high way for a nice little warm up round.

I am guessing by being at a church it's made to get kids and new players into the game, and it is very good for that.

I enjoyed this more then what most people did, but I also like throwing putters at watching them go for ace runs

Good baskets, Course map at the start of the course. Very little traffic. Easy to find. Well maintained. An ace opportunity on ever hole. This will be the first place I take people who have never played the game before. I met two guys on the course who come out there every day on their lunch break.

Holes are short and mostly straight with not many trees or obstacles to use different styles of throwing. More than anything, I think that is the biggest drawback to this course, not the short links or the fact that it's only nine holes. It seemed flat and barren to me. The tees are basically sand boxes and usually offer no hope of an X step (not that you really need to out here).

I tried to review this course as a 9 hole course on it's own and not let the hole count sway my vote. The fact remains, though, it will still be boring for the veteran player. Where it could really shine though is as a "disc golf training center". You could try out new shots, tweak your drive and practice your putting and midrange shots with what I'm assuming would be very little interference from other players. This course and a soccer field for long drive practice would be all you would need to become a great player on your own time. I wish I lived next door to it. I'd be out there every day before work.

No play during Sunday morning services- 10:45 am til ?

Its a course, no wait, never busy, almost impossible to lose a disc, good baskets, very clean, & very close to the interstate. good to work on short game and putting.

verry short, not challanging, very open not many obsticles.

good place to practice, no wait ever, quick play,

- Basic teaching skills design
- Free
- Easy to figure out
- Great baskets

- Dirt tees
- Very, very short
- No obstacles/challenges, should shoot -6 to -9 during a hurricane.

Not worth the trip, good stretcher course between Kzoo and Grand Rapids if on the highway and bored.

short holes with few trees makes this a good course for beginner, nothing fancy required to make par

wont pose a challange to a golfer of moderate skill level

usualy pretty clean, not a lot of activity makes so you dont have to wait to play