Cascade Township Park is a multi-use park that has Pickleball, Tennis, Basketball, Playground, baseball walking trails, soccer, volleyball and a dog park to name some of the other things here. This has been one of the staples in Grand Rapids Disc for a while, and this is the newest layout which in the time of writing this review is already at least 6 years old.

Basket - These are older DGA Mach 3 baskets. I feel like I thought I would chains out of these, but didn't have a lot of issues.

Use of the Land - with the latest redesign of this course while there is a little extra walking throughout the park, they used it better to make the disc golf kind of by itself. It gets close and interacts with some of the other things (mostly the walking trails) it shouldn't be too bad. They also have a really good use of the elevation, you get a lot of different types of shots and they even throw in some nice tightly wooded holes.

Beginner friendly - this has some longer holes, and can get windy, but overall it should be fairly beginner friendly. It has some obstacles and a little bit of everything to really show what disc golf is about, with out making anything super crazy.

Hole 11, 15 are both two holes you want to throw some extra shots on in hopes for the ace and seeing the disc fly.

Tee Pads - These are gravel, and a lot of them are hard to do run ups on, and easy to slip. I really wish these had cement pads.

Navigation - Once you know the course it's not too bad, but I had to use UDisc while I was here and got kind of mixed up a bit. A few of the holes re fairly far apart and can be confusing to get to.

Tee Signs - Just a stick with a number and some of them have the distance. It's not awful as the holes are pretty cut and dry, but with the navigation issues if we had a map with "Next Tee" it would be pretty big improvement.

Multi-Use Park - While I think they did a really good job of keeping the disc golf by itself, there are some walking trails you may have to wait for people to get off of for a safer shot. Hole 8 has the tennis/pickleball courts sort of in play, and hole 9 has the basketball courts, but besides that it's mainly just walkers and not super bad, but if the park is very busy it could be worse.

This course is close to my work, so I think over all I will plan on playing it a bit more. This is nothing crazy, but its a pretty short nice course. I noticed someone mentioned playing 2, 11-18 as a nice nine holer. I may even give this a try sometime.

If you don't have UDisc or a Phone make sure to print the course map as you may need it for your first time playing. This is pretty on and off the highway, but there is also Thornapple Brewing right around the corner if you want to grab a beer after a round here.

Update: I know someone else mentioned this but my favorite layout here is probably playing "the short 9" per UDisc and it's hole 2, 11-18. Its a nice quick 9 hole run that plays pretty good without needless walking, it has a lot of ace runs and you get most of the best holes.

This is a hilly course that offers a little bit of variety. Although most of the holes are out in the open, there are a few that are in the woods. For the holes that are out in the open, some of them are long and some are short. Some have a couple trees as obstacles, some have woods nearby as obstacles, one has a tennis court as an obstacle, and several of them have hills as obstacles. The holes in the woods are mostly short, but they also have narrow fairways and are hilly. This course also has a few blind tee shots.

It's really hard to find all 18 holes. It's not even clear where you're supposed to park to play the first hole. Some of the holes are really spread out and you have to walk a long ways to get to the next one. The ones in the woods are practically hidden. There's no clear entrance in the woods to get to them. I would've never known about them had I not stumbled across a small sign that shows the layout of the course (that sign is located in a very obscure spot in the park between holes 11 and 2). Sometimes when walking to the next hole, you have to walk right by a previous hole, or cross over a previous hole entirely, and that only causes you to get in the way of other players who are playing that hole. Most of the holes outside the woods are too wide open. Some of them are also too short, which is sad because there's plenty of room for them to be longer. The 8th hole is a little too close to the tennis courts. There's a missed opportunity for the 9th hole to be trickier. Right now it's short and wide open, but if they move the basket out a little farther and to the left, it'll be between two trees that could serve as obstacles that could make the hole trickier and more fun to play. Most of the holes in the woods are way too short, especially the 15th which is more of a putt putt disc golf hole. Also, it would be nice if this course had cement tee pads for each hole. Right now they have loose gravel where you're supposed to tee off, and that's not ideal; the ground is uneven and shifts beneath your feet during your throw. Finally, the mosquitoes can be a problem during the summer.

Overall, the biggest issue with this course is trying to find all 18 holes and also having to do a lot of walking to get to some of them. The gravel tee pads are also a bit of an issue. As for the holes themselves, most of them aren't that bad - some of them just have small issues that require minor adjustments - but there are a few that need major improvements to make them more fun to play.

Cascade Township Park has a fairly decent disc golf course. Much of it is wide open and forgiving, there are some entertaining elevation changes, and a nice shift in setting for holes 12-15 (from wide open to heavily wooded). Hole 15 is a little silly at 83 feet downhill. Only hole 17, with heavy woods and brush bordering a pond on the left, and the basket set near the water, forced my son (who heavily favors his forehand) into a backhand tee shot. None of the holes are oppressively long, so it's a decent choice for beginners and kids.

It's easier to find things not to like. The tee pads are all dirt, and the sign for each hole simply consists of a post and a number. Signage for guiding you from hole to hole is definitely lacking, and there are 200 yard walks in between some of them. The first time we played I used an outdated, pre-course-update online map, and without that we never would have found some of the tees for the next hole. I would recommend using UDisc for any first-time players. The park is near I-96, so there is considerable road noise at some holes. Being a large, mostly wide-open park that is near the wide-open airport as well, the wind can get whipping quite strongly on some days.

Hole 6 is maddening - after finishing hole 5, you're at the top of a hill standing 10 yards from the basket of hole 6, only to find that you have to walk the length of hole 6 to its tee. On top of that, you have to play the hole uphill! It would be gobs more fun to play it downhill.

In an area that has a number of decent disc golf course options, Cascade Township is nice for a change of venue, but it's hardly my first choice. Add some cement tee pads and better signage, reverse hole 6, and plant a few trees around holes 4-7, and this course could be vastly improved.

Cascade Township Park has a lot of activities going on with all it's athletic fields, playgrounds, dog park and picnic areas. There was lots going on when I played, walkers, joggers, cross country runners, some athletic team training. I did have to wait for some runners to cross in front of me.

As everyone has stated, the design is not great, the course just doesn't flow well. The first four holes are all over the place but # 5 is when it gets bizarre. After playing # 4, I walked to the top of this hill anticipating a juicy downhill toss. There seems to be a tee pad worn in the grass. But the basket is not at the bottom of the hill, the tee sign is. So someone expects you to walk down this neat little hill so you can throw back up it. They want you to throw up. I almost did throw up. I had to squeeze my lips together to keep it down. And I decided against playing # 5. As I was shaking my head in disbelief, I tried looking for # 6. The basket is up the hill and there way down the other side is the tee. The designers want you to walk down about 300' so you can throw this hill against. Imagine if all courses were designed like this? At Delaveaga, you could throw up that giant mountain. Par would be about 75.

Fast forward about two holes to # 8. It's about 270' playing across the lawn, an average, OK, typical, bland hole. But you could move this tee pad back to a number of higher spots, each of which would increase the fun factor. Has this course designer even thrown a frisbee? Does he realize that downhill throws are the most fun. With the excellent rolling terrain here, if designed well, this course would have about 6-7 really fun downhills, not epic, but great fun.

Speaking of those downhills, # 11 is cool 240' down a hill throw where the basket sits in a gap in the trees. It's hard to just throw one here. And # 15 could be the easiest Ace you'll ever get. It's 120' downhill, straight and not that tight. It's impossible not to keep throwing discs on this hole. You can empty your bag and all your misses should be close so you don't have to chase them all over the place. And I still couldn't get one to stick. 300 guys have signed the tee sign. They need a bigger sign!

Terrible overall design.

Bad flow.

Dirt tee pads. Fine in August, probably wet other times.

Lots of boring open throws.

This course could be so much better if they would fix 5, 6 and 8. The short wooded holes compliment the open holes nicely. 11 & 15 are holes that I would look forward to each round here. I don't know who has the final word here but someone needs to step up and rectify these design issues. I hate to see these delicious hills go to waste.

Course was recently redesigned due to a dog park and other additions. Course is well maintained as grass is cut regularly. Tees are well marked with wooden posts and now contain maps. Holes have a little bit more difficulty worked in as a few go into the woods. Hole 17 also has water at the edge making it a little more exciting.

Do NOT attempt the first four holes of this course without a map. It is ridiculously difficult to locate hole 2 after playing hole 1 and hole 4 after playing hole 3 without a map. The layout was poorly designed for these holes! Many of the holes are short distances with few obstacles which is also disappointing. Finally, the park can be quite busy, especially in evenings and weekends which can make disc throws hazardous to pedestrians and crowds.

Aesthetic-- makes better use of the entire park and avoids heavier traffic areas. I found that the holes that bordered the roads and paths were a bit more dangerous than before as they are on the left of the fairway in the majority of cases. Be wary of walkers.

Baskets-- Mach 2's. great repair. could use a little more color in some areas to make them pop. streamers in the woods help with visibility

Teesigns-- Immediate improvement. The teesigns on the old layout were just tee# and distance. these add a map

Elevation-- this design makes great use of available topography. far far better than the old layout.

Variety-- OMG better. The woods holes alone (while wonky in their own right) are so welcome here. I was impressed with 16-18 in the corner of the park. the incorporation of water on 17 was nice.

Layout/routing/nav-- You will never (I repeat NEVER) navigate this course without a map. 1-4 have to be the most assinine layout of holes I've ever seen. the walks from 1 to 2, 2 to 3 and 3 to 4 are massive and without the map, completely non-sensical. The fact you have to walk down to the bottom of the hill to get to the tee pad for 6 to throw back up the hill to throw down the hill on 7 is one of the dumbest design flaws ever. I think that with two simple simple changes this course shines. invert the pad and basket on 1 and 6 and life is good (great even) and the routing makes a TON more sense.

Teepads-- muddy but it's march. Not sure if cement is in the works or not but they would be nice here.

Overall a better course but still has some major flow issues that could be alleviated very quickly with the inversion of 1 and 6

• New layout offers new variety. Old course was quite stagnant and needed a change.
• New layout much better avoids multi-use areas like Soccer/Lacross fields, Basball diamonds, kids playgrounds.
• Better use of elevation - short holes shooting uphill to make them play longer, massive (I'd guess 70-80') elevation drop on hole 11.
• Now offers four wooded holes - a much needed addition from the old course which was ENTIRELY open. The fairways are non-existent, but they are very challenging with interesting basket placement that I really enjoy.
• Offers much more OB with parking lots and walking paths creating additional challenge.
• Added water hole - again, needed from the old open course with little danger.
• Layout starts and ends at the same parking lot and avoids most of the other park traffic.

• VERY poor layout for flow of the course. You walk back across 1 to get to 2, then a long walk to 3, then another very long walk to get to 4, ect.
• Holes get congested. 4, 5, 6, 7 all share a basket or teepad within about 50' of the center of the top of the hill. VERY close and dangerous for other players.
• Still short. No real bomber holes.
• Woods need maintenance. No fairways to speak of whatsoever. Not even walking paths yet. 2-3" deep leaves covering fallen branches and mole hills. Pay careful attention to footing.

Overall, I think it's an improvement. But there is plenty of work to be done. Reassigning hole numbers to make a more consistent flow and possibly changing the pad/pin locations on a couple holes then clearing some in the woods would be great improvements.

It's nothing amazing, but it is a nice variety for the course and an improvement from the wide open original layout.