Just a few minutes south of the Michigan-Indiana border, the Clay Township Park DGC offers a weird hodgepodge of wooded and open holes that misses the mark.

The course's beauty, from grassy fields to groves of trees, is one of the best aspects of the course. The DGCR photos do an excellent job of displaying the elegance surroundings.

The course wraps around the perimeter of the park and concludes not far from the parking area. The mostly flat course is fairly easy to walk.

The course is very clean and seems to be well-maintained.

Most nine-hole, city-park-style courses are guilty of being homogenous in design. You won't find that at Clay Township Park. The hole diversity ranges from a wide-open 400-foot-plus hole to a silly, jump-putt of 100 feet, to one of the worst wooded holes I've played. Perhaps the designers were instructed to not make any alterations in creating the course, but even so, a majority of the designs flopped.

The first oddity is the teepads, which appeared to have been rotated 90 degrees so that they are wider than they are long. The teepad signs are a wooded, rustic design that contain only the hole number and distance; on a couple holes, a map would be very beneficial to avoid having to walk down the narrow fairway in search of the path and basket.

The peculiarity continues with the course design.

The first basket is out in an open field but the teepad is set behind an enormous tree, and with a fenced-in area on the right, the 400-foot-hole will be a challenge to birdie for all but the best disc golfers. The second hole is shorter, but goes over a railroad-tie-style fence and the park through road.

Hole #3 is one of the most disappointing designs. The 420-foot-hole is open field for the first half, then goes into a gorgeous straight-line grove of trees. Instead of creating what could have been an awesome 200-foot ace run with a tight line and low ceiling, the designer decided to double the distance for no good reason. And calling this a par-3 hole is hilarious. Only a perfect roller has a chance to land anywhere near the basket.

Hole #4 is listed as par 3 as well, but this time, it's only 100 feet in the woods. C'mon, this hole might be a chance for an ace, but what a joke.

Holes #5 through #7 are also in the woods, but their fairways appear to be adapted from the narrow nature paths already in place. The area just off the fairway is extremely difficult to get out of, and while Holes #5 and #7 are about 300 feet, you can't see the basket from the teepad.

Hole #7 is ridiculous. Listing it as a par 4 gives it a bit of grace … never mind, it's still ridiculous. The narrow walking path curves and changes direction about four times. Barring a miracle throw that might ricochet off several trees, discs don't fly that way. The best approach to tackling this hole might be three long putts and then a short putt to make par.

I encountered a few park participants during my round here. Several cars were parked near the fairway for Hole #2, a gentleman was seated on a bench near the Hole #3 basket, and the curvy trails on Holes #5-7 could present a problem for unsuspecting walkers.

The ambiance and scenery at Clay Township Park is excellent. However, the design falters and fails to live up to its potential. Plus, the teepads are the wrong way.

If you're willing to overlook these faults, it's a decent park course. But it could have been much more…

- Clay Township Park (CTP), a busy multi-use park, is home to a nine hole course that plays through the edge of the woodlands and around a pair of baseball diamonds. A good mix of mostly open (1, 2, 9), open to wooded (#3, 4), wooded to open (#7), and wooded (#5, 6) hole designs exist here, providing a decent amount of variety in a quick nine holes.
- Hole #1 starts by throwing along the ball field, past a massive old sycamore. Next hole shoots across the road. Hole #3 is clearly the best of the bunch: a long open fairway that halfway down transitions to rows of mature trees that have been planted in straight lines, becoming a low canopy of tunnel shots: take your pick as to which route you'll approach the basket from! Hole #4 is a short downhill ace run of about 100'. Holes #5 and 6 play through the woods with fairly tight and punishing woods and undergrowth off the fairways. #7 begins the same, winds around a bit and comes out into the open for the green.
# 8 is open with a patch of low trees to go up and over with a hyzer shot. #9 finishes back at the ball diamonds and parking lot.

-Multiuse park means some conflict with walkers is going to occur. Hole #'s 5 and 6 especially are dangerous, with walking trails cutting perpendicular through the fairways. #2 throws over the path and road as well.
- A few of the tees are very close to the previous hole's basket. These are also the blind basket locations in the woods, so it's important to call back when the hole is cleared and still keep a look out while on the next tee for incoming discs.
- The wooded holes seem a bit "off" or "odd" or "not quite right." #7 especially seems like a poke and a prayer vs. a real disc golf shot with no real discernible fairway. I dunno, maybe it's just me. I do suck at disc golf.
- Uh...the teepads are, like, sideways.....

- Overall, CTP's a reasonable effort with a reasonable piece of land. The walker situation isn't unmanageable, I'd just be very wary of people wandering directly into the line of fire...it happened twice during my weekend round.
- I'd be interested to hear about why the tee pads are, um, sideways.

- Well signed and easy to navigate.
- In a clean and nice multi-use park. Wasn't here on a particularly busy day but it did seem that most of the disc golf was kept away from the other park activities.
- The Dynamic Discs baskets are awesome. The white bands and cages stand out really well and they catch great.
- I really enjoyed #3. There is a small patch of trees planted in rows and the basket is on the other side of this patch. The tee shot has to be placed perfectly to hit one of these rows that line up with the basket. If not, then its a really tough upshot to the basket. A nicely thought out design.
- For a 9 hole course, this course has some teeth to it. There's some length and toughness that will challenge a lot of disc golfers of many skill levels.
- The variety here is refreshing. Going from wide open holes like on 1, 2, 8, 9 to more wooded holes of 4, 5, 6 and 7.

- The tees are really strange. They are about 4' x 5' but are oriented the wrong way. They should be turned 90 degrees to line up with the hole. These were clearly not installed by someone who had any clue about disc golf.
- The tee signs are also rather strange. They are right on the back left of each tee pad. Way too close to the tee pad. Basically this makes the left half of the tee pad unusable.
- 7 needs to be trimmed desperately. I did not care for this hole one bit. The fairway is a 15' walking path that zig zags multiple times for 300'. There is no realistic line a disc can fly any significant distance down this fairway. Just take a putter and toss it 80' per throw I guess…?
- 4 is a stupidly short hole at 100'. Seems to me like this could have been lengthened - at least 50' or more. Its now a fairly hard to hit line but as this course beats in this hole is going to become way too easy.

Clay Township park is a little wonky. Its not your typical course and is certainly a lot different than most courses you'd find in the area. It needs some work though and in particular the tee pads. These are just really really weird. Also, 7 needs a ton of work to shape some more realistic disc golf lines. It also appears that Clay Township has some land to work with so putting in another nine looks like a possibility. Any DG'er in the neighborhood ought to stop by and play a quick 9 here. It'll challenge most anyone.

Hole(s) 1-2 & 8-9 are good to practice drives and fairway drives. Hole(s) 3 & 4 begin to get technical. Finally hole(s) 5-7 are technical due to the woods that produce narrow fairways.

Overall, not a bad course to play. Might want to watch out for cars and pedestrians during the warmer months.

Tee box are poured wrong; if you're look at the tee, the tee box is poured left to right not toward the direction of the basket.

As mentioned previously, not a bad course to get some practice with drives and fairway shots.