aceable poles, easy peasy - 15 minutes tops to play, scorecards 'n' pencils in da mailbox!

would not attempt to play if park is active, haz hazard!

first pole course i played in quite some time, throw it back!

Conklin Park is located near Newaygo, MI which is about a 45 minute drive north of Grand Rapids. The multi-use park has lot of amenities but has squeezed in nine pole holes of "Frisbee golf." The holes play in kind of a figure eight around the park.

The designers did a decent job of placing the tee and target poles so that there are either natural obstacles or man-made ones (or both) between tee and basket. There are a few holes that are pretty open but for the most part you will actually have to avoid multiple obstacles per hole to score under par here (the distances are short, but some holes are par 2). Hole 7 was maybe the most challenging, and also my favorite. This one is a 261' throw through a combination of spindly tree trunks, and man-made structures that look kind of like unfinished giant wooden ladders. I'm not sure if these are supposed to be for some other park activity I did not recognize, or if they were created specifically to increase the challenge on this hole. I suppose the former is probably more likely.

There is no kiosk, but a mailbox next to the first tee has scorecards in it that contain a course map, as well as distance and par data for each hole.

There is a porta potty available, as well as a couple of trash cans and benches throughout the park.

There are other park amenities in play on almost every hole. Some of the potential issues include a playground, baseball diamond, and tennis court. There is also one hole where the fairly busy road that the park is on could come into play on an errant throw, and several more that either cross or play next to the (dirt) park drive. There also isn't really a parking "lot" per se, so it's kind of a crapshoot whether someone may have pulled off the dirt drive to park right where you are trying to throw. In short, if the park were ever to get busy this course would have serious safety issues. Fortunately, there was only one other person in the park throughout my visit - and he appeared to be asleep in his pickup truck, well out of the way.

As mentioned above, the targets are poles - no baskets. The poles are yellow and looked freshly painted for my visit. I thought that throwing at poles was an interesting and different challenge, but obviously baskets would be preferable.

There are also no tee pads. The tees are marked only by more poles with the hole number - these were freshly painted white. Holes 1 and 5 share the same tee pole.

There isn't any other signage - use the scorecard map (uploaded here) for navigation if needed.

The distances are pretty short. This actually isn't the shortest course I have played - I played this as a putter-only round and ended up regretting it. There is one hole over 300', and four others over 200'. Still, most disc golfers who bring a couple of mids/fairway drivers should finish under par here even with three par 2's - and anyone above beginner/intermediate level will get bored in the process.

There are no water hazards, and not enough elevation change to really affect play.

There are so many dirt drives through the park, and the course plays so close to them, that you could basically park near/start at any hole you want. I started at hole 8!

My 0.5 rating has less to do with the fact that the targets are poles, and more with the number of safety concerns. If this same layout had baskets it would be only a 1.0 at best, or maybe even still a 0.5. If no one is around, this is a fine place for beginners and locals to practice - disc loss is near impossible, there is a bit of shot shaping around the trees, and I think putting at a pole is probably just about as difficult as putting at a basket. For diehard baggers, Conklin Park is a quick stop. Obviously I can't really recommend it to anyone else. No matter who you are - if you play here, be observant and don't "conk"lin anyone in the head!