Deerfield Park - Original reviews
13
0
Actually has deer - and good disc golf too!
Reviewed:
Played on:Jul 22, 2022
Played the course:once
Pros:
Deerfield Park is located just west of Mt. Pleasant, MI. The park has a beach on a smallish lake/river, but the main attraction appears to be two 18-hole disc golf courses. This review is for the "Deerfield" course, and the other course on site is "Wildwood".
The Deerfield course provides a fun round of disc golf that will be suitable and interesting for a variety of skill levels. Maybe 2/3 of the holes play in wooded areas, with some fairways cut through cathedrals of huge pine tree trunks and others routed through younger growth areas with thick brush lining the rough. Some of these holes are quite tight. I thought the mix of left, right, and straight lines were all fair, but I can definitely see players who prefer more open throws complaining about some of these fairways. To appease those players, the remaining holes are much more open. From the long tee, hole 5 is a 500' par 4 that plays down a wide open sledding hill and will be very scoreable for bigger arms.
Elevation changes are present here too, and add challenge to many holes. Hole 11 is a fun throw that tees off from the top of a small hill. You'll have to thread the needle through the trees for the first 125' or so (from the long tee). After that the fairway flattens out and opens up a little bit, running another 275' to the basket. There is also a significant water hole in #14. Standing on the long tee, there is a lake on your left and in front of you for maybe 225' off the pad. To the right, the lake gives way to a marshy area with thick brush then eventually open grass (where the short tee is located). Those nervous about the water carry could lay up towards the short tee, then over the marsh which is probably only 100' or so across at that point. I decided to go for it from the long tee and threw my high-visibility floater disc. It was a poor throw and the light breeze carried my disc off into the marsh, where I was lucky to find it about 20 minutes later.
The baskets are yellow banded DISCatchers. One per hole. A couple of them have poles on top to help with visibility when they are located behind ridges, etc.
The tee pads are concrete and there are two of them per hole, creating a long and short layout. I played a single round from the long layout. From the longs, this course is not overwhelmingly lengthy but decent power will help - and you will need to be accurate on the shorter wooded holes to score well. I would say the longs play at an intermediate level. The short layout looked like it would be more accessible to newer players, while offering a few different lines to baskets too.
Navigational signage is good. There are tons of "Next Tee" signs and they are all large, well made, and color coded by course (brown for Deerfield and green for Wildwood). If you look at the map, you can see that the two courses are not just adjacent but actually "overlapping". I'm putting that in quotes because I'm not sure what word to use - the overall footprints of the two courses overlap, but individual holes do not. What I'm trying to say is, this could easily be very confusing - if not unsafe - but the color coded signs are good enough to completely prevent this. I thought it was kind of bizarre to hear other groups playing in the woods nearby, but never catch up to them and know that they were not behind me either (because they were playing the other course).
There is a large kiosk at the parking lot that has maps of both courses on site, as well as a weatherproof box with scorecards inside. A couple of restrooms exist in the park, though it isn't obvious where either one is from the disc golf parking lot (closest one is tucked into the woods next to hole 18's fairway). There are many benches at long tees, and a few trash cans spaced throughout the course.
The Deerfield course provides a fun round of disc golf that will be suitable and interesting for a variety of skill levels. Maybe 2/3 of the holes play in wooded areas, with some fairways cut through cathedrals of huge pine tree trunks and others routed through younger growth areas with thick brush lining the rough. Some of these holes are quite tight. I thought the mix of left, right, and straight lines were all fair, but I can definitely see players who prefer more open throws complaining about some of these fairways. To appease those players, the remaining holes are much more open. From the long tee, hole 5 is a 500' par 4 that plays down a wide open sledding hill and will be very scoreable for bigger arms.
Elevation changes are present here too, and add challenge to many holes. Hole 11 is a fun throw that tees off from the top of a small hill. You'll have to thread the needle through the trees for the first 125' or so (from the long tee). After that the fairway flattens out and opens up a little bit, running another 275' to the basket. There is also a significant water hole in #14. Standing on the long tee, there is a lake on your left and in front of you for maybe 225' off the pad. To the right, the lake gives way to a marshy area with thick brush then eventually open grass (where the short tee is located). Those nervous about the water carry could lay up towards the short tee, then over the marsh which is probably only 100' or so across at that point. I decided to go for it from the long tee and threw my high-visibility floater disc. It was a poor throw and the light breeze carried my disc off into the marsh, where I was lucky to find it about 20 minutes later.
The baskets are yellow banded DISCatchers. One per hole. A couple of them have poles on top to help with visibility when they are located behind ridges, etc.
The tee pads are concrete and there are two of them per hole, creating a long and short layout. I played a single round from the long layout. From the longs, this course is not overwhelmingly lengthy but decent power will help - and you will need to be accurate on the shorter wooded holes to score well. I would say the longs play at an intermediate level. The short layout looked like it would be more accessible to newer players, while offering a few different lines to baskets too.
Navigational signage is good. There are tons of "Next Tee" signs and they are all large, well made, and color coded by course (brown for Deerfield and green for Wildwood). If you look at the map, you can see that the two courses are not just adjacent but actually "overlapping". I'm putting that in quotes because I'm not sure what word to use - the overall footprints of the two courses overlap, but individual holes do not. What I'm trying to say is, this could easily be very confusing - if not unsafe - but the color coded signs are good enough to completely prevent this. I thought it was kind of bizarre to hear other groups playing in the woods nearby, but never catch up to them and know that they were not behind me either (because they were playing the other course).
There is a large kiosk at the parking lot that has maps of both courses on site, as well as a weatherproof box with scorecards inside. A couple of restrooms exist in the park, though it isn't obvious where either one is from the disc golf parking lot (closest one is tucked into the woods next to hole 18's fairway). There are many benches at long tees, and a few trash cans spaced throughout the course.
Cons:
The tee signs are just brown painted plaques with the hole number, distance, and par (Wildwood has the same plaques but painted green). These do appear at both long and short tee pads and they are good quality, but with so many blind holes I would have really appreciated a hole map or at least a rough line drawn on these signs. I didn't need the course map for navigating between holes, but I found myself referring to it many times just to figure out which way fairways turned. It got frustrating having to pull out the map on my phone and/or walk down the fairway to find the basket on hole after hole. I would also like to see "long"/"short" or similar language added to the tee signs. It's usually fairly obvious which is which, but there were a couple of places where the path from the previous hole took me to the short tee and I had to remember to turn and walk back to the long tee.
There is a volleyball net basically in hole 2's fairway. If this were ever in use, the hole would be unsafe/unplayable. Hole 14's short tee pad is also in hole 13's fairway, though at least it isn't blind.
There are areas near the end of the course that have permanent signs declaring that there is poison ivy present. I get that 1) this is a NATURE park and 2) poison ivy can be difficult to control. But I still thought it was a little odd to spend the time and effort putting up nice signage, when that time and effort could be put towards getting rid of the stuff. These officially signed areas are right next to a couple of fairways, so you should plan accordingly. I was fortunate that none of my tree kicks went in that direction.
Speaking of the end of the course, I was generally underwhelmed by the last few holes. After hole 11 or so, this course really flattens out - and other than the water carry on hole 14 it just felt kind of bland. It's not that there are anything wrong with these ending holes necessarily - they just didn't keep me as interested as the first 2/3 of the course did.
There was no practice basket, and plenty of room to add one!
Road noise from M-20 can be heard throughout the course, detracting from the aesthetic a little bit.
There is a volleyball net basically in hole 2's fairway. If this were ever in use, the hole would be unsafe/unplayable. Hole 14's short tee pad is also in hole 13's fairway, though at least it isn't blind.
There are areas near the end of the course that have permanent signs declaring that there is poison ivy present. I get that 1) this is a NATURE park and 2) poison ivy can be difficult to control. But I still thought it was a little odd to spend the time and effort putting up nice signage, when that time and effort could be put towards getting rid of the stuff. These officially signed areas are right next to a couple of fairways, so you should plan accordingly. I was fortunate that none of my tree kicks went in that direction.
Speaking of the end of the course, I was generally underwhelmed by the last few holes. After hole 11 or so, this course really flattens out - and other than the water carry on hole 14 it just felt kind of bland. It's not that there are anything wrong with these ending holes necessarily - they just didn't keep me as interested as the first 2/3 of the course did.
There was no practice basket, and plenty of room to add one!
Road noise from M-20 can be heard throughout the course, detracting from the aesthetic a little bit.
Other Thoughts:
There is a $6/day fee to enter the park, payable at a staffed entrance station. Credit cards accepted!
As alluded to in the review title, I did see two deer while playing this course - despite the fact that I played in the middle of the afternoon.
As of this writing, Deerfield is the #3 rated course in Michigan on DGCR. This course is good but I'm a little bit skeptical of a podium placement. The last 1/3 of the course or so is pretty forgettable other than the one water carry, and I feel there are some pretty obvious things that could be improved like tee signs, etc. I think it's close to a 3.75 rating today, but decided to round down for now. I can definitely see myself returning here in the future, reconsidering, and upping my rating to 4.0 - but not beyond that unless changes were made to address the things I listed as Cons. I would put Deerfield Park more in the company of, say, Northend Riverside Park in Big Rapids and not Flip City, Whiskey Hills, or Burchfield Renegade's Trail/Devil's Den .
I don't mean to discourage anyone from coming to Deerfield Park and tossing some plastic though. This is no doubt a solid course that is worth the price of admission - and with Wildwood also on site, it's a no-brainer for me to recommend this park to any disc golfer within a reasonable drive!
As alluded to in the review title, I did see two deer while playing this course - despite the fact that I played in the middle of the afternoon.
As of this writing, Deerfield is the #3 rated course in Michigan on DGCR. This course is good but I'm a little bit skeptical of a podium placement. The last 1/3 of the course or so is pretty forgettable other than the one water carry, and I feel there are some pretty obvious things that could be improved like tee signs, etc. I think it's close to a 3.75 rating today, but decided to round down for now. I can definitely see myself returning here in the future, reconsidering, and upping my rating to 4.0 - but not beyond that unless changes were made to address the things I listed as Cons. I would put Deerfield Park more in the company of, say, Northend Riverside Park in Big Rapids and not Flip City, Whiskey Hills, or Burchfield Renegade's Trail/Devil's Den .
I don't mean to discourage anyone from coming to Deerfield Park and tossing some plastic though. This is no doubt a solid course that is worth the price of admission - and with Wildwood also on site, it's a no-brainer for me to recommend this park to any disc golfer within a reasonable drive!
4
1
2+ years
Reviewed:
Played on:Jun 30, 2013
Played the course:once
Pros:
Aesthetic- Beautiful park. Multi-use park but most of the area where disc golf is, it's exclusive. In some areas some sand volleyball courses are in play.
Teepads- Dual pads per hole (except #1?) offering unique looks at each basket. there are some places where the shorts are way more forgiving than the longs and vice versa
Routing-- super easy, no map required. enough "next tee" signs to choke a clown ( please choke a clown! they're creepy!!) Paths are nicely worn in the event of signs missing but there are many many access roads that cris-cross this property that could make it extremely trick to navigate here... there are a few baskets that could use maps to know where to throw (#2 comes to mind)
Baskets-- Innova baskets, nicely visible in the woods with flags where it could be tricky.
Teesigns-- nicely present on all holes but no maps. could use maps in a lot of places where the throw is blind.
Teepads- Dual pads per hole (except #1?) offering unique looks at each basket. there are some places where the shorts are way more forgiving than the longs and vice versa
Routing-- super easy, no map required. enough "next tee" signs to choke a clown ( please choke a clown! they're creepy!!) Paths are nicely worn in the event of signs missing but there are many many access roads that cris-cross this property that could make it extremely trick to navigate here... there are a few baskets that could use maps to know where to throw (#2 comes to mind)
Baskets-- Innova baskets, nicely visible in the woods with flags where it could be tricky.
Teesigns-- nicely present on all holes but no maps. could use maps in a lot of places where the throw is blind.
Cons:
Risk v Reward- there is risk v reward here but it's mainly in the form of thick thick shule truly punishing errant throws. Keep track of where you're throwing or pay the price!!
Rough-- VERY VERY thick and punishing.
Variety-- someone compared this course to flip city. I have to laugh as these courses are NOTHING alike. I would agree however that this course is very reminiscent of Branstrom in Fremont (Bill designed as well). I do question some of the lengths on the teesigns as being inaccurate though. I would strongly prefer there to be more open holes like #5.
Rough-- VERY VERY thick and punishing.
Variety-- someone compared this course to flip city. I have to laugh as these courses are NOTHING alike. I would agree however that this course is very reminiscent of Branstrom in Fremont (Bill designed as well). I do question some of the lengths on the teesigns as being inaccurate though. I would strongly prefer there to be more open holes like #5.
Other Thoughts:
Got a chance to look at the "wildwood" course which intertwines with the original course. I kind of find it odd that the courses are concurrant rather than separate but time will tell. the course looks pretty sweet. the pads are in and the fairways are roughed in but no baskets are in.
