Quality course with plenty of eye appeal in a nice, clean, well maintained park. Course is located in a section of the park that seems dedicated to disc golf... for the most part.
• Dual concrete tees provide significantly different looks rather than just longer/shorter versions of the same hole
• Good shot variety with a nice mix of fairway shapes and distances. Mostly well wooded with a few open shots. Well-conceived water carry on 14 may not be all that far, but wind can definitely be a factor. Course offers quite a few risk/reward opportunities.
• Elevation: course is draped over rolling terrain. Most holes feature significant changes from tee to basket. Absent any truly monster hills or drops, elevation is an ever-present factor on the first 11 holes or so. Course flattens out a bit toward the end.
• Flags and such employed to help locate the pin on holes where elevation obscures the basket.
• Innova Disctatchers distinguish the original Deerfield holes from the Wildwood course (which overlaps much of the same section of the park). They're easy to find in the woods and help eliminate confusion as to which basket to play to.
• Mostly a technical course, but not quite to the extent of Wildwood. While there are plenty of tight fairways requiring finesse, Deerfield features a few long holes that are relatively (but far from completely) open, allowing you to air it out a bit. Other holes feel a bit more open off the tee, but have well-guarded pins or well-placed trees to keep you honest, but there's no shortage of holes where tree love will come in handy.
• Good signage: color coded tee markers (yellow for longs, red for shorts) provide hole #, distance and par. Abundant use of "Next Tee" signs keep you moving in the right direction. First course I've ever played with signage cautioning you to watch for Poison Ivy.
• Interesting use of timbers, rocks and other materials to intelligently combat soil erosion to keep course looking/playing better for longer.
• Nice benches located all along the course - present on many (if not most) holes.
• Sections of the course provide nice stretches of shade on hot summer days.
• Another quality course on site - more "ching" for your park admission buck.
• Vault toilets located just after tee off on 18, near parking - no running water but it's there should you need to card a deuce.

• Shares much of the same land as the Wildwood course, with several tees for both courses located near each other. Bound to be confusing for visitors, but a lot of thought went into avoiding what could have been a complete navigation nightmare. See other thoughts for more on this.
• Some relatively long walks connecting a few holes. Not really all that bad, but most are fairly short, so the longer ones tend to stick out. Walked over to a few of Wildwood's tees only to realize I wasn't where I wanted to be.
• Hole 2 plays near a volleyball pit - could definitely be a problem if it's being used.
• Not saying tee markes need a overhead map, but a directional arrow would be nice on blind holes.
• Poison Ivy's always a con (even when they put up signs to warn you of it).

Much of Wildwood weaves in and around holes from Deerfield's original course. This has the potential to be a directional dilemma, however, they've done quite a lot to help make the best of this situation:
•Map (available when you pay to enter the park) clearly shows layout of both courses (green for Deefield/Original, brown for Wildwood), so you can see the relative positions of each set of tees at the same time.
• If the front of the tee says "Wildwood" then it's the wrong tee.
• Different color tee markers for the two courses.
• Different basket types (Chainstar/Innova) help establish whether you're playing the hole as intended.

Deerfield Original really is a gem of a course and accommodating to players of all skill levels. Nice setting to play quiet, peaceful round. While both courses are great in their own right, I think Deerfield Original is better balanced in terms of overall shot variety and fairway type, hence I think it earns a 4 disc rating.

$6 a day /car is a bit steep for a single person playing one round, but pretty reasonable for two 18 hole courses. It's a downright bargain if you have some people in the car with you - several parks I've visited charge more.

1) Hole #, Par, and Distance on the signs. This helps in navigation and shot selection. There is no diagram which is always a negative, but most of the holes are visible anyways and I think single basket placements.
2) Excellent effort on the directionals to help guide you around the course. There sometimes were multiple signs directing you to the next tee and there even was a sign pointing you to #1. This effort is appreciated by the travelling disc golfer.
3) Nice Innova Discatchers help with visibility in the woods. I think these are the best baskets for wooded courses because of the yellow band.
4) Very unique idea for a bunker on Hole #2. There is a raised mound, then behind that mound about 6-8' is the basket which is actually a depressed area and then on the other side of the basket is also another raised mound. Effectively you want to get your disc in between the mounds for a drop in putt. The top of the basket is not visible from the approach, but they do have a flagpole above the basket to help with location. It is a little different and some may call it gimmicky . . . but I think it shows creativity and changes up the norm a bit.
5) Although the park has poison ivy in spots . . . they also have signs indicating the locations where the poison ivy is. I think it is extremely important to make the public aware of trouble areas like this . . . although I hope they are working to eradicate the PI too.
6) The variety on this course from tight wooded, to moderately wooded park like holes and even a couple pretty open ripper holes. It is always appreciated when a disc golf course throws just about everything at you, and it is rare to find a course that has everything. This course even has the tough to find water.
7) Dual concrete tees allow for all levels of play. Beginners may struggle but it is a playable course for beginners to see what disc golf can be like in terms of challenge.
8) It's always a positive when I get a hole to throw a roller on . . . #18 and it curled back and actually did a complete 360 around the pole for a drop in deuce. Not every course has the hole for a roller, but this one actually had 2 holes.
9) The long tees really give this course more variety in the distance department, but because we had a long weekend of disc golf we decided to play the shorts. The variety was not tremendous in terms of distance because they were all virtually 1 shot holes, but they went from putter shot to mid-range to a handful of drivers. That is enough variety for me even though the distance isn't huge.
10) Moderate elevation changes on some holes. It isn't anything too extreme, but enough to alter your shots. It sure is fun to throw down the big hills.
11) You need to be able to throw all your shots here. There is a nice variety of discs needed and you need to be able to work the disc in both directions. Couple that with the fact that holes are uphill and downhill it is a true test of your shot making ability.
12) The park is a $6 cost for the day or a seasonal pass is available. This certainly seems to keep the riff-raff out. Fortunately no one was in the booth so we pulled in, I put $6 under my windshield wiper and a note saying no one was at the booth. Lucky for me, no one came to check for the permit and I got my $6 back, but I would say it is worth it if you have a couple people playing. Alone $6 might be kindof steep considering Flip City charges only $1 per round per person.

1) Tee-signs are missing the diagram which I always find helpful. Sometimes it just shows you what the intended routes are, now you just have to figure them out.
2) Volleyball court is right in the middle of the #2 fairway. It could be dangerous if someone was using that area. Other than that the course is pretty solitary but this point is an issue.
3) Poison Ivy in spots . . . I know it has signage but I sure hope they are trying to eradicate it.
4) Dangerous in a few spots because of tees close to fairways or greens. These are things that need to be avoided in good design. While the spots aren't the worst I have seen, they still are worth noting.
5) The rough areas can be gnarly in spots. There is some underbrush in spots that really puts a premium on being in the fairway.

This course was pretty special. It had a little of everything and it was fun at the same time. It was very scenic and beautiful and it was completely isolated from other activities (except volleyball on #2). I thoroughly enjoyed the course and am really happy we made sure to include this course in our plans. It is what I would consider a gem in the middle of the state, so if you find yourself nearby be sure to stop. I would drive a while to play this course though too, and the options of the long or the short tee makes it all the more enjoyable. I would love to come back and play the long tees, I looked at them and it looked like it would be a real challenge.

Gotta say, this is a very refreshing break from CMU's sub-par putt-putt course. Every hole presents a unique tee shot, challenging you from tee to green. It will keep you honest, but at the same time reward well executed shots. The scenery is gorgeous; Michigan woodlands are some of the more beautiful in the country. The pay-to-park keeps some of the "trash" out and the experience more enjoyable for everybody. Number 5 is the holy grail in my opinion, nothing but 500' of grip and rip, right down a sledding hill. If you live in Mt. Pleasant, you would be a fool to not come play this gem.

Definitely bring your deep woods bug spray.

Also, be weary of poison ivy, although the more dense areas are marked off.

Pretty long shot over water on hole 14, no shame in playing the shorter tee there.

If you play after 7 during the longer summer days, you will not have to pay at the gate, although an annual pass will pay for it self really fast if you play there frequently.

I wont bother to give a long winded review because a couple of other reviews on here pretty much cover what could be said. Especially helpful (IMHO) were BUCKETBONANZA with the great hole by hole description ( Ahhhh... I felt like I was still there)and SEANBLITZ25 with a nice addendum.

All that I can add is that we do an every other week travel to a course to play a new or favorite course in the area. After driving 1hour and 40 minutes to play this course, it will be added to the rotation as a new favorite. All of the tee pads are cement now and with the great variety of holes it truly was a great course and lots of fun to play. I agree with bucketbonanza that #13 is a bit ridiculous to play as a par 3. I think that is our own fault (as Michiganders) we always tend to want (at our own confidence losing peril) to play EVERYTHING as a par 3. I played some disc golf down South for a summer and they play the (actual) pars called out on the courses. Hole #13 IS actually called out as a par 4- 500 ft for the yellow (long tee)on the sign so....

Aside from that, the course was not very busy which made for smooth flow. Traffic that was faster, played through the larger groups and was out of the way quickly.

The only thing I could maybe go with for a con was that the tee pads were quite slippery from being sandy and there weren't any brooms for sweeping. We just used our towels to "dust off" the pads when needed.

To the disc golfers that like fun and challenging courses:

If you're in the area go play it.

To the fellow "travelers":

Go play it, its worth the travel time.

This is a great technical course with a couple of long open holes to stretch the arm.
Park ran course but primarily a DG exclusive course.

A few blind shots, so if you play solo keep an eye

Great park & rec site, so bring the family and make a day of it.
Go ahead and knock me for the "piss-poor" review, but I like to keep is short and simple!

Excellent variety of shots; distance, elevation, water hazards, and technical shots. Fun to play through twice using both sets of tee pads. Beautiful park to have a course in.

Tee pads and $6 fee. A couple spots have a lot of poison ivy, but at least there are warning signs.

Deerfield Park offers some great play and diverse terrain. Elevation changes abound and variety is abundant. Players have plentiful opportunities to exercise their shot making abilities as pin placements are well varied throughout. The course also makes use of a "true" water hazard in that a body of water must be traversed in order to make the simplest approach to a basket. Navigation is easy and directional cues are widely visible throughout as well as distance and directional signage at each tee. Two perfectly poured tee pads are present for each hole offering long or short starts to each hole. The course is well kept and clean, yet still offers a rustic wild feel that sets a great tone. Distances run between 190 feet and 515 feet with varying difficulty which allows most players to play within a comfortable zone without having to manage huge distances to make par. This course is a great walk and a great play over some fabulous land.

The first hole takes you on an uphill journey over a dirt fairway lined with trees to get things started properly. Two makes use of a blind hole with a severe dog leg right over grassy land. An American flag on a long pole reveals the position of a basket that is located in a depression past a volleyball court. The third hole is again a blind shot over one grassy hill and down a another. There is already great use of landscape right from the jump. Fourth hole is up hill and leftward again on grass. Quite a bit of variety. After a nice walk through a bushy labyrinth the fifth hole emerges and reveals a giant grass fairway and the longest hole on site. A grip it and rip it dream that caters to all styles as long as they include decent distance and a modicum of accuracy. So far, this course is greatly entertaining and wildly diverse! Hole six is another blind hole utilizing an American flag on a long beacon pole, again great use of hills. Holes seven and eight are your requisite tight wooded technical skill shot holes through narrow gaps with pines waiting to belt your shot into difficult positions off the open sand fairway. These holes are possible instabogeys and may cause the first hiccups in a previously smooth round. Nine is another valley shot similar to number five but more wooded and with a few scattered bushes to serve as obstacles on the way to a leftward basket. Ten is a return to the tight pine lined idea of seven and eight. Hole eleven is worthy of signature hole status. A great view and a 400 foot shot to the right over a ravine. Nice. Twelve is the first unremarkable hole on the path. A fairly simple hyzer with tall weeds being the only trouble. Thirteen is another longer style hole that allows a player to pull back and fire hard before commencing into a rather choked off corridor through pine rows to the basket. This hole gives you a view of the pond that comes into play on fourteen. Fourteen is about 300 feet over a pond from the long tee. This hole inspires a safety look to determine where a safe approach lies. The basket lies within pines about 100 feet from the water's edge. A great hole. Another worthy signature hole. Fifteen is another leftward shot that is open up front and narrows down into another pine forest. This course has great variance. Sixteen and seventeen are shorties through tight pine rows again with poison ivy adding to the headache. Eighteen leads back to the parking area and requires a RHFH sidearm shot to negotiate trees that block any straight path to the rightward bucket.

Cons are minimal. I am hard pressed as a reviewer to find anything wrong with this course. Digging deep only dredges up the possibility that hole thirteen is an overly hard par 3 as it ends through a very tight grouping of pines after requiring a substantial tee shot and it is borderline unreasonable or unfair as some would say. Apart from this hole, skill will guide a player.

This course requires a six dollar day pass for your car or an annual car tag. Disc golf is no extra charge, but be aware that you need cash to enter the park. I was greatly impressed with this course and I am surprised that more people haven't boasted it up because it is really solid. I wish it was closer to my home because I would be delighted to have the option of playing this on a whim. There were few people out there taking advantage of this great park. I appreciate that having to pay to play keeps riff raff out and the course is pristine. Play this course. It is worth a drive.

Epic hilly mostly wooded course with a few long open holes and a shot or two over/by a small lake.
Major elevation by state standards. New so it's not overgrown or too rough. Mix of hole types ranging from 200ft flick shots to 500+ downhill is nice.
Long and short tees.

- Bad, large gravel small and packed in tight tee pads (soon to be replaced with cement*)
- RHBH biased, several holes don't have a lefty/sidearm route and/or shot off the tee due to trees close in front of the pad forcing an akward approach to the shot.
- Severe poison ivy on 3/4 of the last holes, complete with warning signs no holes should have been built there.

With new soon to be cement tees it will be nicer.

Great scenery. Course is well set up and easy to navigate. Alternate tees if you feel like trying for an ace on some of the shorter holes. There is a lot of trees on some holes and that makes it challenging. Lots of different types of shots

Tee pads and having to pay 6 bucks a day.

Makes Deerfield almost an entirely new course. For people who thought that Deerfield was too hard, this will make it so you have a lot more fun. Turns par/bogey holes into ace runs.

Dirt pads are still a bit mushy and a tripping hazard. Park Staff are out daily adding dirt and rock to, and tamping down, the tees.

This addition to the park makes the 20 dollar yearly park pass even more desirable. It is truly like having two courses in one.

I really thought this course was easy to navigate through, easy to find the next hole. I really like the signs. This course had a wide veriety of shots, tricky, narrow fairways, long drives, dog legs, uphill, and downhill.

The pads were a lil short. I wished the signs showed the layout for the hole. Slight hazard of losing a disc on hole 14, good disc placement will be key.

All in all this course was great, I really liked hole 2 with the dog leg to the right and the hole tucked behind a hill in a lil ditch (very cool hole placement). Hole 5 was a 515 par 4 that you can really let your disc fly. I also really liked hole 14 by the water, this one was a lil more tricky. This park is real nice and maps are available at the gate when you pay for parking, or you can get them online and print them as well. This course is also only like 10 minutes away from central michigan university disc golf course.

This is a very interesting and well designed course that played really nicely given that it is still in its infancy. The course layout was very well thought out, utilizing most of the terrain changes in the park. Accuracy is challenged throughout the entire course, beginning immediately with a long, narrow, wooded uphill on #1. Hole #11 will have you considering all sorts of shot options with its elevated tee box, low ceiling, and narrow fairway, but it seems that a roller may be the throw of choice here. Hole #13 with it's long S-shaped fairway and basket hidden in the pines, flirts with the edge of the pond on the property while #14 gives you the option to throw over or around the end of the same pond. Shot variety included plenty of uphill drives and putts, downhill drives, left, right, and "S" shaped fairways, and open fields, pine rows, and wooded holes were all pretty evenly represented. Basket placement on holes #2, #6, and #14 was incredibly creative while the big, wide open, downhill #5 offered a great chance to really let 'em fly and distances from 190 to 515 feet kept you guessing!

The trail was well marked with plenty of nicely done "Next Tee" signs. Footing on the trail was exceptional with hard packed earth in some places and wood chips in others. Course layout kept side-by-side holes far enough away from each other that errant shots from neighboring holes didn't appear to pose a problem (except for #13 and #14). Fairways were well maintained and the rough was surprisingly light - we spent very little time searching for lost discs.

*** Update 9/18/10 ***
The new cement pads for both long and short tees and the added signage around the course has really put some polish on this gem!!! Seriously.....this one is well worth going out of your way to play!

Finding the correct parking lot and first tee proved to be a challenge. I have updated the course info with better directions to the correct parking lot. Once in the parking lot, follow the small sign and the wood chip path into the edge of the woods, then make a sharp left to find the first tee.

Tee signs were nicely done with hole number, footage, and par, but they lacked any mention of directionality which proved to be a pain for a first-timer. The course map is now available on the Links tab. The map shows #2 as being a straight shot, but it actually requires a shot toward the closest right corner of the volleyball court, then it's a very hard right into the opening in the woods, over the small hillock in the clearing, then down in the ditch. Currently, a small US flag marks the top of the basket.

<span class="strike">The gravel/sand/clay combination tee boxes were nicely done but will require more traffic and lots of maintenance to really pack down for good footing. Rain both last night and today meant they were muddy, loose, and pitted when we played.</span> Cement pads have been installed all around!

Besides the DG course, Deerfield Park includes a nice sandy beach, several shelters, horseshoe pits, volleyball courts, grills, and nature/biking trails. It's a great place to bring the family and hang out for a day. All of the numerous outhouse-style pit toilets have been spotless every time we've been there.

The $6 fee is for a vehicle pass for the park. Annual passes are also available. If you forget to print and take the map on the Links tab, ask the attendant at the park entrance for a copy.

I definitely had more fun the second time through since I then knew my way around. Beginner and mid-level players, be prepared to use every possible shot you know (and probably some you don't know yet, too!).

*** Updated 11/29/09 for Alternate Tee Pads ***
Alternate tee pads were added in October, making this a more reasonable course for families and groups of drastically mixed abilities. The new pads are made of the same tamped clay/gravel as the main pads, are easy to find, and make each hole MUCH easier.

All the alternate pads offer either a dead straight or a slightly right curving, almost completely unobstructed shot at the basket, and all but 2 shorten the distance to the pin by at least 80-100 feet.

I think the new pads are a great addition for families and beginners, but, as an intermediate player, I was disappointed that their placement really eliminated the challenge and unique flavor of each hole. I'm a big fan of shorter distances for weaker arms, but I much prefer it when the alternate tees keep the challenge factor on a par with the main tees. In this case, the alternates change the entire feel of the course, and not in a good way :-(. It's sad that the short tees by-pass all the features that make the holes on this course so amazing. That said, the distances from the alternate tees are much more realistic for beginning players, and, in general, the alternate tees are a great addition for a course of this difficulty.

*** Update 9/5/10 ***
Both long and short tees now have cement pads that are smooth and level. Drop-offs on the end of a couple of pads have been reinforced with large rocks embedded in the dirt. Additional "next tee" signage has been added between a couple of holes, and a scorecard box has been installed on a post at the course trail entrance. New signs around holes 15-18 warn of poison ivy in the heavy rough....be aware that it's also on the fairways and trails although they are keeping it well mowed so it may be hard to identify.