Pros:
Grand Rapids Rotary North DGC was donated by the organization that it is named for. The course is located at Grand Isle Park, which is set well back from the road and backs up to the Grand River. Currently there appears to be some construction going on next to the park, and possibly as a result of this there is no roadside sign for the course or park. Trust the GPS pin location here - the entrance is easy to miss.
The course is flat, low-lying, and mostly open. Signs throughout the course inform you that some of the areas in the rough are wetlands that you should do your part to try to preserve. The fairways are mostly cut pretty wide, so hopefully you don't have to wade into the cattails looking for discs (see Cons). Even though it's pretty open, a few well-placed trees create additional challenge and the need for shot shaping on some holes. Holes 5, 8, and especially 14 have challenging water hazards to navigate around, and water could come into play on errant throws for many other holes.
As others have said, hole 5 is probably the most memorable hole here. It's a 650' par 4 that begins with about 250' of fairway straight ahead with the wetlands on your left. Then it kinks sharply left across the wetlands on a narrow isthmus and opens back up for another 300' or so to the hole. Bigger arms could try to throw out across the marsh and clear the isthmus to land in the second fairway on their first throw.
The course appears to be well maintained. Each time I have played here, the grass had been recently mowed and the trash cans were empty. The baskets are Arroyo Vortex models that honestly look kind of ugly, but they catch well. The tee signs are quite nice, showing an accurate layout of the hole as well as hole number/par. Tee signs for holes 13 and 14 were missing when I played, but will hopefully be replaced soon. Each tee sign post has a small trash can hanging on it. There are picnic tables at or near many tee areas.
Cons:
The tee pads here are made of an unusual material. I think they are large metal plates. Some are not well set into the ground so they are a little bit unstable to walk on. I also found them to be pretty slippery and stopped taking run-ups after the first couple holes. The course map shows short tees on some of the longer holes, but I did not see these at all.
The rough here can be very thick (think cattails, etc.) and lines the fairway on a majority of holes. The "water" is also covered in algae (light green and opaque) - I would not take a dip in it. Between these two factors there is a chance of losing discs on almost every hole. I would definitely not recommend this course to beginners with control issues. After a lot of rain or in the spring, this course could be pretty much flooded and unplayable.
The course is quite flat. Most fairways are wide and have only a couple of obstacles - a few have no obstacles. Other than the water hazards, thick rough, and a couple longer holes there isn't a ton of challenge here.
The tee signs and map uploaded here show a few sand traps (like you would find on a ball golf course) that are supposed to be played as OB. Unfortunately these have "grassed in" to the point that it is difficult to tell where they are on the course. On many other holes there is OB marked on tee signs, but difficult to tell where it actually is located (e.g. because you are playing through the middle of a field).
There is no practice basket here, although the course does open with an easy 300' hole that is signed as a par 4. There is a kiosk at the parking lot, but the course map uploaded here is not currently posted on it.
There are "Next Tee" signs on pieces of cement dug into the ground in many places. These are nice, but unfortunately I think they are missing from some of the holes where they are most needed. Some of them are also installed a little too far from the basket in my opinion - easy to miss. Overall, navigation isn't horrible but will be easier if you use the map here. There are a couple of places where it's difficult to determine what basket to throw at: The first basket is the one on the right of the two you see, and the third basket is not the one you can see from the tee but rather behind the hill off to the right.
A large number of waterfowl call this course home, so you will have to navigate around the droppings. Honestly this is just something you should expect playing this kind of course, in my opinion. When I played there were also some red-winged blackbirds to look out for near holes 3-5.
Other Thoughts:
The course map uploaded here shows a 9-hole route where you play holes 1, 8-14, and 18. This isn't the kind of place I would come if I only had time to play 9 holes, but to each his/her own.
This course stands out as unique for the area. There aren't many 18 hole courses around West Michigan that are this open, and very few with this many water hazards. The closest comparison that comes to mind is Paw Paw Park in Holland. I think this course is less interesting/challenging than Paw Paw but the rough isn't quite as bad here.
I waffled between giving this course a 3.0 or 3.5. In the end I went with 3.0 due to the teepads and signage concerns. If those things were addressed I'd probably up my rating to 3.5. I think the designers pretty much maximized what this course can be on the land available. It's a fun round for locals, but it doesn't belong in the top tier.