+Multiple tees and multiple pins+Variety of lengths and shapes+Rolling elevation changes+Water hazards and OB add challenge+Fairways offer multiple routes and risk/reward shots+Well maintained+New Mach VII baskets in the long positions

-Having multiple pins out simultaneously could confuse new players or provide an obstacle on an errant shot-Muddy conditions at certain times of the year like all of the courses at HBH

The epic gem of the complex. Demanding, fair and tons of fun. If you have time for one round at Highbridge or are looking for the most bang for your buck, this is the absolute choice. Playing long tees to long baskets, shorts to longs, etc. provides so many opportunities for different shots and new feeling holes on the same course. Variety of terrain, length and shapes also adds to the enjoyment factor. Legitimate par 4s, attackable 3s and a killer uphill par 5 to wrap up the round at the top of the hill. Many holes provide multiple fairways and several different options for getting birdies or bogies when you miss your line. The (one of many) signature hole(s) 9 comes to mind. Take the scenic route around the marsh or show off your arm and go over in one? At several points in the round, you will find yourself looking down at an ideal hole. Change in elevation, mature trees playing defense and carving out lines, thick rough on the edges, crystal clear ponds, impossibly murky swamps and several ways to attack, all in one, many times over. On a Sunday in the spring, during that one final round before heading back to civilization, our group ran into the property owner working on hole 7. We lauded the courses and the work that had been put in, telling him everything was looking great. He smiled and said thanks, but told us not to look left. On the left was a snapshot of the past- an idea without execution. Turn around and you\'re back watching the execution happen. The word to describe this course is epic. Highbridge has harder tracks and you might even think another is more fun, but it\'s hard to beat the combination of elements Granite Ridge provides. It is easy to envision big trophies being played for at this course. The jewel on top of the crown.

Granite Ridge uses scenic vistas and epic downhill drives to create a long arm paradise chock full of memorable holes. The host venue for Nate Doss' 2007 Pro Worlds victory, Highbridge features five primary courses on-site, plus a bonus campground course used primarily for glow rounds. The five courses on the hill are the main draw, with each one unique enough to showcase a different flavor of the richly diverse land. Granite is commonly identified as "the open course" at Highbridge, but open doesn't mean obstacle-free. Most of the wooded holes at the complex are tight off the tee, but then open up once you reach the fairway. On Granite, there's more room to launch from the pad and bite off a bit more distance. You'll still have to rely on careful shot placement, particularly on Par 4 and Par 5 holes, but this is the one course on site where bombers consistently have the ability to air out their tee shot. Many holes echo the initial ball golf conception of the property and play downhill drives, which adds to the long arm appeal. Elevation change is omnipresent here, and affects nearly every shot, whether subtly or (more commonly) dramatically. My personal highlights include Hole 12, a downhill placement drive to the mouth of a beautiful, tightly wooded fairway and green, Hole 14, a multi-route hole that rewards both a perfect placement shot or an absolute crush over swampy lowlands, and Hole 18, a brutally long uphill monolith that never seems to end, but when it does it leaves the player with a lingering sense of accomplishment that lasts long after the round.

All of the courses at Highbridge are beautiful, and even the least scenic points on the property blow away most other routings by a country mile. Granite features some incredible vistas, especially on Hole 7, the Hole 10 green, and the top of the Holes 9/12/15 teepad hill that dominates the topography of this course. Hole 18 features the same view as Blueberry #17, albeit not quite as dramatically. One of my favorite points on any of the Highbridge courses is the aforementioned Hole 12 green, which is especially tranquil and pleasant.

There's a single set of concrete tees on every hole throwing to Mach IIIs in good shape. Tee signs on Granite are some of the better ones at the complex.

Assuming you can find a golf cart that works, Granite is a ridable course. I prefer to walk, but riding would probably save a lot of strength and time.

When you put aside all the drama and nonsense surrounding Highbridge, which are a con unto themselves for most (see other thoughts), there's really only one complaint that stands head and shoulders above the rest - Highbridge's inferior maintenance. It's a roll of the dice if the grass will be mowed on any given day, and tree trimming & rough control appear nonexistent. To make matters worse, Highbridge is approaching a relatively advanced age (14 years for most of the complex) where decisions should be made regarding tree removal, which will almost certainly never happen. When the courses are maintained, the level of maintenance is usually inversely correlated to its difficulty. You may come across an open fairway that's been mowed impeccably, only to play to a soggy green with waist-high grass. In all fairness to John, taking care of five courses with limited help is a rather difficult task, but that doesn't change the fact that unfinished mowing and trimming is a gigantic headache for us players. Depending on the status of the maintenance when you play, a course's rating could fluctuate by as many as two or more discs. Timing your visit to coincide with the intermittent mowing is just par for the course here. The Highbridge Hills - Wisconsin forum thread on this site is extremely helpful for providing detailed course condition updates.

The tricky maintenance spot on Granite is the gorgeous Hole 12 fairway and green, whose marshy ground and hip-high weeds can only make the player wish for what could have been. This is one of the coolest spots on the property, so it's especially disappointing to see it overlooked just because it's a challenge to mow.

Granite doesn't boast the same variety that Gold and Blueberry have in abundance, which makes it slightly less enjoyable for me. You might feel the smallest bit of redundancy after throwing yet another 400-650 foot mostly open hole. That being said, this is a pretty severe nitpick - you're still going be enjoying yourself immensely.

With more twists and turns than a telenovela, the saga of Highbridge Hills has captivated golfers in the Upper Midwest for years. Regardless of where you fall between the two extremes of "John is a con artist" and "John is a harmless dolt whose reach exceeds his grasp", it's hard to visit here and not be charmed by the ramshackle enthusiasm of it all. Sure, it'd be great if a competent management team took over the complex, maintained it to perfection, and charged $20/day in greens fees to play what is probably the greatest collection of courses at a single site in the entire world. But where's the fun in that? Up here, disc golf still feels firmly tied to its DIY roots, as one man tries to hold it all together with chewing gum and string. Even as people (including myself) complain about the neglect of these world-class courses, it's important to remember that this version of Highbridge holds value as well. If you're looking for a true frolf adventure, Highbridge is the best place to find one. For now, it's best to enjoy what we have and hope for better days down the road.

Granite is a popular minority opinion for favorite course at Highbridge, and it's easy to see why. In my mind, the sum of its parts falls just short of Blueberry and Gold, but the best of Granite definitely matches or exceeds the best of the other two. This one's a drain, but it's the most rewarding exhaustion you'll ever feel.

Being from a much less wild area of the Midwest, all I wanted on my first visit to Highbridge was to see a bear in nature. I was hopeful, but ready for disappointment. My group played Granite first, and after throwing my approach on Hole 2 I heard a loud crashing coming from the woods. I look up just in time to see a small black bear come somersaulting out of the brush and into the fairway. He looked dumbly at me before trundling away down the path to Hole 3. So not only did I see my bear, but I saw him on just the second hole of the entire trip. Granite delivered!

PROTIP: Check out the Springfield Tire Fire-sized collection of rubber to the left of Hole 7's fairway, one of the most quintessentially Highbridge things to look at on the property.

Another of the 18 hole gems at Highbridge Sports Complex near Highbridge, WI.

Mach3 baskets, all in decent enough repair and mounted well. They're what you'd expect, and work well enough. Multiple pin positions, but like all the courses at HBH, I don't know that they get moved very often.

Concrete tee pads, long enough, grippy enough, and solid. A few are showing their age (a Highbridge theme), but I don't remember any that I felt bad throwing off of. One tee per hole.

Granite Ridge is just another superbly designed course. When you're staring at each hole for the first time, you get a sense of openness, but once you throw it, you get a feel for all the intricacies of the design. Baskets on hillsides, bunkers from the old ball golf course, strategic trees, occasional water...it's all there. What Blueberry is to tight, wooded golf, Granite is to strategic obstacles avoidance.

Oh, the elevation. Pretty much every hole on Granite has some sort of elevation play, with many having pretty extreme rises and drops. Hole 9, with it's huge swamp on the right that forces you to think about that big bomber shot is a great downhill shot. Then you immediately get kicked in the head by a long sledding hill type uphill on the next hole. Granite also features what might be the most screw-you finishing hole I've played. 754' of straight uphill hatred. You know, because after a long round of up and down, what you really need is a 754' hole that plays like 1200'.

My favorite thing about Granite is the variety and plethora of lines available. It's pretty amazing that almost any range of arm power is accommodated on this course, on a hole by hole basis. It's just open enough to invite different lines, and just closed enough to laugh at you when you miss them. Hole distances fluctuate all over the map, with a handful of solid deuce runs, several placement par 4 type holes (hole 12 is such a great hole!) and everything in between.

Navigation is pretty simple. New signs are great, but even without them, it's pretty tough to get turned around here.

Oh, and if that's not all enough, the views on Granite are probably the best on the property. Neat.

As with everything at Highbridge, Granite could use some maintenance. A few of the holes could use some pruning, it can always use some mowing, and the tee pads are showing their age.

One set of tees isn't great, but I never feel like it's a big deal at the Highbridge courses, because of the plethora of options.

I love Granite, and even though Blueberry is probably a touch better as an overall course, this is my favorite to play at the facility. I dream about throwing hole 9 when I'm not there. Granite boasts a handful of holes that would be signature holes on any other course. You can also combine Granite with some of the other course onsite to form hybrid courses, which is kinda neat if you get bored of the regular designs (spoiler: you won't).

I wanted to rate Granite as a 4.0, but it's just so FUN every time I play it. Let's go now! Seriously.

It's difficult to rate any one course at Highbridge on their own merit, but Granite stood out to me as the best of the best here. As far as the course condition, everything was well groomed and clean. What little trash we saw outside of the garbage cans was fresh and not sitting around forever, so we simply picked it up and took care of the course along the way.

You can rent and use a golf cart on Granite (and Gold) if you choose to do so! We didn't, but that's a big plus for a great experience that you won't get in most places. There were a lot of functioning carts available, so if you want to get in more rounds without getting gassed, it was entirely possible.

The teepads are mostly in good condition, There are maybe a couple of rough ones, but nothing that would pose a safety risk. They are plenty large enough to use for whatever shot you are shaping off of the tee.

The course play was very fun! Everything was on the long position and the challenges here are more than just raw distance. The first part of the course forces you to choose the right line through the woods our around trees and bushes. It opens up a bit through the middle, but there are very few "hyzer to the hole" open type shots. This one plays up and down elevation and utilizes it well. 9, 12, 14, and 15 all end up using the same hill for either the basket or tee, but it's in no way crowded. There are some water obstabcles (pond and marshes) as well as a creek, if it's full. The pond comes into play on 6&7. Don't underestimate how large it is! That splash sound off of the tee is still haunting our group.

At the end oft your round, which is such satisfyingly good disc golf, you are faced with one last challenge of playing back up the hill. It's a great feeling to beat the hill, too. Stay focused and a 4 is entirely possible!

There's really just some updating / maintenance needing to be done. If the cons were fixed, this would be an easy 5* course.

- Tee signs are in disrepair. Some are functional, but most need to be replaced.

Recently played it memory not good. Out of the three coarses that I played there. I thought granite ridge was slightly easier than blueberry hill and the gold coarse being most challenging.I though coarse was very well designed made great use of elevation and for most player they would not have a problem getting off tee and advancing there disc.At other times accurate skill shots were required.

After reading some of the other reviews the coarses could have better signage throughout coarses to help lead a new person to next tee

Variety - this course gives you almost verything, tight long fairways, a few shorter open shots with a few trees speckled around the fairway, uphills, BIG uphills, downhills, BIG downhills, and quite a few nice open holes to let em fly on

Equal left, right, and straight shots, and a few long ones which wind left and right, and have multiple direction changes that flow well, not obnoxiously just for something different

Signature holes - there are a few. Number three is an interesting one, one I've yet to encounter a similar one elsewhere. You're first shot is down a 100' ish steep downhill, with a narrow landing strip. At the bottom it has a blind right angle, which stretches about 300' along a nicely manicured fairway. You're first two shots must be perfect placement shots, to have any chance at the scorecard's posted par 3. Number 7 is offers a more gradual downhill, much more wide open, but with OB water to the left, so you cant just mindlessly cannon one out there, you've got to think. After your first placement drive, you have another long fairway drive to get near the wide open pin. Number 9 shoots down another steep hill, w tight trees around the first opening. Any decent flat or hyzer RHBH shot w an overstable disc should get you good placement here. Dont turn it over though, there's a swamp to the right.
Number twelve offers a nice open bomb for about 200-250 feet, but then enters a narrow woods fairway with trees interspersed throughout, I truly enjoyed the variety on this one. 17 and 18 are tough ones; 17 is a long pipeline where only the straightest drive with good distance will get you any placement once the fairway opens up. And of course 18 is, like Blueberry's 17, the long grinding uphill, except this one's a par 5.

Beauty- holes 7-11 offer the most gorgeous and pristine disc fairways I've seen to date. Long winding, rolling hills with short grass and a few trees here and there. You can launch some bombs here, but the trees are placed perfectly so you must still have a little strategy to your shots. This part of the course is a nice change up from the narrow lanes that are found everywhere around Highbridge.

Concrete tees, DGA baskets, decent signage

Course can get a pretty mucky, especially near the beginning and end, but not usually through baskets 7-11

Hole 15 - this hole felt so out of place to me. Aside from one maybe 10 foot wide opening in the leaves to the right, which is very low to the ground, it seems as if you are shooting at a huge wall of trees, with basically no lanes - you cant see through at all with all the leaves. It may be designed specifically for tomahawks, but I am not a huge fan of it

Lile other Highbridge courses, some of the signage is currently missing - bring a scorecard

This is my favorite course I've played to date. The combination of beauty, challenge and fun factor are unmatched in my opinion

Granite Ridge is like the big brother of Blueberry: a little bigger, a little tougher, a bit less clever, but still from the same lineage. The course is about 10% longer than Blueberry, but you'll feel it.

The first seven holes gradually play down the hill, and these feature some of the more wooded holes.

Hole 3 has a drive across a thin land bridge with danger on either side to a difficult landing spot. I only trusted a thumber here off the tee. After the drive the hole opens up into a wide fairway. I respect holes that acknowledge your drive doesn't have to be your longest shot.

Hole 7 is one of my favorites at Granite: a downhill open shot that looks deceptively easy, but a fade will leave you in a huge pond that isn't very visible from the tee (careful with this one), and turning it over will put you in the woods. Looking back up the fairway from the basket shows the beauty of Highbridge with water, elevation, and gently curving, sculpted fairways.

Holes 8 through 14 play up and down and around the same hill at the corner of the property, and it is one of the more physically exhausting parts of the complex. Both times I played I had my hands on my knees on the slow walk up hole 10's rolling fairway that almost certainly used to be a golf fairway. There are some fun holes here for sure, and the lengths alternate nicely so there are some birdie opportunities next to legit par 4s.

Hole 18 is one of the more epic finishing holes I've seen. It is over 600 feet uphill the whole way. It will take a full drive to get beyond the tree-lined fairway before you curve right and heave a couple more drives up before getting to the green protected by some sporadic trees.

Granite Ridge shows off Highbridge's smart use of trees. It demonstrates that you don't always need a forest to impact design; sometimes a small grove of trees or even a smattering of sparse trees can subtly impact your lines (you'll realize this when you don't pay attention and end up just inside one of these areas). For this reason (among many others), I think the replayability of these courses is super high: each time will teach you a bit about your landing zones.

Navigation wasn't bad, but it seemed a little tougher than some of the other courses. You'll want to have the scorecard/map with you.

All of the courses here have at least some issue with tall grass off the fairways (not on the fairways; the mowing was pretty impeccable when I was there), and Granite Ridge seemed to be a bit worse than the others. There were plenty of holes where I drifted off the fairway, spotted my landing area, but still spent a minute or two looking. On hole 9 my bright orange disc ended up in some tall golden grass, and I spent over 5 minutes looking. Searching for discs is as exhausting as the steepest hill. This nuisance tarnishes what is otherwise some top-notch design, beauty, and challenge.

As with all the courses here, you never knew which position was in use. The second time is more fun as you remember which route you want to take.

Same as the other courses at Highbridge, the tee signs are mediocre. I wouldn't trust the distances shown if it makes a difference in your disc selection (I think they underestimate the true distance). Some are faded and difficult to read. If you care about playing all the tee positions, and I don't, they weren't always obvious.

The degree of overall difference between Granite Ridge, Blueberry, and Gold is fairly small. If you like any of them, you'll probably like all of them, although they do emphasize slightly different skills. I'm not sure that Granite Ridge isn't the best test of overall skills at the complex, and it's absolutely one of my top 10 courses.

-Great Variety of shots and holes.
-Lots of elevation changes. Some up-hill, some down-hill, some level.
-Minimal water in play but there is some.
-Hole length - seems to be a wide range of different lengths on this course.
-Abilities utilized - This course seems to require the use of almost all tricks in your arsenal. Each hole seems to have its own character, with few holes reminding you of another on the course. Looking at pictures/reviews from Flip City, this clearly isn't a requirement from most reviewers, however, seems to give the course more challenge.
-You will not be able to just step up and throw an uncontested shot directly at a basket on this course on hole after hole. You're either dealing with length, trees, wind, elevation or your own consistency as your enemy on this course.
-Fun to play at all skill levels I would imagine, however, beginners could get overwhelmed on a few holes.
-well maintained course. Grass has always been mowed nicely, which says a lot considering the owner (John) has a ton of acreage to keep up with out on these grounds with 5 playable (and awesome) courses up and fully running.

Wind - although I like factors making a course a challenge, every time I play this course there are those 3 middle holes of like 9, 10 and 11 that seem to always have the wind blasting. I'm no pro but feel like I have a good grip on the game but the wind on 10 is just treacherous every time I play it over the last 3 years.
My preference for a course is short, ace runs, and highly technical, typically in a heavily wooded area. That being said, I also know that is not most discer's preference. This course definitely tailors a bit more to a stronger arm than mine for the most part. This is just picky and strictly a preference of mine.

Highbridge Hills sports complex is second to none. I haven't traveled all that far but have hit and looked at a ton of courses on this site and honestly, it is hard to get excited about much of what else I see on here because I compare everything to my experiences out at Highbridge over the last few years. If anyone can tell me where else they can sleep in the middle of (in my opinion) 5 solid top tier courses while utilizing carts, a hot tub and fully functional house to drink beer in please let me know where it is. Granite is 1 of those 5 courses and is my second favorite course to play on the grounds. Has everything but more water in my opinion. My favorite is Woodland Greens, which I know most who have been out there with would disagree, but once again, I like highly technical, short courses and Woodlands does it for me.

Wonderful scenery, an abundance of wide open holes requiring a variety of shots. Uphill/downhill, hyzer/anhyzer, short/long, etc. Sharing a property with six other courses is a big plus that has to be factored in. The view from the tops of several hills is spectacular. Fighting the wind was a fun challenge that I don't get at many more wooded courses.

The signage could use a lot of work. There were at last 4 or 5 holes where I could not see the pin from the tee, and had to run the fairway to find out which position the basket was in. I eventually stopped looking at the very faded signs because they list as many as six possible distances, with the scorecard sometimes offering a seventh distance that matched nothing on the sign. My mistake, because I lost a disc in a pond that presumably would have been marked if I were still looking. There are a few places that sorely need arrows pointing to the next tee as well. The fairways crisscross each other, creating a non-obvious sense of direction if you are new to the course.

This is a great layout, and has the potential to be one of the very best courses in the world. It's slightly disappointing to see the crew working on cutting out three additional courses when they don't seem to have the staff to maintain the seven they already have. Hopefully when all 10 courses are installed, some of the polishing work can begin.

Does a property with 180 disc golf holes really need so many alternate basket locations and layouts?

Gorgeous views, gorgeous holes, nice cement pads, you get to drive a cart, brings every shot in your bag to the table multiple times. Basically everything you would design a disc golf course to have is here. Long holes, short holes, left turns, right turns, open bombs, tight gaps. This is a great fun course.

Layout is kinda goofy, couple spots where the signage is unclear, or you have to cross a different fairway to get to where you need to go. Especially bad with the carts in a few spots, if the course got busy this would be a serious problem. Was bad enough to dock the score by half a star.

If you haven't done Highbridge yet, then you are not giving yourself the greatest Disc Golf experience you can get. Seriously the courses here are all top notch.

Pros- [The Complex]- There are presently 5 complete 18-hole courses, with 2 more still being constructed. I like the fact that the courses are designed to be at varying levels of difficulty (hardest-> Gold-Granite-Blueberry-Woodland-Chestnut <-easiest) so if you come and play them all you will have a well-rounded experience of both challenging ¬skill-testers and more relaxing, fun rounds. Each course has different colored baskets that correspond to the course's name. The courses are set on an amazing piece of land that is huge and contains many natural features that are ideal for disc golf (open, woods, elevation, and ponds). The land is dedicated purely to disc golf and is so isolated that only disc golfers will be here, and chances are you will have these courses all to yourself. Huge props need to be given to the course designer for placing all the courses where they aren't on top of each other, each has its own character, and individual hole design is very creative and well-done. John, the owner, is very nice and loves to have people come and play. He works extremely hard on the courses and on the facility as a whole.

[The Course]- Granite Ridge is a moderately challenging 18-hole course beginning in the woods for a few holes and then opens up onto land that used to be a golf course of the same name. There is great diversity in hole length ranging from ace runs and birdie opportunities to legit par 4/5 holes. There is a great deal of elevation in play here both up and down (maybe the most of all the Highbridge courses), but there are many holes that are flat also. There are some ponds and marshy areas in play on several holes.

There are several risk-reward tee shots- (example, take the shorter route by throwing over the corner of the pond, or play it safe in the wide landing area, but making par much harder to get.) There was a really cool tee area on top of a hill that contained tees for 3 different holes, would be a good area for spectators during a tournament. Also, on a few of the longer holes there were an alternate shorter tee and on some of the water holes there was a drop zone tee.

[The Course]- Like much of the complex, the first 6 holes through the woods needed mowed badly, however, the rest of the course was not as affected by the lack of mowing, and to be fair John mowed it all night long (yes all night!) after we played it and it looked amazing as we drove by it when we left. Navigation was pretty easy, but there were a few spots in the open holes where next tee signs would have been a nice bonus- maybe when it is mowed there are clear paths?

There was a good balance of the number of wooded and open holes, but instead of a mix, there are several similar style holes in a row getting from the pro shop out to the old golf course area. (This had to be done in order to keep all #1 tees for 6 courses in the same general area.)

I thought the course tended to favor RHBH, unlike Blueberry, Gold, and Woodland.

[The Complex]- Can be summed up in two words- trashy and incomplete. The land is beautiful but is littered with junk and trash and numerous unfinished projects. And then add on top the most important thing of trying to maintain 5 courses while building 2 more, but nature is easily overtaking things. John is fighting a losing battle with an unpaid staff of 2 that can't complete the things that are already here while simultaneously trying to build more stuff. Things appeared to be breaking faster than they could be fixed. The campground was trashy and smelled of raw sewage in several spots. The Honka House has a lot of potential but the pics of the outside don't tell the whole story- inside it is missing basics like drywall, outlet covers, lights, etc. and seems to be used as much for storage of junk as it is for housing guests.

[The Course]- This was my favorite of all the courses at Highbridge (yes, even over Gold and Blueberry) as it had the mental challenges like you find on the Gold course, but still had the charm, fun, and accessibility to non-pros like found on Blueberry. I am not usually a huge fan of disc golf holes that are more open and have wide fairways, but something about this course made it a pleasure to play. It actually gave me a ball golf feel with it mix of par 3's and 4's. Also, this is one course where you can rent a golf cart, but it is not really necessary, and not recommended.

[The Complex]- If you like lots of holes and very rustic lodging then you will love it here. If you have high expectations of well-manicured courses and hotel-like lodging then prepare to be disappointed. John's mission is noble as he wants people of all ages to enjoy the outdoors and has plans to have 7 courses, as well as numerous other activities, but he does not seem concerned with creating a first-class disc golf facility. He dreams big, but appears to have bitten off more than he can chew. Highbridge needs manpower, but does not have the advantage of disc-golf loving locals or park workers that most other courses have. Other private courses don't either, but are usually only 1 course, not 7, and much easier to maintain!

Best Course in my opinion in Highbridge. That's saying alot because that place is loaded with great courses
I'm a sucker for elevation changes and this one is one of the best I've ever played.
A little tougher then Blueberry, with better elevation changes but not nearly as tough as Highbridge Gold, Highbridge Gold was beyond my skill level
Like every course at this complex it is built on great land, part open, lots of hills, and the wooded courses have well defined fairways
Every kind of Shot you could want.
Well taken care of, mowed and clean
Great staff
Lots of camping with great people
If your worn out from several days of Disc Golfing you can rent a Golf Cart

Bears, I didn't see any and I'm told they're harmless. But just knowing they were in the area made me paranoid. I'm an experienced camper but never in bear territory.

It takes a whole day of driving for me to get there

Highbridge hills is amazing. It doesn't boast my all time favorite course but it is definitely my favorite Disc Golf destination. Lots of courses on site and the staff is beyond great. (They will even stop by your campsite when your not around and put wood on your fire so it doesn't burn out) You'll meet lots of other cool and interesting Disc Golfers while your there and if your a person that enjoys camping that's great, but if your not you can stay in the Bunkhouse. Shower facilities are on site as well.

I thought Granite beat out Blueberry. I know there are many people who will disagree but I think it's that good. That's not a knock on Blueberry either because I thought that one was top notch as well.

The fairways in the wooded holes present a challenge but they're not too tight, they are cleared out and pretty wide.

It's got some great changes in elevation and even the open holes mix it up and require some thought.

Anyone who loves Disc Golf road trips needs check out Highbridge. There is no other place like it. It doesn't matter how far the drive is, it's worth it. Make sure you set aside a few days because you'll never be able to hit it all up in an afternoon. I really hope I get back out there one day

This course is the most open of the Highbridge courses (excluding Chestnut Grove), and plays on rolling grassy hillsides for most of the course. Great elevation is in play on nearly every hole, with long and short holes uphill and downhill for a ton of variety despite the scarcity of major obstacles. This also makes for great views, and will force you to deal with the wind more than the other courses here.

In spite of the open nature of the course, it does a great job of forcing different shot shapes with some tree and brush areas, and a couple nice water hazards, so you'll definitely need to shape some drives to score well here. When the woods or trees are brought into play, they add another level of difficulty to the course and mix it up enough that it doesn't ever get boring.

This course has the usual basic Highbridge signs, and enough next tee signage that it's not too hard to follow the course. The tees are great concrete tees with plenty of texture. The baskets are in great shape and catch well. The scorecard and map are accurate and helpful. This course ranked 4th for me of the courses at Highbridge, and was still a fantastic and fun course, a testament to how wonderful this place really is.

There is more of the long grass rough on Granite than on any other course, and I'm not a huge fan. It wastes time and plastic, without costing strokes for most errant drives. That said, the fairways were mowed wide enough that reasonable throws were on short mowed grass and easy to find so it wasn't a huge deal.

The signage on this course was pretty basic and faded, it would be nice to have a better idea of the hole layout and distance and which pin position was currently in use. Granite does less to punish inaccurate shots than Gold does, so it's a little less challenging and interesting. It also plays down by the roads a little, taking away from the wonderful feel of seclusion.

This is another must play at the amazing Highbridge Hills disc golf complex. Though it wasn't my favorite on the property, it was a fun round and a course I would certainly love to play again. If you have a chance to go to Highbridge, take it, and play Granite while you're there.

Beginners will find the course long and tough, especially on a windy day. More experienced players will be tested by the elevation changes and winds, and will need to bring distance and shot placement if they want to score well.

Long, well done tees as on all tees at HB. Multiple tees and pin placements.
Opportunity to air it out.
Benches in abundance.
Perhaps best views on property.
#18 probably the signature uphill hole of the property.
Swamp hole, probably the signature water hole of the property (not counting island hole, which is usually dry).
More relaxing than Blueberry, and much more relaxing than Gold. Even though this is a fairly long course, it can scheduled in your play plans, as a bit of a relaxing course. This is, of course, relative, and you wouldn't be saying this anywhere else.
Pins blocked well at the finish on most holes.Obstacles to negotiate near pin.
Lots of elevation; but very little (except for #18) feeling that you're climbing hills for entire holes. Some finish uphill; but this blends into the hole as a whole.
Rollaway greens. These did not seem severe, but they are present on a number of holes. I think the taller grass helps cut down on rolling. Many of these would be considered severe if the grass were kept as short as most public parks; and this will probably be the case for tourney play here. (Grass on fairways was not tall; but just a bit taller than you are probably used to. Makes a difference on rollaways and skip shots.)
Use of parts of Granite for alternate layouts (Granberry and the Crown).
As with all courses here; a few signature holes.

Tee signs here list no lengths. No indicator as to which pin is in place. (Many of the holes are long enough that you can simply drive to what is the obvious direction of the hole; but, you may not see basket for another shot, or in a couple of cases, two.) Pin placement indicators would be a welcome addition.
Navigation perhaps the worst of any of the courses. Not that it's a big issue; but maintenance at Granite seems to be the poorest of the courses on site. This includes fairway cutting as well. Again, not bad; but others maintained better. It is perhaps the length that causes this; as gold and granite are both long courses with maximum cutting needed. The "style" of both courses may also dictate more expansive rough areas. Directional markers are here on Granite, but are sometimes a bit misleading, and/or there should be a few more to help you out. It's not like you get lost, more like, is this the correct long tee?
There are more "plain" holes on this course than others on this site. Gold forces more precise landing areas to have the right line to the pin; Granite is a little more lenient in this regard. You still have to think where you want to be; but, the landing areas are less precise.

I guess here is where I need to add some personal observations from my last round here; bear with me for a bit of a ramble: Score came down to making putts most of the time here. If you can hit 300 ft. on your drives (two drives on a number of holes here); and, then make a fairly precise upshot to these protected greens, or, a deuce putt on a few; your score will be based on whether or not you've hit your putts. Now, I understand that this is THE MAJOR part of the game anyway (making putts), but, to me, this course, more than any other here, will be won by the hottest putter. Really, what this means, is that blue level players will need to make a few putts at the edge of the circle (jump putt range), to score well.
I had originally listed much of the above in the cons section (because, obviously, I did not have a very good round with the putter; and, felt that had I had a good putter round; the course would have played easier than gold or blueberry (noting that I drove better on Granite than Blueberry). Upon further refection, I have decided that a course should not be considered weak because of my shortcomings. Fact is, I made good drives and quality upshots on most of the holes, and am simply a bit bitter about the putting.
THE FACT THAT YOU MUST MAKE TWO, OR THREE, GOOD SHOTS AND A PUTT; should be considered a big strength of a course. I am sure gold level players like Granite as much, if not more, than Blueberry.
To sum this part up; gold requires more proper placement of drives for angles, and tougher upshots, and blueberry requires more shot shaping. Granite is kind of a middle ground between the two.
I really want to point out one more time that one of the best features of the High Bridge complex, is the opportunity for players of different capabilities to have options for course play.
I had originally planned on giving Granite a 4 rating; but after thinking all of this through; decided that was based on myself being a blue level player; and that top blue level, and gold level players will find this course to suit their needs wonderfully. Therefore, with that consideration, I've upped my rating .5.
Just for the record; I thought I had single digits over par in the bag; but took a 4 on #17 and a 5 on #18; to end at +10. Missed three deuce putts and too many putts for three. The 4s just kept adding up; with no positive deuces. Should have done better; this type of thing will keep you coming back to these wonderful courses.

Like all highbridge courses, great concrete pads, signs and alt pin placements on every hole. Great scorecards/maps as well. Also like the other higbridge courses, this one is well manicured without being overgroomed, rough hewn from a chunk of the northlands.

Like the other highbridge courses, this course excels at late trouble, carefully kinking the fairway into a tunnel shot or throwing up hills or trees around the pin. Because this course is often more off the tee than TB, WG & BH, this late trouble is more noticeable, both when its there, or in its absence.

This course, as do all the others at Highbridge, embodies a particular aspect of the game: distance, so it helps to compare it to the other ones a bit.

Now, this is not like, wide open stupid distance, aka field distance. I mean relative to its neighbors, this course is relatively less wooded and rewards controlled distance with some less risk relative to reward. On The Bear, Woodland Greens, and most of Blueberry Hill, you feel like you are shooting down tunnels carved in the woods, with some ceilings, but not here. On this course, the trees are not all-encompassing on either fairway, but usually more of a patchy feel, dodging clumps of trees vs walls. I think this is because this course seems to run through more of the old ball golf fairways, now hilly swathes of sparsely treed passages peppered with sand bunkers and lakes.

It keeps it technical, but lets you unleash the hounds a bit. This course has some very nice terrain on it. Amazingly, it feels like there tons of downhill drives, but very few uphill ones, which is truly a testament to the course design. It lets you rip it downhill off the pad, but usually it will throw a patch of nast OB to one side or other, or something quirky like a deceptively steep down/crosshill shot.

Shot placement is key, and with the open fairways in play, wind can and does become a factor here often.

Another bonus is that with the added D, it gives more opportunities for lovely par 4s and 5s that we dont see at the city parks. The distance is good, because you will need it to play some placement golf to squeeze out the occasional 3 on the par 4s, or even just to make par on several of the 3's, many of which are still quite long.

Personally, I am biased towards more technical courses, but this course is still a blast to play and really won me over.

Of all the courses at Highbridge, I think its the most scenic, for all the wonderful hilltop panoramas of the wisconsin countryside. There are benches in place to enjoy the view by several of the tee pads, even a gazebo skeleton at a critical place between two pads.

I love the chances to crush it on this course, the challenges it throws at you, but for a course so well designed, it does seem to have a few rough spots. There are some nasty patches of OB on this course, and the shule less under control than on blueberry. This can be annoying and lead to lost discs and time spent searching.

Heres a list of the SPOTS TO AVOID
On hole 2, the trees off to the right can be tricky to spot a disc in, and no fun to shoot out of.

On hole three, about level with the line of trees off to the right, there lies a nasty little marsh that eats discs like crazy. Even after we lost one there the first round, it ate another disc the next round, despite trying to avoid it. So, have a spotter down below, or steer clear.

On hole 7, watch the pit to the left(assuming the lake is usual size), tough to find em in that hillside or down below. Also watch for poison ivy on the hillside. Not much but its there

On hole 9, the swamp is like the Beast's yard from Sandlot. It goes in there, its gonzo. Plus, as we discovered, there are bees and probably sasquatch living in that thick pile of soggy shule, so dont even think about venturing in after it.

Still shoot over it, just be aware of the risk.

Other than that, not too many surprises here.

I am partial to more wooded courses, and feel like this course rewards distance more than accuracy and shot-shaping. It still counts, but if you cant break 350, this course will really push you to get par. Its doable but not easy.

It seems like at places this course uses OB in place of water. As above, some of the patches are kinda nasty for such an amazing course, but I guess the idea is just don't go there, so I understand.

Though the holes here are all good, and several holes, off the tee especially, are wow holes, to me at least there is not quite enough variety here to outweigh the few rough shule spots and still be a 5.

Also, the signs do not have screws to mark current pin placement like on BH, so judging D is sometimes not a given.

Frankly, this may be my least favorite course at HB, but thats like choosing between chocolate and rocky road ice cream. No losers there.

This is a more tiring course to play, almost on a level with Gold. Bringing extra water and some snacks would not be a bad call.

Granite adds distance to the course and looses some of the trees. All in all, that's a con in my book. You probably get more elevation at granite than any other course at highbridge so use it wisely and cherish it as well if you like throwing downhill. I like the 'multi-use' elevated tee area for three of the tees here. There is a spot where three holes share the same elevated tee 'mound' where you throw from and then play a loop of 2-3 holes and make your way back to it to throw from a different direction. There are some amazing views to be had at granite. It is a great feeling to rip discs from an elevated tee and watch them float toward the pins below. The design, as mentioned in other reviews, is such that although the most elevation is probably on granite, it doesn't feel like it. Until you throw uphill 900' or so on #18 (the most brutal hole 18 anywhere). Granite offers elevation, woods, water hazards, terraced greens and tees, and amazing views.
Hole #3 is a very memorable rip downhill with a picturesque view.
So, you get woods, huge elevation, water hazards, other OB, technical holes, and long rippers - all the elements of an amazing course.

As far as scenic beauty though, granite is the least beautiful of all the highbridge courses. It lacks due to location because it shares fairways with both of the main roads to the top of the hill and the county road past the hill. So, you lose the feeling of being secluded and lost in a disc golf paradise as cars and tractors drive by. But, those roads are also OB, so that extra element of course design is a plus. I don't prefer distance over accuracy, and Granite adds a LOT of distance over blueberry but loses all kinds of need for accuracy because the elevation is used for this course and not the wonderful woods on the hill. Gold actually has more wooded holes than granite, so don't let all the hype about distance on Gold fool you. Granite plays something like 8000'+ as well for 18 holes. Despite Granite being described as an open course, it is not stupid open like throwing across a field like so many lame courses - Indian Creek, Pinecrest, Cato Falls, etc). Even the wide fairways are flanked by untamed woods, ravines, water, roads, and other unfavorable and OB design elements.
The signs at all the HB courses are beginning to suck because they are all faded out and you can barely read the distance. (And lack of GREAT signs at a disc golf complex is a huge pet peave of mine and I should knock points off the rating). Plus, a marker system needs to be added to them to show which pin location is in play. On Granite there are a few holes that have another tee (not one of those Granberry tees) which seems like the long tee that we play during the round, but the tee sign is on the shorter tee, and then there is an even shorter crushed rock tee in places. Better and more permanent tee signs are a must.

While this is my least favorite of all the highbridge courses, the experience as a whole is balanced out when playing every courses here over a weekend many times. Then and only then will you get your shot at redemption on a hole, but also get the true feeling of variety and wonderful design. HB will fail to fully impress visitors because it is rough around the edges and attention to detail is lacking. Items like navigation, great tee signs, garbage cans, etc are missing here so the city boys and country club players will fail to rate these courses as 5's. While on the whole I might partially agree with that assessment as well, once you've played all HB courses more than once, and you see the amazing design and variety, and the contrast and compliment each course has is amazing as each course fills a niche.

Granite Ridge is the most open of all the Highbridge courses. The first few holes start at the top of the hill and stay wooded, but eventually give way to the well groomed open area. Just because the course is more open than the others here doesn't mean you can just open up and let it go though. There are several water hazards, small swamps, bunkers, well placed trees, and length to make it a championship course. The course has it all including elevation and beautiful views.

It can be a brutal play on a windy day. Hole eighteen is 600+ uphill. It's a great hole, but can be a difficult hike if this isn't your first course of the day. I know that it's necessary by design to finish back at the top of the hill by the pro shop, but it's not how I like to finish a round.

All of the courses here really do a great job of complementing one another, and not making a day of disc golf seem repetitive.