The drive that I took into the park was a kind of interesting one, with a drive on a gravel road leading into the park. before coming upon a pay booth. You pass the booth, and then drive into the park, before you come upon a well defined disc golf parking lot.

The first hole is located right into the woods, and is a tight par 3 through the woods, with most of the holes after that being mostly open, with well placed trees to force lines and different shots.

Every hole has at least two tees, with most having three, with a concrete white and black tee, with a natural, albeit well kept, red tee. Tee signs are well made, with a nice map, and all the necessary information.

Navigation on this course is completely intuitive, and if it wasn't absolutely obvious, there was a sign pointing you in the right direction.

This park and the course are completely beautiful, with a great amount of work being put into the course, a lot of beautiful mulching, and the fairways are very well defined and cut.

There are only a few things that make this course not perfect, but I would very easily recommend to everyone.

First, I believe that the rough was very severely punishing in certain places, and a spotter will be needed a good amount of times, and losing a disc is very possible. This seems to be a common theme in this area.

The baskets were Mach IIIs. and they definitely spit out a few putts that should have gone in. With the cost to enter the park, new baskets can be afforded if they are wanted by the local club, but for now they are sub-par for the course.


I think this course was executed very well, but there were no signature holes, at least nothing that stood out greatly, and with all holes being par 3s, the need for placement shots, and long, grueling holes were not in play.

I believe this course was executed very well, and it would be a very common play for me if I lived in the area. The out of town price of ten dollars is certainly worth it, and with two courses on site, you can make a full day of disc golf at Independence Lake!

Well-maintained course. Bright orange, new baskets. Decent tee signs. Scenic setting. Secluded and exclusive land. Very friendly locals. Ample parking and porta-pottiy. Good course flow.

$9 fee a bit steep. Course flow gets a bit confusing in spots. Rough is extremely dense. A bit out of the way.

The drive off the freeway to get to the course was far longer than I expected, and on some unpaved roads to boot. But the park itself is like an oasis. An oasis that costs $9 for non-residents of the county.

I happened to meet the course designers when I got there. Along with the rest of the locals I ran into, quite a friendly bunch.

The course itself has a nice variety of hole types and challenges, from technical wooded to long bombs to curves with elevation. You can tell the course was designed by disc golfers.

Overall the course flowed well, but it got confusing in a few spots. I wasn't the only first-timer to think hole 13 was hole 4.

The A-F holes were decent but if you skipped them you would not be missing anything.

The park itself was quite scenic and quiet. The course is on land exclusive to the course and it's great to be out in the seclusion throwing discs.

The course takes advantage of the slight elevation and rolling hills. Holes are challenging without being difficult or frustrating. You'll need a variety of discs and throws.

That said, the roughs are extremely dense and thick. You could easily be searching for hours with an errant throw on a good portion of the holes. As a road-trip player passing through, I ended up playing with my putter and not doing anything risky.

The course has a variety of holes with unique personalities, but nothing in the way of a signature hole. Still, a nice mix.

DGCR indicates a 3.5/5 rating as "Very Good", and that's what Red Hawk is -- a very good course. The average rating of over 4 is a bit overinflated. I considered giving it a 4, but the truth is that I left the course and immeditpately began to forget it.

While it was an enjoyable round, and might exceed the other courses in the area, it just didn't hold up to other courses I've played around the country. I played this and Hudson Mills on the same day of the road-trip, and would highly recommend Red Hawk over Hudson Mills.

That said, at $9 a day I don't think I'd play here again if I were in the area.

- 1-18 offer Black (Pro) and White (Am) cemented tees with BROOMS!
- 1-18 offer Red woman's tee
- Almost every tee has bench / broom / garbage can
- Course is professionally designed

- Very very rough roughs
- Roughs = poor / zero maintenance
- The entire course is COVERED in poison ivy
- The extras don't have cement tees
- The extras aren't very challenging
- Costs $9 to get in

When I played this course holes 13-17 were under construction. I didn't let this affect my review. The course is challenging and fun but somebody needs to take care of the poison ivy issue.

I love this course i live 5 min from kensington and i play this course more then any other.
A wide arrange of shots Great for a Drivers dream.
Well maintained and great friendly players that are regulaurs as well.
Hole design is fantastic and well played everytime.

Very few that are ever a game ruiner, truthfully almost a great time everytime i play.

Iv'e played boh summer and winter courses here and many others around michigan, not only a great fun course but a beautiful park and wildlife is very frequently seen on the holes. Truthfully had to wait 15 min for 3 deer to clear the hole before we could continue playing.

mix of small elevation and flat, some tree obstacles. nice new baskets. tees marked with orange cones.

course was dry, even after 4-5 days of rain. a definite plus!!!

course is large enough to keep holes seperated.

all of the holes have tall grass and brush. must keep your eyes open. some fairways are a bit tight (10ft wide). kind of confusing to find the next tee.

the walks from basket to next tee are on the long side, but its not a con for me, just fyi.

water comes into play on two holes (one small swamp pond near basket/fairway).

nice large DISC GOLF PARKING HERE sign. course has some mosquitos and bees. a few picnic tables and trash cans too.

lookout for freshly cut stumps and a few gopher holes to trip you up. wear pants as the raspberries and roses are still out, not to mention the poison ivy.

no one at ticket booth the last two times i've been to independence lake, so i have not had to pay for park entry fee. ymmv.

Many long field shots with punishing rough for throwing wide, mixed with a few shorter, but never easy, deuce opportunities. Some narrow hardwood tunnels.
Long tees really challenge a pro to break par, short tees fair and cleaner for ams.
Balances out winter "Picnic" layout perfectly.
Score variation will be high.
New white layout is harder than before, and sadly the new black layout is not as good with #16 being a weak reachable yet not park-able hole.

- Many blind tee shots, lots of discs will be lost, hard to watch it fly.
- Lots of poison ivy, more than any course in the region, and probably won't diminish over time- wear pants.
- Park entrance fees always a con i.m.o, but this is the same as Rolling Hills so at least now it's double the value and worth buying.
- Short tees seem like an afterthought, thrown in after the layout.
- Long walks between holes, not laid out in a logical pattern.

- Still keeping it at 3.5 stars even with cement tees now due to extreme poison ivy (though I love this course and will be there in the fall/winter) I literally cannot play it in the summer until someone does something about some of that ivy PLEASE.