This course takes my vote for the best in the Ann Arbor area. It has something for everyone and makes great use of the available land. Particularly good use of elevation which is at a premium here in SE Michigan. Very well maintained baskets and a general sense that the place is being managed the right way.

If you go: definitely play the A-F loop! It contains some of my favorite holes and is an excellent addition to an already great course.

In the summer the rough can get pretty intense, but that's just more incentive to keep it on the fairways! The only other "con" I can think of is that when I first played here the path where holes 3/4, 12/13, and the A-F loop connect can be a bit confusing. There is signage- be sure to read it or you might tee off on a hole you did not intend to play yet.

The only reason I didn't give this course a perfect rating is because I've only played 10 or so courses. I know there's a lot of baskets to throw at in this wide world of ours but Independence Lake is the best I've played so far!

• Triple color Tee pads - great for variety and when playing with multiple people of different skill sets.
• Very isolated and clean - For the most part I felt that I was in nature, not in a city park.
• Brooms at every white tee.
• There is a lot more here than trees and grass, if you take the time to look.
• Good variety of holes, lots of fun different shots. Many holes have multiple routes.
• Very close to CJ's party shop and two other fantastic courses.

• A couple holes have blind tees, must scout to see where you are throwing... unless you trust the tee signs.
• On a hot summer day, the water park nearby can be annoying with children screaming.
• The only thing missing, in my opinion, is a downhill shot to compliment the 2-3 upshot holes.
• Can be costly for our of county residents @ $9/Car

This was the fourth course my wife has played and by far her favorite. I remember her saying "This was the first time I enjoyed it all the way to the end". This was mostly because she was able to throw from the red/beginner tee while I was throwing from the white tees. She felt like she was competing and not like she was slowing us down. We both really enjoyed this course.

aesthetic-- plays through a DG exclusive area of this VERY large county park. a lot of other activities offered here including a water park and beach along with a lot of others.

Teepads/teesigns- How I wanted to hug thee. the teepads are super nice, appropriately lengthed and grippy. small brooms are clipped to the back of the teesigns on nearly every hole. the teesigns are pretty impressive. on each teesign the black, white and red tees are pictured. both the black and white have teepads, the reds are marked with wooden blocks painted bright red. also, there is a little easel to update score cards.

Routing/navigation-- easy peasy. plenty of "next tee" type signs litter this course. in the one area where routing could get tricky, there is a multi-directional sign pointing to hole 4, hole 13 and holes a-f. there are also paths cut in the grass..

Challenge/ risk v reward/ variety- this is this courses strongest point. there is a little of everything here, long, short, tight tunnel, wide open, dual fairway, right, left and an equal blend of them all. plenty of risk v reward with the water that is present on the course (may be seasonal water for the most part) This course will challenge your every being from pillar to post and leave you howling for more, more MORE!!

Engineering-- simply amazing the amount of work that has gone into this place with regard to bridges and other dry areas to prevent you from having to get your shoes wet in low lying, frequently wet areas. there are at least 10 woodchip "bridges" that help you cross lower areas.

Uniqueness-- there are several memorable holes here. #1 plays through a very tight tree tunnel with a very natural left fade. hole a-f were amazing and new. Several times, water comes into play.

upkeep- didn't see hardly any garbage. there are picnic tables at nearly all of the tees and garbage cans a plenty.

13-16 being closed-- kind of a bummer really. Would have loved to play all 24 here

natural tees--geez I'm nitpicking. on the reds, the tees are natural. a con for some I suppose

uncontrollables-- bugs and wet. the bugs, even when we were there were pretty bad. flying ants and gnats were constantly in your face. many of the low lying areas either were very mushy or had standing water on them from our "spring" rains.

a great great great course. I really really enjoyed this one...

Great signage
Awesome course maintenance
No litter!!!!
Great mix of holes and I'm a sidearmer. There is a shot on every hole. It demands some creativity, but you are rewarded handsomely for execution.
The designers have taken every element that golfers would like to see on a course and implemented them to a fair thee well including well lined walks between the holes, awesome baskets, well placed picnic tables, trash cans etc.

Crappy roads to the park which are sometimes treacherous in the winter or after a a stretch of wet weather. That's not relevant to the course except for the pain in the butt it is to get there sometimes.

Play here often. The full course won't be available to play until sometime in 2013 because of a project to ease drainage from holes 13-16 but the extra 6 holes make this a great 20 holer for the time being. It's a shame too because hole 16 is one of the best holes on the planet. This course was made for real players in the same way that Idlewild, Blockhouse, Deer Park, Flip City and DeLaveaga were and the care that the designers took to make this course what it is reflect it.

The course has a lot of long holes. Its a challenging very well kept course. They just added 6 new extras

It gets a little wet in the spring, But not to bad. There's not a lot of bad things to say about this course.

Great course

* Long, medium and short tees for 1-18
* Concrete tees for long/medium grass tees for short fpr 1-18
*Color print out map on tee sign for every hole at long/medium tees
*Tee signs include elevation height and warn to send spotter when needed opn 1-18
* Long/Medium tee signs have a broom at every tee
* Near Whitmore Lake but situated in a large park amongst farms, feels isolated, but its not
*Only $25 in county for a year pass that also works at another top notch Washtenaw Co course, Rolling Hills.
* Even if you don't have the year pass when the weather is not conductive to people using the beach they will often not charge for park entrance (This is most common in fall, winter, and early spring when the picnic course will be open across the parking lot as well)
*Great mix of wooded and open holes
* Course is on a relatively flat piece of land but makes superb use of the available elevation changes
* beautiful, large, old trees
* 6 newly added extension holes with short/long crushed limestone tee pads are situated so that they can be played after hole 4 or after hole 12 giving you not one but two chances to play them in the middle of your round (I like to play the extensions twice here
*Extremely well maintained
* There are hiking trails through the course but this is one of my favorite courses so I play it often and have never once seen a hiker out there.
* The only time the course is crowded with discers tends to be on league day which at the time of this writing is Saturday
* Lake with a beach in the park, sometimes with lifeguard and a splash zone.
*Bathrooms by beach
*dedicated disc golf parking lot
*picnic tables on course
*NO boring or repetitive or uninspired holes
*Short tees are relatively easy while long tees are highly challenging and from different angles

*biting flies in the summer
*there were drainage issues last year on some of the holes that are under construction right now (with the drought they probably would have been fine this year but have been boggy during wet weather last year)
*holes 13-16 under construction until nov 2012
*5/9$ for in/out of county cars (but you can also use your day pass to play Rolling Hills)

Even though 13-16 are down for now with the 6 new extensions there are 20 AWESOME holes that you can play now. If you forget to download a map there is one on the bulletin board by the long tee for hole #1.

This course is now fully planned, developed, installed and DONE (ok so they still need to finish the signs for the white tees, whatev). Concrete tees on all 18 holes, great and spacious course design in a beautiful natural area. Joins the ranks of Southeast Michigan's BEST courses, easily. Clean course with a surplus of trash cans, and some benches. If you litter on this course, you are an idiot.

Hmmmm, cons? I dunno, right now I am loving this course. Lots of areas of rough are straight up thorns, ouch.

Don't come play here. Keep it quiet, empty and available for me. haha.

There is room to expand the course... 6 extra holes would be tasty.