Lake Arvesta Farms is an outdoor recreation complex located near South Haven in southwestern lower Michigan. The property features kiddie water slides and other waterpark activities, a beach, a restaurant, pickleball courts - and for some reason, a championship level 18-hole disc golf course.

The main feature of Lake Arvesta Farms DGC is the same as that of the property itself - water. There are two holes that require water carries for all layouts, two others where longer water carries are very much encouraged, and five more yet where significant water hazards are in play for the more difficult layouts (both on the right and left sides of the fairway). That means that a full half of the holes have water to work around. My favorite hole was #5, which requires a carry of varying lengths from about 200' to 350' depending on layout. I was reminded of a similar hole at Maple Hill (I want to say it is #8). Overall, there is a pretty good mix of holes here. The course trends more on the open side than most Michigan courses, but there are still some obstacles to work around on every hole and a couple of tightly wooded fairways to work through. There are plenty of clearly staked OB areas as well.

This course really stretches out the distance and now has three different layouts available. The original layout that was the only one when the course first opened a couple years ago is now the White layout. This layout would fall more at a blue difficulty level on most courses, with hole distances averaging around 490' and ranging from 206' to 868'. The Blue layout here plays more like a gold layout, stretching that average hole distance even further to 600'. More recently, in what must have been an attempt to make the course more accessible to the average visitor a Yellow layout was installed. This Yellow layout is still a respectably difficult course, with three relatively short par 4's and only six holes shorter than 250'. As alluded to above, even this short layout has quite a few water hazards to contend with including the two water carries that I'd put around 200' each. This review is based on one round on the White layout, then a second one on the Yellow.

You'll either love or hate both the starting and ending holes here in particular.
- To reach hole 1, you'll climb up a huge man-made hill where they are currently installing a putt-putt course. The White basket is down the hill and some 580' away. What's in between? A lake. From about 200' to 575' off the tee is the lake, which is likely also man-made. The Blue layout adds another 100' on the far side of the lake. The Yellow basket is off to the left near the shore of the lake and only 270' away. You'll also lay up well off to the left if you can't handle a 580' downhill water carry. This will definitely be the most memorable hole for most players.
- Hole 18 is an artificial double island hole. It plays 303' total for all layouts. The first island is about halfway to the basket and both islands are maybe 30' around.

The tee pads are great. They are large, and made of that extra grippy concrete stuff that looks sort of like gravel, but is fully solid and flat. Many of the pads are circular. One per hole. The tee signs are also great, with a hole map plus distance/par to all 3 baskets.

The baskets are Prodigy models, color coded with the three locations per hole. There are flags (also color coded) on the top for extra visibility. A few holes have the same basket for 2 out of 3, or all 3 layouts and this is clearly indicated on the tee signs. Lots of elevated baskets or precarious pin locations add extra challenge.

There are several practice baskets located around the main multi-use area. Scorecards are available in the lobby. Benches can be found at every tee. Trash can and water bottle filling stations are positioned at a couple of strategic locations around the course, although the water bottle fillers were empty when I visited. There is a restroom at the lobby and a porta potty at the back of the course.

The lake in play on hole 1 is technically multi-use, so you'll need to avoid any kayakers/etc. using the lake. The island used by #5 and 6 looked like it sometimes functions as another public beach area (maybe on weekends? Or generally in the future?). If there were people using that beach, #5 would be a dangerous throw.

The elevation changes are pretty minimal once you get past the first hole, although there are a few other holes where the terrain slopes sharply for certain areas of the hole.

Obviously, the risk of disc loss here is pretty high with all the water in play. I griplocked a drive on hole 10 and immediately knew it was hopeless. I wouldn't recommend even the Yellow layout to any disc golfers who can't throw about 225'-250' with accuracy, as there are so many water hazards and also huge walks between holes (it's clear that the Yellow layout was an afterthought so you'll often basically just walk 300'+ up the rest of the White/Blue fairway to find the next Yellow tee).

The navigational signage here is strange. In some areas, the number of little white arrows pointing towards the next hole is almost excessive. Yet in other areas, many more arrows are needed.

The double mando on hole 13 is way too tight and felt gimmicky. Fortunately, it only applies to the Yellow layout.

Some areas were pretty muddy when I visited in mid summer (e.g. holes 3 and 12) and it looked like they would be even more muddy at wetter times of year.

The place overall definitely still has an "under construction" vibe. In some areas grass had not been planted yet, so I was basically playing over barren dirt/sand. In other places, construction equipment was scattered around and construction materials were stacked between fairways.

This course has a cost of $10/day to play. You pay in the lobby on site (credit cards accepted), and will need to sign a waiver form when checking in. The course also has limited hours, so check the website for current information prior to visiting.

This is a good course for sure, but definitely one that is more appropriate for the big arms. As a not-big arm, I honestly couldn't decide what I thought of it. Mainly, it just seems like such an odd design choice to have a course of this difficulty at a place otherwise geared largely towards families with small children. The water park was jammed on the beautiful summer Friday that I visited, but I was only the fourth disc golfer to sign in all day some 3.5 hours after the place opened. I ended up playing holes 8-18 of my first round with the fifth guy to sign in, and we agreed: Why not put in a really easy putter course that would be more accessible to all of the small children and families visiting the property?

I think it's possible that I would consider a 4.5 rating if I were to return here someday and everything felt fully finished/dialed in a bit more. That said, I'm honestly not in a hurry to return. Like Jukeshoe said, the place kind of felt soulless. Just odd. I enjoyed my time here, but at the same time kind of didn't enjoy it - in a way that is hard to quantify and not something that I have felt often in my 200ish courses played.

All that said, I have to conclude that this course mostly works and is well maintained so I'm glad it's here. And I don't mean to discourage people from playing it. Objectively, I wouldn't plan a trip around JUST playing here - but it's definitely worth checking out if you are anywhere near the area!

- 4 pin placements per hole. Short, mid, "one" and pro. Have to say that a lot of pin placements are brilliant. Almost too many to mention.
- Water comes into play here...a lot.
- The tees are some sort of permeable pavement and round. I like the concept of round tees.
- Awesome water park facility on site. Bring the family and whoever isn't interested in disc golf will surely find something else to do.
- As swampy as some of these areas are the bugs weren't horrible.
I - f you can throw 400'+ on a frozen rope you are going to absolutely love the challenge here.
- It's hard to compare this place to anywhere else I've played. Also the holes are very unique. No two are alike.
- Brand new Prodigy baskets

- I realize that this is disc golf and I should expect to walk but holy crap this place is ridiculous if you're not playing the pro layout. I played the mids and those are roughly 6500' and my phone told me I walked 4.3 miles.
- If you're a MA3 or lower player you're not going to enjoy a lot of these holes. Gets a little tedious hucking a disc as far as you can 2 or 3 times on many of these holes.
- 18 is unbelievably stupid. A 300' two island hole is just out of place here and smacks of putt putt golf.
- Did not care for the double mando on 14. It's way too narrow and I am of the opinion that mandos need to be used sparingly. These are clearly here just to make the hole more difficult and create scoring separation. I'm all for scoring separation but I think putting the pin in a different spot would be a better option. Plus the 2 big white boards really detracts from the scenery.

Don't get me wrong, this course is a brilliant design but this clearly designed for MA1 players and above. I am definitely not the target audience and I am fine with that. Unlike the course designers I cannot produce 920+ rounds on a consistent basis and will likely never will. Also, note that if you're going to charge me $10/day my expectations go way up and that is reflected in my rating as the course sits currently. Once complete, I'll play it one more time and adjust my rating accordingly and then that might be the last time I ever play this place. If I am going to drive out this far I would rather go to Shore Acres play for free on a challenging but more reasonable layout for a more pleasant disc golf experience.