Beast is one of three courses on site at the Mason County Park near Ludington, MI (the others being Beauty and Goliath). It is labeled as the "Intermediate" course here, but definitely presents plenty of challenge to keep any disc golfer interested.

This 24-hole course plays over rolling terrain near the reservoir for a pumped-storage hydroelectric power plant. The most memorable hole here might be the 575' opener. To reach the tee pad you will have to climb a steep hill. At the top you'll be rewarded with a view over the entire western half of the park, and beyond that Lake Michigan (less than a mile away). Water never comes into play on this course, but depending on the weather and wind you may be able to hear the waves crashing in the distance. You'll launch your disc off this tee towards the lake. The basket is located down the hill, across a valley, and up a smaller hill to the left on the other side.

I'm not remembering any other signature holes from the remainder of the course, but the disc golf is solid throughout. The elevation changes range from none to mild to extreme. There are a great mix of distances, from a couple tricky sub-200' shots through tight woods to several more open holes that are longer than 400'. The wooded holes have a nice blend of left turns, right turns, and straight shots.

The baskets are red Chainstar Pros, which I believe is a recent upgrade.

The tee signs also look brand new. They are beautiful - showing the hole layout, distance, par, and even an elevation profile. As a part of this change, the hole numbers have been renumbered 1-24 (previously they were numbered 1-18, with "extra" holes a-f mixed in throughout). I approve of this change - unless "extra" holes can easily be skipped what is the point of labeling them as extra? The signs are mounted to posts which are painted blue, contrasting with Goliath's green posts and Beauty's red ones.

The tee pads are all concrete. They vary in size/condition, but for the most part are adequate.

The navigational signage is okay. I used the map uploaded here a couple of times but overall it wasn't bad. A few more signs would be an improvement.

There is a picnic shelter at the parking lot which has restrooms and a water bottle filler in it. There is also a large kiosk with maps of all three courses on site.

My two largest Cons of this course are ones that I don't think I have had to list yet in my 100+ courses played.

The Goliath course on site plays over the same land as this course. Not next to it, but actually on top of it. 18 of the 24 baskets are shared between the two courses. Goliath is essentially a layout that plays the Beast baskets in reverse order, with a couple exceptions mixed in. This means that on many holes, you could be throwing directly at someone playing the Goliath course - and there are still enough woods here that plenty of those throws are blind. Also, because you are not playing "parallel" to or behind/in front of groups on the other course, it will be much more difficult to be aware of their presence. In theory, players on Beast always have the right-of-way - but how can this rule be enforced, especially when the players could easily not even be aware of each other much of the time? I am docking a full half disc for this safety issue alone. Say it with me: A potential safety issue, is a safety issue!

The other weird issue is accessing the course. The parking lot, along with the kiosk and aforementioned picnic shelter, are inaccessible for about nine months out of the year - anytime before Memorial Day or after Labor Day. This is because they are about 3/4 mile into the park, beyond a park gate which is locked. I have to assume the gate is locked due to proximity to the power plant - the viewing platform for this is only open during the summer as well. Fortunately, you can park in another lot that is near the middle of the Beast (and Goliath) courses, to start your round there without too much extra walking. It's still very strange and inconvenient though.

I have a couple of smaller safety concerns too. Hole 10 (labeled as c on the most recent map here) plays close to a road. Several other holes play near or over the park drive - though I guess this matters less than usual if the drive is rarely open to traffic!

The rough here is thick, and completely unforgiving in many places. It also felt like that rough was intruding onto the intended fairway on a couple holes - and I visited in early November. You could definitely lose discs here, especially in the summer.

I did not see a practice basket anywhere, and there is plenty of room for one near the parking lot. Especially with three courses on site, one or more warm-up baskets would be nice to have.

A couple of the concrete pads were a little bit too small in my opinion. A couple more were in poor condition.

This course costs $1/day to play, which also covers Beauty, Goliath, and even several other courses in the Ludington area.

Cell service here can be spotty to nonexistent. Plan accordingly.

With the course being relatively open in many spots and close to Lake Michigan, wind can be a major factor. It was whipping when I played on a cold, dreary November afternoon. On the plus side, I had the course to myself.

The par is listed as 3 on all holes. Personally I think that a couple of the 400'+ ones should be par 4.

This course has been around a long time, and it shows. Work has clearly been done recently to refresh the course (new baskets, renumbered tees, etc.) but hopefully this work is not yet complete. I very strongly believe that the Goliath course should be pulled - and a second set of tees could be added for Beast in its place. A second Beast layout would keep the allure of a "different" course, while eliminating most of the safety issues.

The park staff could also swap the Beauty baskets (which are blue) with the Beast baskets, so that this refreshed Beast course would play from blue tees to blue baskets (and Beauty would play from red tees to red baskets).

As mentioned above, the presence of Goliath alone is currently knocking my rating down from 4.0 to 3.5. Pulling Goliath and addressing some of the other Cons above might be enough to put me in the 4.5 range, and if the designers were to implement a second set of Beast tees I can see this being a 5.0 course. If you are a serious disc golfer visiting the Ludington area, you should absolutely spend an afternoon at Mason County Park!

UPDATE JULY 2022: Played the course again on a beautiful summer day. One thing I didn't mention above is benches at tees. There are a few but they seemed to be focused near the beginning and end of the course. I was wishing for some in the middle! Navigation was also a little bit trickier with all the foliage grown in. More Next Tee signs are definitely needed throughout the course. The navigational signs that are there are also in an inconsistent style, and some call out the old hole numbers which now just makes things more confusing.

I stand by everything I said above, including my rating and my explanation of how that rating could be higher. This course is really fun to play, and the new baskets and tee signs look great. If Goliath were just pulled without doing anything else, my Beast rating increases by 0.5. If all new tee pads, a few more benches, new navigational signage, and a practice basket are also added, my rating increases by another 0.5. That gets us to 4.5. Do all that, plus a well-placed second set of tees? It's probably over the 4.75 threshold even with the weird park access issue and the holes next to the park drive. That's how good this course is, and where I think its ceiling could be.

- Course is set in a large park that has lots of hills and some forested areas. This course shares baskets with some alternate tees, so there could be a conflict there. Otherwise pretty much devoted to disc golf.
- Majority of the holes are in open fields/hills with large trees and other bushes to provide obstacles and force some line shaping. There are some more open ones that really demand a specific line, like a big RHBH hyzer on #1, #A, or an anny like #B. Other holes have more options to get to the pin, but have a lot more obstacles. With some serious hole lengths, these are more about good shot placement to set up a clear approach.
- Other holes are much, much tighter and demand a certain line to reach the pin. This ranges from tiny, tiny windows like that on #8, to some moderately tight tunnels, to general hyzers and annies. The main hazards here is thick rough off of the fairway on either side, or big trees also to the side. Many spots where backdoors are hardly present.
- Constant elevation changes to be found here, of many types. #1 plays from hill to hill, #B is an elevated teepad with a blind shot to the right, #5's basket is perched on a hill, and there are some valley shots mixed in as well. Lots of blind pin placements due to the elevation changes and/or twisting lines. Rollaways definitely present as well.
- Lots of variety in hole length; lots of short shots, but also 4 over 400'. Average hole length at 295', good mix above and below that.
- A ton of different shots needed, with plenty left, straight, and right lines to be found. Some shorter holes probably have a great OH route as well, especially up and over hills.
- Good teepads, baskets, and numbered posts. Navigation is pretty straightforward, except after #6 (#C's teepad is next to the road).

- My biggest gripe with this course is the constant terrain. Lots of open air with patches of forest and stuff in the way. Very, very few areas inside a forest, if that. It gets pretty repetetive after a while, and the challenges remain the same from start to finish.
- A lot of shorter holes, with 10 being under 250'. That's nearly half the holes, and the lines aren't interesting enough to keep it fresh. After playing a few times, I could see it getting very stale once the lines are dialed in.
- Biggest hazard here, other than some dense rough, is a bunch of road OB. It is used well, especially the blind empty parking lot on #B, but it's not a huge challenge to avoid it.

- I am a little confused why this course is called Beast, with so, so many short holes. There are some bombers, no doubt, but they are overshadowed by the many approach-length holes. Not too much in the way of obstacles, either, usually just big trees on the long ones and rough on the short ones. That said, there are a ton of different lines to hit here, and shot placement is definitely important. More experienced players may be a little bored, everyone else should have a good time and try to score well.

Variety of holes. Some were downhill and long, some were short downhill, some uphill, good amount of dog-legs. The variety of shots was fun. Also had a good mix of open shots. Playing along Lake Michigan was great, both the views and wind. Good place to help teach someone how to play.

The hike up to hole 1 is intense, but the throwoff is well worth it. Sometimes its confusing where to throw from and where to throw to since there are 3 courses in the park

If you don't like wind, this is not going to be the easiest course. Then again, no place right next to a huge lake would be. The people who take care of this course really do care for it. Try to play your first round here with locals, it will really help ya out.