*** NOTE: Current review based on front 9 only in cold and rainy conditions with snow on the hill and baskets removed for ski season - conditions may have clouded my judgement! ***

This will be an outstanding, pro level course if work continues and the course gets tramped in. Hole design is varied and interesting, with a fun mix of short and long, curved and straight, uphill and downhill. Elevation and winds are a huge factor during play here.

Even from the short tees, the level of challenge here is huge! Players without good disc control may wind up extremely frustrated with the constant and never-ending combination of tight, crazy lines, huge distances, fall-away basket placements, blind pins, and extreme elevation changes. #8, in particular, requires a perfect combination of control and distance, with tees sitting in a fairly steep valley and a long, wooded, blind, right u-turn fairway to the basket hidden behind a little swell. If your disc doesn't land directly in the valley, you're left with steep, treacherous footing from which to throw.

This course is in its infancy and as a result, the fairways and between-hole trails are really, really rough. Lots and lots of trip hazards, brush, deadfall, and crazy shule are everywhere on the course. Make no mistake, playing here is a workout!

Signage really sucks. The permanent signage that is in place is pretty nice metal street-sign style with good graphics, but many of them are printed "upside-down" (not from thrower's point-of-view), so navigation and tee and pin finding requires some interpretation even with the signage. Most holes, even on the front 9, don't have any signage at all yet. Small blue and red posts mark the appropriate tee boxes, but some of the posts have already been knocked over, and there are no tee numbers on the posts, so one can only hope you're on the right tee. There are really nicely done wooden directional arrows on neighboring trees to direct you to the next tee, but there's no hole number on them, or even any indication of whether you're heading to the blue or red tee. Really, how hard would it be to Sharpie a hole # and a red or blue dot on each arrow??? As a true recreational player, nothing cheeses me off more than to have to hunt and search for tees and pins, when something so simple is easily remedied with a magic marker. Grrrrr. In fact, I think we totally missed hole 3 due to the lack of signage.

I loved the challenge and variety of this course and am always a fan of ski-hill play, but the current state of "undoneness" and constant high level of challenge on this course really overshadowed any fun factor for the beginner/intermediate group I was playing with. We never encountered a hole in the front 9 that allowed us a "breather" or didn't severely punish even a small lack of disc control.

This course is quite a hike - you'll want to carry water and snacks, and wear really sturdy hikers with good ankle support. Long socks would not be a bad idea, either.

I will be playing this course again and will update my review as the work continues, but at this point in time, I'd steer any beginners away from playing here - for maximum fun factor, they should head to The Crowl Hole in Harbor Springs, instead.

Downhill bombs made from ski hills top the best of those at Hickory Hills or Silver Mountain. Hole 6 is a thrilling, super-steep 670 foot hole facing the west, with hilltop views of Beaver Island (25 miles away!) and Charlevoix. This hole is open enough on both sides to throw with confidence, with perilous rough on the left to discourage weak throws. Aim to the right, release and let it fly down the hill while soaking in this terrific new addition to northern Michigan disc golf. Those who have played Hole 16 at California's Coyote Point at Lake Casitas will recognize the resemblance.

Hole 13 is a similarly steep downhill hole with stunning views of Little Traverse Bay, with the added benefit of being shielded from winds out of the west. Hole 13 requires a little more finesse due to being slightly more narrow than Hole 6, but is still a thrilling drive down to a protected basket at the bottom of the hill.

Holes 14 through 19 meander through woods on the wind-protected backside of Mt. McSauba, and have more-than-adequate room for skilled drives. These holes benefit greatly from brand-new elevated tees with large, trapezoidal cement tee pads. Hole 19 is the best of the last series of holes, with a highly-elevated tee pad and several huge trees providing plenty of lanes to throw through. Hole 10 is perched halfway up a densely-wooded hill, with a small opening to a grassy field with an extended, narrow fairway along the edge of a road. About half of the holes now have cement pads (some also have cement short tees), with earthen pads accounting for most of the rest.

Several holes are still not quite ready for prime-time, and could arguably be redesigned or eliminated. Holes 1 and 2 are quite challenging, but with many stumps and rough terrain impeding foot travel along the way. Some areas have long, grueling walks between holes, with the walk between 8 and 9 being the longest. Signs that had helped point the way on some of the holes have been stolen or are missing. Hole 8 is the weakest on the course, with a steeply-sloped non-fairway adjacent to Hole 6 that is very difficult to traverse, with a particularly high pain-to-gain ratio. Hole 3 is a pleasant, short hole with a protected basket behind a dune, but is significantly out of the way from Holes 2 and 4. Hole 5 has a short, narrow fairway with a 90-degree turn up to the top of the hill, but is a tiring, steep uphill hike. Hole 12 has a pin position with a beautiful view of the beach, but also has a oddly-placed tee pad (not yet cement) along the ridge of a dune with no real lanes to drive through.

This course was very hard to rate, with divergent high and low points. This course has the potential to be the best course in Michigan north of Traverse City...or with even more work, a 4.5 or 5.0 level course. With further work on this course ongoing, the course rating will likely increase in months and years to come. The course as a whole is quite challenging even for advanced players, especially from the long tees. Several tough holes on the front nine would be manageable with long, accurate RHBH drives.

The work required to create a course of this type is staggering, but the class-leading potential of this course aspires to a higher level than the typical city park course. Thanks to those at Chain O' Lakes Disc Golf Club (including dgcr's nickrockey) for all of the hard work done in making this exciting new course a reality.