Newaygo State Park sits about a 45 minute drive north of Grand Rapids, MI. The park backs up to the Hardy Dam pond, and includes a boat launch, campground, and walking trails.

The 18-hole disc golf course here wraps around the perimeter of the campground area. This is a technical course playing through mostly deciduous forest. The fairways cut through the forest are narrow enough to provide challenge, but not too narrow. I thought there was a good mix of left turns, right turns, and straight throws. The rough off the fairways is full of young spindly trees that can prevent easy recovery throws, but are thin enough on the ground that disc loss is highly unlikely.

The middle of the course plays near the pond, but it is well off to the right and/or behind baskets. It would take a very errant throw or very unfortunate tree kick and roll for a disc to get wet.

The ending hole 18 was the most interesting for me. It plays 365' down a fairway that curls sharply to the left, but then the basket is tucked back to the right behind a dense thicket of saplings. I don't remember any other signature holes, but overall this is a very nice place to play a round. When I visited on a warm early November Sunday, there were only a couple of other groups in the park. The leaves were starting to fall and a light wind was whispering through the trees. It was very serene throwing through the peaceful woods and near the lake.

The baskets are yellow banded DISCatchers. These were in good shape when I played and were easy to see in the woods. There is also a practice basket (behind the picnic area to the left).

The "long" tee pads are concrete with drainage holes. They were a little bumpy, but overall large and flat enough. I think each hole also had a second short tee location, though this was marked only by a kick plate. The long tees also have plain brown signs with the hole number, and each tee sign post had a trash can on it.

There were Next Tee signs where needed, in the same plain "state park" style as the tee signs. The course flows well and navigation is a breeze.

There was a vault toilet available at the parking lot.

Better tee signs with a map of the hole would be nice. There are several blind holes where I used the old map uploaded here to determine which way the fairway turned.

The course is mostly flat, and most holes are fairly short. There isn't a lot here to challenge better players, even from the long tees. I would call this a beginner friendly course.

A couple of holes play near walking trails, or relatively near campsites. I didn't judge it to be a major concern as long as DG'ers are aware of their surroundings.

There is a course kiosk and scorecard box, but when I visited there was no map posted or scorecards available.

There were a couple of plastic benches scattered around. While these are better than nothing for taking a quick break, they were low to the ground and looked more like a camper left them there vs. official course infrastructure. A few wood benches would be a nice improvement.

This is not a "pay to play" course per se, but you need a current State of Michigan Recreation Passport to enter the area.

Overall, I enjoyed this course. It is not very challenging, and not spectacular, but more just a nice walk through the woods. With better tee signs and a couple other improvements I would probably give a 3.5 rating. Beyond that it's kind of limited by the space available.

This isn't one that travelling DG'ers need to put on their bucket lists, or even go out of their way to play. But it may be worth a look if you are in the area, particularly if you have non-DGers in tow and/or are looking for a nice place to set up camp for a night or two.

Its a right hand freindly course, but has a couple left hand curve balls. The pads are nice kinda small but nice. The baskets are nice. And its very clean trash cans at every hole.

Lots of treenial on this course, but still alot of fun. Big clifs into water... awsome looking, but would be so awsome if you threw ur disc over the edge. There is no getting down them. We looked its a great view, doesnt looks like a good climb.

If you are camping the park at the time u play it you can get sites that are right by tee's and baskets. Thats a plus, only a short walk between yourself and disc golf. I dont really have anything to say bad or good. It was a good course we played it several times and i would go back, but there were was not amazing holes, just amazing sights.

short and technical. doesn't require a ton of arm to play well, just accuracy and maybe a little luck.

winds around a camp ground and along the croton dam reservoir. It's kind of nice to have a little different scenery along the way.

easy to navigate course, huge numbers on the signs make it easy.

BIG tee pads (made of recycled concrete which has PVC pipes which are relatively flush with the surface of the pad

Brand new discatchers are pretty and bright

The discatchers, while pretty and bright, still have plastic on the s-hooks, which is a bit tacky.

Some impossible holes, 18 comes to mind. winds hugely left with the target in a pocket on the right.

Very thick rough. The rough is made up of very young trees which are pretty skinny and plentiful.

I personally liked the course, but got tired of trees about halfway through. There are a lot of birdie holes and a couple of definitely ace-able holes.

This course had an interesting and challenging layout. Only a couple of holes had clear, straight routes to the basket while the remainder included sweeping right or left turns, sharp doglegs in both directions, and even a couple of "S-shaped" fairways (including #18, which seems to go on for ever and ever!). A range of distances from 170' to 365' gives a variety of skill levels possible chances at birdies. Holes #1-3 are shorter, allowing for a warm up, and they loop back to the parking lot giving you a chance to shed or add clothing or grab the bug spray conveniently if needed before hitting the rest of the course.

The fairways have been cleared of all extraneous trees, leaving only enough to keep the challenge factor up, while keeping the frustration level down. No aggravating "pinball" holes here! The holes approaching (#8) and paralleling (#9-11) the lake are far enough away from the bluff that only seriously bad throws would have you scrambling down the bank for discs.

Wide, bulldozed fairways made walking easy, and plentiful, clear, easy to read signs made navigation a breeze. Even the hike across and down the road to #17 was clearly marked.

The cement tee pads are huge and well textured and the baskets are obviously new. The entire course was in really great shape and the park was spotless. Campground restrooms are easily accessible at a couple of spots on the course.

Directional arrows on the tee signs would be nice for the numerous blind holes on the course. Footage for each hole would be a plus as well.

Since the course is brand-spankin' new, the grass hasn't grown back in on the fairways yet and I'm assuming they'll be a mess during and after rain storms for a while. Also, the rough is seriously ugly in most places just because there hasn't been a lot of traffic tromping through looking for errant throws, so be prepared to use thumbers or tomahawks for up-and-over shots.

A marked parking lot and split rail fence was being installed to the right of the ranger station when we were there. The tee for #1 is just right of the ranger station as well. Stop and say Hi to the park ranger if he's not busy. He was very helpful and quite funny during our visit and went out of his way to greet us.

Camp sites are available almost literally right on the course (along holes #11-13) for those who'd like to be able to throw right out their front flap.

Once the shule gets a little packed down and the grass grows on the fairways, this will be a class act and a great course for family fun.

Update 7/5/09: The parking lot is fully installed and well marked. Unless the rangers get ornery, you may be able to park and play without a State Park sticker since the parking is technically outside the actual park.