Pros:
• Scenery: SMASH is laid out through a nice wooded park in Central Michigan. Beautiful walk through the forest with plenty of elevation and wildlife to enjoy.
• Baskets: Arroyo Vortex Baskets. Best of the best. Bright colors for visibility, 20 outer chains, interlaced inner chains, ZERO chance for cut throughs, however they require firm putts.
• Variety: Plenty of elevation, left-to-right holes, right-to-left holes, wooded tight lines, a few more open holes, bunkers, water, only a few repetitive shots.
• Challenge: Pick a line and hit it! This is a densely wooded forest with tight lines. They are most definitely there, but there are several holes that you have to nail a gap or three. Not a poke-and-pray course, but certainly not large openings. Hit your line and be rewarded, get off your line and risk some great punishment and additional strokes.
• Maintenance: Plenty of trash cans, very little garbage on the ground, brush has been cleaned up and tee signs are on point.
• Layout: Several great walking paths that do not at all interfere with the disc golf course! Always great to see. Very easy to follow the course from hole to hole, no confusing "where's the next hole" moments.
• Extras: Nice pavilion and picnic tables at the entrance, plenty of parking even for good sized local tournaments, and a solid practice putting area with a good basket and some small trees/elevation to practice different putts.
Cons:
• Stumps: The crew did a good job of clearing out lines and making a challenging wooded course, however, there are lots of small stumps left for you to trip over and/or break a toe.
• Short: The dense forest requires you to hit your gaps, however, this is mostly a mid and putter course. Most holes require accuracy over bombers. Not the worst thing in the world, but some long open holes are always fun to air out. There is open land to the west of the main course that could be utilized. (more in the "Other Thoughts")
• Bugs: No surprise in Michigan and not a lot can be done, but be prepared and bring some repellent.
• Tee pads: They aren't horrible, but they are artificial turf. Good grip, but not always smooth and some are a bit short.
Other Thoughts:
While I do greatly enjoy the course, there is room for improvement. With a few stumps trimmed closer to the ground and a few (few, not many at all) trees removed, this would easily bump my rating up. I would love to give this a 4-star or more as it's one of my favorite courses, but it's not quite there.
For a few local tournaments, they have used the very open sandy field area to the west of the main course for alternate holes. There is a GREAT opportunity to add in some more challenging signature holes (super narrow tunnels through low fir trees, downhill sandtrap shots) and also allow for 3-4 bigger air shots without any forest. I would absolutely love to see this area used for some open bombers to make this into a 24-hole course! That would get me up to 4.5 stars and make this my top course in the Grand Rapids area.