St. Francis Church is located in a village off the beaten path between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, MI. Visitors who follow the little dirt drive from the parking lot behind the church will find an 18-hole disc golf course.

There are some decent technical holes here. Most of the front 9 is semi-open, but still with some trees and foliage to work around. I thought the mix of left turns, right turns, and straight throws was acceptable. The back 9 moves into a tighter wooded area with the orderly rows of tall pine trees. Some of these holes get quite tight, as they require lines between the rows of trees.

The baskets are DGA models. There is only one basket installed per hole, but the tee signs indicate up to three different pin positions. The distances are generally in the 200'-300' range for the short pins and the 200'-400' range for the longer pins, creating decent challenge for recreational players. The tight lines also help make up for the lack of distance on some holes.

The tee pads are smallish but concrete. They are in fine shape. One per hole.

Most tee areas have trash cans and benches. The front of the course has a porta potty, kiosk, and practice basket (it is the one a bit behind the kiosk).

Navigation is pretty tough here. No arrow signage, and the kiosk didn't have a course map posted as of my visit. There is some tape on basket rungs, but the majority of them pointed the wrong way. It was especially rough getting from hole 1 to hole 2. I had to use UDisc to navigate.

The tee signs are handmade and just have a hole number, rough line, and distance to each pin position. There are little holes punched in the signs to theoretically mark which pin position is currently in place - but there was often no marker in any of the holes, and when there was one it was not always correct.

The course generally just seems like it has seen better days. The baskets still caught OK but are showing their age. Some of the tee signs are cracked and the handwritten distances have faded on many others. The baskets were not in consistent pin positions but rather a mix of them, as if someone decided to put them all in "the best" position and leave them like that for a while.

The course is pretty much flat, with no water hazards to speak of. Nothing was particularly memorable for me.

I always like the ambience of the rows of tall trees, but it could definitely be argued that the holes in this area of the course are unrealistically tight. They are also pretty close together, so unfortunate tree kicks could find adjacent fairways and pose a safety hazard if the course were busy.

This course costs $1/round to play, payable at a cash drop box near the first tee.

Near hole 10's tee there is an artist's sculpture of a human heart nailed to a wooden post. Someone nailed a sign to the top of the post and scrawled "The Heart of St. Francis" on it. Decorative? Informative? For me it just came off as kind of weird.

Cell service here was spotty for me.

Less than a week after visiting, I am already relying mostly on notes rather than memory to write this review. This course is very "meh". There isn't anything really bad about it, but there also isn't anything really good. I guess that slots it right in at 2.5 "average" rating, although I'd add that it is probably a little bit closer to 2.0 than 3.0 in my book. It's fine for those locals who don't feel like driving 30ish minutes to get to better courses near Grand Rapids or Kalamazoo. But if you are visiting the area, you can definitely do a lot better.

Great out of the way location, on a very nice piece of quiet property. Layout is potentially very sweet, and so far with not a ton invested it is already looking good. all 18 holes are in, and nice baskets are set up. Lots of rest stop benches and tables.

**Update** as of June 24,2012 tee pads are in for about 13-14 holes. Course was trimmed up a bit too and looked very nice.

As stated in other reviews - navigation is tough on some holes. For the most part its easy enough to scout out, but there are a couple of holes where the tee is unmarked - 9/10 and 18 are worst.

Also - the wooded back nine is very tight in pathing, could use some trimming.

Print out a map from the links here before you play the first time, it will help a ton.

--property/aesthetic--nice piece of property behind an episcopal church. plenty of cactus(odd that we're so far from the lake) pine forest.

--baskets--nice DGA's. Grippy with orange bands on the riser.

--maps--available at the start, nice but I think some of the tees have changed

--NAVIGATION--in huge letters because it was a disaster. Trying to find where pins for the tees are is nightmarish in places. (which bleeds into..)

--Fairways--there are no definite fairways on over 50% of the holes. Makes navigation impossible in places (which bleeds into...)

--Signage/tees--Signage is missing on over 50% of the tees which makes the tees (which are just kick strips, sometimes, flags others) somewhat impossible to find. Prime example is #9 to #10. I ended up throwing to #11's baskets because it was the only one that made sense looking at a solid wall of trees but apparently you're supposed to muddle your way through big bushy pine trees (newb-hyzer style?) to a basket around the woods in a sand pit!?!? So confusing. The map did help in places in others, not so much

--Back 9--as has been said before, the back 9 sucks. throwing down 7' lanes of pre-planned trees with a 7'ceiling for >400' is redonkulous and stupid

the potential this place has is astounding, it just hasn't realized it yet. when it does, it should be a really quite good course!

also, updated the location from shelbyville to orangeville since the orangeville sign is 5' from the entrance to the church.