Vicksburg Recreation Area is located southeast of Kalamazoo, MI. It's surrounded on three sides by Sunset Lake. There are some walking trails and I think I saw a little pavilion, but the area is mainly disc golf only.

The 18 holes of disc golf here use the lake and other smaller water hazards scattered around the park - a lot. There are no fewer than 6-7 baskets perched right at the water's edge. There are wooded holes where missing your line could open the door for a bad tree kick to find the water. One of the most memorable holes here is #14, which is the only hole that really encourages an actual water carry. The most direct route to the basket requires a shaped throw about 250' (from long tee) or 175' (from short tee) to clear a pond and avoid some trees lining either side. What really makes this hole unique though is the last 50' approach to the basket. At the far side of the pond is a tall mound. The basket is hidden behind it, on a steep downslope with ANOTHER pond at the bottom. Underthrow your tee shot or miss the line, and your disc might end up in the first pond. Overthrow, and you may be swimming in the second pond. If you really want to play it safe, you could lay up off to the left to work your way around the first pond.

I'd say that definite water hazards are in play on maybe half of the holes total. Beyond that, there are a few more holes with areas that could be damp depending on the time of year, or where an especially unfortunate tree kick could cause a disc to get wet. There is a great mix of holes throughout the course, from shorter but tight fairways to longer and mostly open ones.

This course features two layouts. For some reason, the Red tees are longer than the White tees. Both layouts have large concrete tee pads in great shape. I played the shorter White layout, which is plenty to challenge recreational to moderate level disc golfers. The White layout distances average about 290', including three very challenging par 3's longer than 420'. The longer Red layout would likely challenge almost all levels of players, stretching the average hole distance out to 380'.

The baskets are red Chainstar Pros in great shape. One per hole. Several of them are located on slopes with the water lurking at the bottom, creating inevitably risky putting situations.

I think there was a bench behind every tee - both long and short. Trash cans appear at many tees as well. There are two practice baskets and a porta potty near the parking lot. The front nine and back nine each loop back to the lot.

The tee signs appear at both tees, but they are faded to the point where many of them are completely illegible. Based on the ones that were still readable, they looked like they were pretty solid at one point. Hopefully a refresh of these is coming soon - and why not switch the Red and White tee designations while at it?

The same tee signs once pointed the way to the next hole, but even if the tee signs get refreshed some more navigational signage would be nice as well. I did not see any arrows, and used the aerial course map uploaded here to find my way around the course (there is a nice course kiosk, but it also didn't have a map on it).

Other than the little slopes at baskets, there are only a few small elevation changes on the course. Not enough to affect play on most holes.

The park drive could conceivably be in play on holes 12, 17, and 18. It's nothing egregious - only a minor concern.

The chance of lost plastic here is obviously a lot higher than on your average course. But if beginners are willing to lay up on #14, it can be pretty well avoided. That said - a third set of true short tees would be a nice additional perk. When I visited, the course was quite busy but most players looked to be playing the White tees (which again, are the shorter of the two now).

Besides the water, others mentioned the thick rough as well. I thought it was fairly thick, but never had any trouble finding discs during my visit over Labor Day weekend.

This is a strong 4.0. I would consider a 4.5 with refreshed signage and maybe that third short layout. I really enjoyed this one - enough to add it to my Favorites. If I didn't live an hour away, I would play here all the time. It gave me some great material for my 200th review.

-Super easy to get into the park, find the course, and find the first tee.
-Plenty of Parking
-Concrete Teepads.
-Short and Long tees allow for variety allow shorter arms to play the course, AND they still provide challenge to veteran players. 15 of the 18 are easy pars, but require accurate/strong tee-shots for birdie.
-GREAT placement of teepads and baskets to use the environment as obstacles. Every hole has a lane for you to take, but you need an accurate shot.
---I LOVE how two of the holes (I believe 6 and 15, but don't quote me!) use dirt mounds as obstacles, NOT to set the basket up higher. This course is my 150th played, and none of the others have done something like this. Simple, but a unique obstacle in my opinion. On 6 you can't see the basket, but really you want to throw just over the top of the dirt mound and fade down to the left to be under the pin. 15, you can see the top of the basket, and you probably want to hit the top of the mound to slow you down.
-Pretty easy to follow the course, but a map your first time will make it really easy.
-Good mix and long and short holes to vary it up.
-Requires forearm/backhand shots, or hyzer and anhyzer.

-Biggest complaint has to deal with the 3 or 4 holes that end with a Death putt where the water/muck is only a few feet behind the pin. Personally I like the challenge of the death putt, I just wish they were marked better so you know what your throwing at. This may be marked on the signs, I'm not sure. But I would have changed my shot selection had I known ahead of time. There may be more, but for sure holes 3, 10 and 15 have them (I think 7 is the fourth). 15 you can't see the water either because it's blocked by the dirt mound.
-Bring some bug spray. Course is surrounded by water/ a pond/ a swamp -- somewhere in between all of those. The water doesn't look like something you want to get into, but I've definitely played on worse courses for bugs.
-Not sure if there are bathrooms. There's a small building near the start of the course where they could be, but I didn't check.

Definitely worth your time, especially as a skilled player who likes a challenge! NOT a good course to learn the game.

-Beautiful park with the lake backing right up to the front 9
-excellent signage and two different pads to throw from (long/short)
-Signs show the direction to the next basket
-a couple longer holes w/ placement shots. Overall, I stuck to mainly mids and putters for the course from shorts, but a few of those were 200-300ft placement shots on 450' holes.
-I don't know if it was just the day or the right time, but everyone was incredibly friendly around here. I got a very good vibe from this course.
-For a free to play course, it is very well kept and clean.
-A nice mix of open and wooded: about half of each 9 was open and half wooded. A good variety of shots too

-There weren't any holes to rip from the shorts. the majority of the holes were either 250-300 or 450' holes that force placement shots. I exclusively used putters, mids, and a couple distance drivers for forehands. Probably different from the longs, but the shorts aren't terribly challenging.
-Not any elevation. Not a huge con, but still a con regardless.

-This course is gorgeous. I love the scenery at this course and the whole park is really nice, clean, and well kept.
-Between the shorts and longs, there's a ton of different shots and lines to hit. Definitely will keep me coming back.

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Update 7/716
Shorts have become a favorite of mine and I think the course is awesome. High fun factor from the shorts. Longs your asking for a much harder and time length extended round. Well worth playing.
-Good challenge
-Secluded
-dog friendly
-cement tees

Much improved. After playing again on 5/3/16 i came away more impressed. Great signs. Great benches. Much more improved flow to the course. Highly challenging and great water holes make this course one of the best around The Kalamazoo area.

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-i would like to rate this higher and have sat on the review thinking upon itexcept for the Most of the holes offer a challenge, multiple lanes, and are fair as in you should be able to get there for a par at worse.
My main problem is it isn't that fun for me. I really appreciate course amenities and this has very few. I like signs telling me hole stats and benches to sit. Almost none here.
-The course is solid in its play. It does offer up decent challenges and a wide variety of discs will be helpful.
-windy days can present an additional challenge
-good mix of wooded and open holes
-i think time will improve this course. The more people who will work on it and improve on it will up the fun factor.
-overall a solid addition in the areas disc golf. I would give this course as the second most challenging in the area behind oshetemo. And rate it near the bottom in the fun factor.

Lots of new improvements since 2013 move this course up a notch. These include amenities such as trash cans and picnic tables and several slightly revised holes. Hole 12 has been improved greatly by addition of fill dirt and lot of grass seed.

Disc golf exclusive area, with no walking trails or other activities infringing on the course. New cement tee pads (both short and long) are outstanding, and are comparable to those at the best courses. Has the area's most exotic water holes on the back nine, with Hole 14 being the most dangerous example, with a 250-foot straight drive being necessary to avoid losing a disc. The long tee positions provide challenge even with Oshtemo's long tees. Hole 12 is a super long and challenging hole with an extended low-land fairway. Also has some good meadow holes, such as the Hudson Mills-style Hole 15.

One of the area's most flat courses, with Hole 12 being one of few examples offering elevation changes. Several woods holes are unfinished and have low cover that eats discs, but this also has been improved recently. Holes 3 and 4 come a little too close to each other.

Now a great addition to the courses in the greater Kalamazoo area. Offers some open fairways for big drives, and favors those with big arms. Oddly, the bugs were not as bad as expected given the lowland surroundings. A free course with relatively low traffic for those sick of waiting around at Oshtemo.

pretty good and above average technical course, but still highly playable as an amatuer or beginner. mostly wooded areas, but has some real open shots too.

a couple holes can get muddy, and a few water holes sneak up on you if you dont pay attention.

an overall good course, however the path lines to the next hole can get confusing past hole #7-8...do not walk all the way down the path past hole 8, its a dead end, and hole 9 isnt that way..

Aesthetic-- Course plays on a natural area with A LOT of water involvement. Landscape is used extremely well and about every chance to involve the lakes is taken.

Baskets--yep, chainstars. best in the business. only thing discraft does well in my opinion.

Risk v Reward-- HUGE. and fair. some of the later water holes remind me of Blue Gill with their pond shots. There is incidental water on so many holes here that I added several to the hole descriptions. I shanked one into the water on 15 but was able to retrieve it after about 15 minutes of it floating around...

Pin placement--impecable. So much more fair than Blue Gill. you are forced to decide to go for it and risk the water or to lay it up a lot of the time but at least it's not rolling down a 400' hill.

Routing--the map made it minimally better but I made a google earth map which may make it easier. In the spring I'm sure the locals will bore better paths into the woods holes.

Challenge/Variety--this is a VERY challenging course. It made me take a really good look at my game at every turn.

Special Mention-- there are so many epic holes here that it's hard to pick one out but #12 is EPIC. 750' across a field, down a hill into the wetlands and back to the right. This hole is hard hard hard... but fun!! There are so many epic holes here...

Practice Baskets--always a nice touch.

pads-- not yet, but I'm sure they will be here next year. this course is brand new and I'm sure there is so much more to come.

Rough-- I'm sure this will also improve with time and play.

Routing-- as I said, it's a little brutal in place but I'm sure with time and use, this will go away.

This course will only get better with time. I think with the small tweaks I mentioned with my cons, this course may get my second "5" with time. I can't say enough good things about this place... GO PLAY IT NOW!!!

A challenging and interesting layout, with a good mix of open and wooded holes and excellent flow/navigation. Well-placed water hazards too, including the signature double pond Hole #14.

Some good aesthetic touches on a beautiful (although mostly flat) property.

Front and back tees marked with 1' tall white and red stakes (respectively) make for distinct rounds, the back tees a solid par 3.5 course for me...a former mediocre Am-1 player.

Nice Discraft Chainstar baskets, one of which is installed atop a 2 or 3' brick turret that's nicely visible as you park your car. It says to the locals new to our game, "Look at me. I'm a Disc Golf basket!"

The course is cleared and marked very well for a course that's less than 2 weeks old. It will reportedly get cement pads next spring, and I imagine it will only age better and better with time.

Two "horseshoe" practice baskets near the parking lot.

I'm not sure if that building near the parking lot furnishes park-goers with restrooms or not during warm weather months, but it isn't open now (late Oct). There are no other restroom facilities that I can detect.

I only have two beefs with the layout itself. First is the basket placement on hole #10, situated only a few feet in front of and above a small bog-like pond that looks as though creatures from the Star Wars trash compactor scene might inhabit it. In almost all cases, should you choose to go for the chains, the basket will be directly between you and the water hazard below and only a few feet from it, and if you miss your shot, your Disc will go into the water probably every time. Like Cold Brook Park's #20 pin placement, I rarely actually putt at the basket in casual rounds because I don't carry a putter I want to lose. I just pick it up instead and assume two strokes because I can always shuffleboard a shot up to the basket and drop it in just about 100% of the time, or if I'm 20 feet away or less, it's a gimmie anyway. But I can't imagine ever actually throwing a Disc at the chains there (or other pins such as Cold Brook #20) when there's a chance I'll miss.

I will admit that I haven't tested how deep that little pond is. If it's only a foot deep and it's easy to retrieve your Disc, I might happily erase my criticism of it from this review.

UPDATE: I poked a large stick into that small bog and discovered it's about 12-16 inches deep throughout most of it, mucky, and nastily stinky. Bubbles came up as I poked the sediment. You could possibly fetch a Disc with a stick and good dexterity, but I wouldn't set foot in it. (I will continue to pick up my Disc and assume two strokes outside of gimmie range.)

The other issue I have is Hole #7 being a long straight shot following along parallel with a woods line with the basket veering off to the left just like hole #1's pin placement, a hockey stick shaped hole with no visual from the (long) tee where the basket enters the woods. Instead of the redundancy it has with the second half of Hole #1 (although #1 is a better hole because of its first half), and especially being a hole type that John Houck preaches against making in the first place, I really think something different could be done in that spot.

But that's really it. I'm very happy with everything else, and anybody can nitpick just about any course in this manner.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Someone removed the tee-off obstacle tree from #11 long, a small tree that bisected the window out of the woods. Boooooooooo! The hole no longer has much character. That seriously sucks!

A THIRD UPDATE! - The cool vines that were hanging down to form an obstacle at #9's long tee have been unfortunately cleared away. That has also subtracted a degree of character. If this keeps up, I might have to drop the course from a 4.0 to a 3.5...

Larry did a great job putting just about the best possible course he could on the property, and I would say this is his masterpiece so far.

I can count 8 holes in my mind that have some degree of perpendicular risk/reward options from the tee. Some are obvious, like Hole #14 (the double pond hole), and some are subtle, like Hole #1 where you risk going O.B. on a walking trail placing yourself for a better look at shot #2, or choose hyzering more (RHBH) for a safer drive but amore dangerous 2nd shot.

Yes, the most obvious perpendicular risk/reward example is the much-heralded Hole #14, where you can choose about a 250'ish drive straight across a beautiful tree-lined pond or play a longer shot around it to its left on the park's maintenance road...and there's a second pond behind the basket, which is situated between the two! (Its proximity to the water hazard isn't nearly as pronounced as #10...maybe 30' or so?..., so with a careful loft-style putt, I won't lose my putter 99.9% of the time).

Hole #12 is a beautiful thing, the kind of hole I'd like to see more often even if it does not possess perpendicular risk/reward options from the tee (it could with some well-placed planted trees, though! . It begins across an open field, slightly downhill with artificial pavement O.B. to the right, and maybe 330' to a wooded tunnel that's about another 275'-300' to the pin, dogleg right. You only get a good look at the wooded tunnel shot if your drive is situated before the tunnel's opening. The rough in there is thick and brutal right now (especially on the left) due to the course's infancy, but that's to be expected. Wonderful job.

Hole #4 is also a beautiful thing, reminiscent of a Cass Benton hole from when it first opened. You have a couple of options from the tee, and the ones that get you closer to the pin are tough but fair. Love it.

I also love how the course plays in and out of open and wooded settings. You don't feel bored from several repetitive consecutive holes.

Well thought out course with great potential to become one of the best in SW Michigan. Both am and pro teepads (dirt/field right now but cement should be put in by spring) Great use of trees, really makes you play every shot in your bag. Really tight lines on short holes forces the player to be very accurate to earn a two. Best use of water on any course in Kalamazoo, tricky sometimes but overall pretty fair.

Course just went in a week and a half ago so it's still pretty rough. Teeing off can be a challenge on some holes (having cement teepads will make a HUGE difference). Some holes have minor flodding issues. I'm sure to raise my score once the teepads go in and it gets played a little bit more.

The front 9 offers mostly wooded holes as you make your way around sunset lake. There are a few field holes after that leading into the monster of the course, hole 12. Crossing the road after 13 you come to what I think the signature hole will be on the course. The pro plays over a 175-200ft. pond, the hole itself is around 330 but the real trick; the pin is located 20-25ft. infront of another pond not visible from the teepad. Water is a factor on 3/5 of the last holes. This course is going to be a monster once it gets a little bit more seasoning. Great job Larry.