Great quick course, updated this year with new tee pads and signs plus 10 additional holes for total of 20

Ross Park is a large multi-use park tucked away behind Muskegon County Airport in Norton Shores, MI. There is a heavily wooded area of the park on the south side of the road that is solely dedicated to the first ten holes of the disc golf course. Holes 11-19 were recently added in more open areas of the park, with 12-19 on the north side of the road.

The infrastructure here is good. There are two kiosks at the front of the park with easy-to-read cartoon-style course maps of each section. Each hole has a tee sign in the same style showing the flight path, distance, and par. The first ten baskets are Chainstars and the remaining nine are yellow banded DISCatchers - all are in good shape. The first ten holes also have concrete tee pads at every hole. They are a little narrow and not quite flat, but sufficient for a shorter course like this. There are even little tire brushes hanging on the tee signs in case you want to reach down and brush off the tee pad. Holes 11-19 have turf tees that were flat and in good shape for my play.

The pin placement is well done on the first ten holes. There is good variety between left and right turning holes, and a couple straight shots thrown in as well. Decent variation in length too, from #6's 178' to #9's 382'. Speaking of #9, the 382' plays down a straight, tight fairway with a sharp right turn the last 20' or so to the basket. I believe the course designers were justified making this one a par 4.

The first part of this course is definitely beginner friendly, or a good practice round for those who may be more experienced. The trees have been completely cleared in each fairway but guard the sides, testing your ability to hit the lines. The rough is thick enough to punish errant throws in some places, but never so thick that you could lose a disc.

Holes 1-10 have a few trash cans and benches at periodic intervals. There are several porta potties scattered around the park.

There are no challenges here besides the trees defining the fairways on the first ten holes. No elevation change, and fairly short. It would have been more challenging if they had left a couple trees in the fairways, or moved a couple pins closer to the trees.

The walk from #1 to #2 is a little bit long and not obvious. With the map present this is not a major issue, but a Next Tee sign here would be helpful (or even a couple signs since you have to walk across open areas and near the edge of the softball diamond). Holes 11-19 have several more long walks between them.

The 10th hole confuses me. After 9 fairly interesting holes that curl through the woods, the 10th and final hole is a straight and fairly clear 230' shot straight at the parking lot - with the parking lot maybe 20' behind the basket and #1's tee pad also nearby. I'm not sure why the designers chose to create this 10th hole. It would make more sense and be safer to just keep this as a 9 hole course. The basket currently being used for the 10th hole could be left in as a practice basket - that's what a group was using it for when I was trying to finish my round here anyway. Edit: Since my last play I think the designers tried to rotate the hole by about 5 degrees to move the basket slightly away from the parking lot. But it's still unsafe.

UPDATE APRIL 2022: Sometime since my initial play and review in September 2020, holes 11-19 have been added. These holes unfortunately actually detract from the overall course. The best thing that can be said about them is, they offer a different type of golf than the first ten holes. Some of the problems with these new holes are:
- On holes 11 and 12, the road you drove in on defines one side of the fairway. The road is also an issue on hole 14.
- Holes 11-13 play near softball fields. You should not play these holes when the fields are being used (which to someone's credit, is at least noted on the tee signs).
- Parking lots are in play for holes 14 and 15. Listing the pavement as OB makes things more interesting if no one is around, but not safer if people are!
- Holes 16-18 are jammed together.
- Few to no obstacles on any of these new holes.
- Long walks between some of the holes.

One more thing about this new part of the course bears mentioning here. There was originally a 10th hole for this part of the course too, playing between the holes now numbered #18 and #19. This hole played across a valley, with Mona Lake in full view to your left. At the bottom of the valley is a path used for walking to the beach...and a playground. And a building...with windows. In a fantasy world where disc golfers are always the only people in the park and glass is unbreakable, this was probably the most interesting hole on the entire course. In reality, I heard from another DG'er that the permanent removal of this hole was prompted by someone being hit with a disc. I can only hope that that someone is okay.

If I lived within a 10 minute drive I would play the first part of this course all the time. It doesn't have anything unique or particularly challenging, so those in search of their next destination course can safely look elsewhere.

UPDATE APRIL 2022: I heard about the new holes 11-19 and returned to play the course a second time. This prompted lots of changes to the review above, and a downgrade in rating from 3.0 all the way to 1.5. Breaking that down, the first nine holes are about a 2.5 (3.0 was probably a bit of a reach in my initial rating) and the newer ones are about a 1.0 with that number based mostly on the infrastructure. Even without the disastrous hole that is now removed, the new section does not add much to the course besides a multitude of safety issues.

This course would be best as a 9-holer, using the first nine holes and #10's basket as a practice basket. If the course were reverted to this, my rating would go back up to 2.5. Egad.

Shorter and relatively open. Tighter lines but open rough so easy to find disc.

No long open shots to launch any discs.

Great for beginners. Not to long that they lose interest and not too technical or hard that they get discouraged. Our foursome had 2 experienced players and 2 inexperienced players and all had fun. No real danger of losing a disc so easy to loan discs. For the experienced players course is a little easier but still some technical lines to hit and challenge yourself to turn in a good card.

Re-Designed with new baskets and newly designed fairways. A nice little 9 hole course tucked away in a small park next to the Muskegon county airport. A good place to practice accuracy.

Gets a bad reputation because of the old design. All together a nice place just not a lot of people playing here.

Not a fan of this course, but I'll try to rate it fairly-

• The scenery itself isn't shabby, as the course sits back in a patch of woods, and definitely puts those woods to work.

• Plenty of tight tunnel shots and dog-legs mixed in to keep your accuracy game on point. Very technical course with plenty of trees to taco your plastic.
- Variety in terms of shots is here (Not long bombers at all, but it covers shooting tunnels, left handed and right handed shots)


• Basically brand new chainstar baskets, first season in use, nice and shiny with a good amount of grab.

• The paths from basket to next tee are very "announced" and make navigation a snap, so that is a huge plus when you play a new course without a local.

• Teepads barely existed, most holes had dirt little patches, with wooded strips that you could trip over if you weren't careful, then again you had to FIND them to fall over them.

• Absolutely no signage at the pads to cover distance or lines (had to scout ahead a few times to figure out which way the basket was)

• Course was flat as could be, no elevation change (Not a huge con, but a little "up and down" never hurts)

• Pretty short overall, at only 9 holes. Probably best as a "Well I have time for a quick round on break" sorta deal here.

• No real risk reward feeling here, unless you want to count "making it through that impossible tree jail" a reward....it's pretty straight forward what line you want to take, or face the iron leaf.

I think with some work this place could go from "bleaugh" to "meh" at the very least. I realize there isn't a whole lot of land to work with, and that's probably why it's only a 9 hole setup, but I think with a little tweaking of the lanes, the possibility for some new shots to open up would do this place some good.

As I said, this place is best suited as a "I have time for a quick round" scenario. I wouldn't go out of my way to play this course again, but a bad round of disc golf usually beats a "good" day at work.

I can be there in 5 minutes!
It's sort of tucked away, yet close to town. If you are looking to just get out for a few, this is perfect. If you are on the back of the course and need to leave asap, it's quick. Neat hole layouts. Will have you hone in on you details. Tight shots, dog-legs, tons of trees. Very easy to 'get in jail' so you need to pay attention.

Teepads are dirt, which is lame, but they could be worse. I play it often so I know it pretty good, but if you don't it's confusing to figure out where to go. Every old guy with a dog like to walk the fairways, so watch where you step.

Way better than nothing. Nice baskets. Lots of room to add on, I think The City of Norton Shores just needs to hear it for the people who play it! This course has alot of potential

Aesthetic--plays through a multiuse park. other activities are not impacted by DG and vice versa

Baskets--nice new chainstars. Grippy.

Routing/nav--easy, trails are clear and easy to follow. not easy to get lost here

Variety--for a small park. it has it's bases covered. left, right, and straight.

teesigns-or the lack thereof

teepads--kick strips on 7 of 9 holes. pretty rutty and (loose) sandy.

only a 9-hole--but I don't think this course could support 18.

Risk v reward--none to speak of.

Elevation change--none to speak of

Blind holes--had to scout damn near every hole to figure out where the basket was.

this course isn't as bad as b3nder makes it sounds. I had fun.

Nice location. It is easily accessible.

The holes are poles instead of baskets, also the leaves are not well maintained. It is very difficult to find the next hole when so many leaves are covering everything.

course has been redesigned to add more length and trees into the mix. the new layout makes it a lot more challenging then the old 70's style layout that they had. paths to each hole are nice and easy to follow. just watch for the kick boards in the ground that indicate the tee.

hole 1 basket to where i believe hole 2 starts is a good distance away with no visual indication of where to start that i could see. Hole 2 starts in my opinion up the path on the 3rd base side of the ball field near the big pile of dirt is where i started from. tees are one inch borads that are in the ground.

hole 1, 2 and 9 are probably the longest holes on the course with a chance to drive a long drive. just be careful with 2 and 9 since you are throwing down a wooded path. overall I think it is a lot better course then what it used to be.

New nine hole course is in for 2012. The old course and posts are completely gone in favor of a new wooded course with holes 200-350 feet long, including new Chainstar baskets. Has some respectably challenging fairways, and is a big improvement over what had been the lowest rated course in the area.

Still only nine holes, with some other areas of the park available for golf not put to use. Poor dirt tees, tricky navigation (Holes 2, 3, 6 and 8 are hard to find). Hole 8 is an awkward right hand turn that could use some redesigning, with no real paths available.

Some work has gone in to clearing respectable fairways in a flat, wooded field between the border of the Muskegon Country Airport and Martin Rd. Course expands to the south and east of previous course. Character wise, it seems to be a flat, wooded course similar to Winstrom Park or some sections of Whitehall Township Park. Still not the top-notch park that the area still needs, but solid improvement over the previous course.

there aren't any really its a god place to practice accuracy and precision but other then that nothing. good place to play if you are really bored and have nothing to do.

Short holes. takes only twenty min. to play if you play all nine twice. no baskets just poles.

If you've got limited time available and happen to be in the neighborhood, this is a good place to practice putting and approach shots. I managed to play 18 (twice through the course) in twenty minutes flat (I was the only person in the park at 5:00 on a Thursday afternoon)

Tiny little neglected course. Very short distances. You play from one pole to the next. Most holes are straight shots through the trees. Landscaping and upkeep look like they haven't been taken care of in a long time.

Directions listed on this site are misleading. There are multiple park entrances, and you need to take one more left turn at the end of Randall before you take the right turn into the parking lot.