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.

- In a beautiful state park that borders what is essentially an equally beautiful inland lake.
- All of the baskets are newer Innova Discatchers with double layer chains and the conspicuous yellow chastity belt adorning the top. Kind of a nice feature since spotting baskets out in woods like this can be challenging.
- No navigation issues to speak of. The park service has put in big brown and white signs indicating where to go. If you get lost on this course you're either stupid high, dumb or not paying attention.
- On each teepad there are 5 gallon buckets serving as trash cans. And not surprisingly the course is rather free of debris.
- 9, 10 and 11 play along the lake and offer stunning views. It's too bad the water never comes into play here.
- I am very thankful that someone went to the effort to write the distances on each of the tee signs.
- I like the tee pads. About half of them seem like they are slabs from something else so to see material like that get recycled is pretty cool. All the pads were fine for me.
- #8 is far and away the best hole on the course and really gets your attention with it's 300'+ long fairway through a tight line in the woods.

- Newaygo over all seems to be a rather repetitious course. Sort of variations on a theme which is "let's see how many 200-ish foot long holes can we make through these woods." The answer here is 15 apparently. 8, 17, and 18 are all pretty long but the rest are just plane 'ole deuce run after deuce run. Yawn. And then a few ace runs on 14 and 15.
- Poke and hope fairways just drive me nuts. 12 and 16 are perfect examples of this. Yes there is a fairway but midway down there are half a dozen trees with 36" gaps between each. Yay! Let's play plinko!
- The shorts (why are there short tees on this short course anyways?!?!) are marked with a typical 4x4 laid flat in the ground. Unsurprisingly, given the short nature of this course it doesn't look like anyone uses them.

Newaygo is the kind of course you want to bring a first timer to teach fundamentals of the game. Since there is a large campground here I suppose this is a good spot for that. It's where you hand the newb a Roc or Buzzz and let them fall in love with the game like each one of us did. This really isn't a place to get your big arm distance on.

And a note on state park passes. If you are only coming here to play disc golf this is going to be a rather expensive pay to play situation. If you are a Michigan resident just get the yearly pass or pay an extra $10 to the Secretary of State when renewing plates. It's worth it because it supports our valuable park system and if your are like me visiting parks is common practice in the summer. If you are an out of state visitor and are only stopping to play disc golf and not camp or do anything else in the park then the passes probably not worth it. I would move on down the road and look for somewhere else to play.

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.

Newaygo State Park features 18 holes on flat, wooded terrain. This course offers some variety in the way of shot choice and route selection through tight tree lined and tree dotted fairways, but the holes are generally short and simple. The possibility of losing a disc is low, with the exception of hole 18, and the roughs are generally not very dense with bushy thickets or other treacherous growth. The course was clean and the holes utilize concrete teeing areas which are rough and provide good traction. Navigation is intuitive.

This course winds through camp sites which could be a bit intrusive to campers. There are holes that could be considered unfair as there are no defined lanes and plenty of trees to hit. There is quite possibly nothing more annoying than facing an impossible hole and this course has more than one hole that could be called lame. It is possible that paying 6 dollars for a day pass to play this course could feel like a rip off by the end of the round as it is a short, relavtively unremarkable play.

This course might be worth a look to anyone passing through the area with a serious disc golf jones. Especially if you have a state park sticker and don't have to cough up the 6 dollar fee for the somewhat mundane course. Overall, it is always a worthwhile experience to play disc golf and play it everywhere possible so thanks to Newaygo for the nod. Alright, just nothing to write home about.

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.

The course is a nice walk through the woods. The holes are easy enough for players just starting out. If you toss your disc in the woods, it is generally easy to find except for hole 18.

The holes are too easy for experienced disc golfers; most are are 300ft or less.

Hole18 Tip: It could help to have a spotter walk up around the corner to see where discs fall. It's pretty hard to find the disc after it enters the dense foliage around there.

-concreate tees
-well marked
-nice beginer course

-there were 4 right curves in a row all almost exactly the same. i jaust had to play them the same way and i got the same result. In order to have good course you cant have repeats
-very very very easy.
-the only really tough one is 18 and that is just impossible.

campers nearby watch out.

I love this course. I head out there camping about 5-10 a year. We grab a campsite right on the course and play about about 2-3 round per day. Totally LOVE IT... SO Relaxing! The course is a very tight and for the most part pretty short, so it challenges all the shorts in your bag (especially the tomahawk with the thick trees). Play a few rounds out here and it'll make you a better overall player.

Distance doesn't come into play too often. Accuracy is what you need here

If you want to shoot low you gotta have a little luck on your side because on a few holes got a lot of trees.

A couple pads could be placed a little different

Don't like the fact that they take the backets out in the winter and JUST put them back in.

I've only been playing for about a year but this is by far my favorite place to play... The camping just makes it that much sweeeeter!

Signs
Convenient Parking Lot

First Four Holes Look Tight.

Came out during the winter to play. Tight fairways for the first four holes. Excited to come back and play this course. The holes were down in the winter so I couldn't get a chance to play. Keep that in mind the next time you play this course in the winter. Enjoy!

New baskets, concrete pads and great signage make this course relatively easy to navigate. Tee pads are massive which is usually a good thing. Parking lot is VERY conveniently located JUST outside the entry gate to avoid any fees to play. Great sign that says DISC GOLF PARKING, letting everyone know we exist and invading Michigan's State Parks. ALSO there is camping in the park and there are campsites sometimes only 20-30 feet from teepads. It actually helped me that day because I sold a disc to a family. If I would have had more extras, they would've been golfing that day

Ridiculous tee placements. Not every pad is where it should be. A 6x10 teepad should be in a place where there are options for throwing from the respective corners for LH and RH golfers. A lot of the pads are oriented pointing in the entirely wrong direction and make it so only a small 1'x1' corner of the pad can be used in order to get a good line at the pin. Too many trees in the wrong spots. A mistake made by a lot of designs shows here in the attempted copy of a couple nearby course's layouts. Very aggravating at times are the the signs being just a few feet from the basket location. Hole 14's indicator sign is fewer than 10 feet from 13's basket, making me have to straddle putt a perfect drive. Potentially that metal sign could actually break a disc, so bad idea there for sure. If the course didn't look like a bulldozer drove through most of the holes, leaving a bare flat dirt fairway, not natural terrain, it might have earned an extra rating point.

My experience brings me to hope that all disc golf course designs bring out the natural beauty of the property. This course totally missed it. Awful AWFUL tee pad placement on over half the holes. Most of the tees here have PVC pipes embedded in four spots on them. They are just asking for someone to hurt themselves on those things. It definitely forces the golfer to take a different route to the front of the teepad on the drive. This course looks like they just randomly dropped 18 baskets from the sky and then built the course around it. One VERY bad thing about the course is the baskets. They are brand new Innova Discatchers. For some weird and dumb reason, the S-hooks that hold the chains to the chain harness/top ring of the basket still have their plastic packaging on them. THATS LITTERING when those things finally come off. It looks like crap and it's littering. I didn't have enough daylight to stand there and remove every single plastic wrapper from every single S-hook on every single basket, otherwise I would've been happy too. Instead I just picked up random litter along the course. Won't be back here for a while. Branstrom (5-star course IMO) 30 minutes to the west, why waste your time here? Head to Fremont and see some next-level design.

Tight fairways will challenge accuracy of all levels of players. Many short to middle range holes where placement is key. Excellent park bench between hole 9 and 10 with view of Hardy Dam Pond (looks like a lake to me). Ace run time on 15! Paths between holes are extremely well marked for flawless 1st time navigation on trails in the woods.

Because this course is so new, there is no cement, tee signs, trash cans, etc. Rough is pretty thick, so keep it in the fairway!

On your 1st time, there are a lot of blind holes, so additional scouting is reqired. Play many holes to a place in the fairway and get a par. Parking it on the drive will not happen on many holes because of the accuracy required. Bring your bug spray and water.

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.

Great signs for every pad indicating hole number. Weaves next to a campsite for those interested in camping. Lots of par chances even for beginners. I consider myself a middle of the road player and I had 4 birdies. I played in the early spring so there was not much thick brush, but it looks like it could get thick in the middle of the year. Not a lot of elevation makes for really easy walking. I don't remember any stumps or piles of branches for it being a new course. Nice view of lake/river along 9 and 10.

The parking for the course was not marked. Park next to the brown building I posted a picture of. No real variety on this course. I consider it a chip and putt course. It's short enough you can peg a tree and still save par on most holes at least in the spring. No elevation or openess to really stretch a drive. No trash cans as of May 1st. As you can see from pictures a lot of holes looked the same. The first few tee pads look like they laid 2 old boat ramp pads down.

I think this is a good course for young families who want to just get a taste for disc golf while they are camping. I would play it again if I lived close, but it's just not worth much of a drive. If you want to practice tossing some midrange discs in between some small gaps, this is the course for you.

Nice new baskets, big tees, lots of good signage throughout. Clean and well manicured 'wooded' forest course. Tight and technical at times, but not ridiculously so (the tighter the fairway, usually the shorter the hole). Good mix of righty and lefty holes, and plenty of nice scenery (several holes hug the lake). Deceivingly easy looking course on the first few holes, but gets gradually more challenging as the course progresses.

Might be a little too technical for some, and it remains to be seen how difficult it becomes as the trees fill in in the summer time. Would like to have seen more elevation put into play, but overall a very nice effort by whoever designed and installed this course.

About a 40 minute drive from the Grand Rapids area, and nearby Fremont would make a nice 'two course' meal.

Brand new course. Hole 1, 2, and 3 are wide open shots with a clear path. Cool views of the river.

Crazy paths most holes reward lucky shots over skilled throws. Hole 18 is a crazy S shaped shot that is impossible.

Remove some of the trees in that are in the way. Newyago could be a really fun place to play
Disc Golf.