(full disclosure: I stole this review title from apdrvya - thank you )

Brower Park is located in a rural area that is about a 45-minute drive north of Grand Rapids, MI. The park is run by the county and is part beach, part campground, and part multi-use park. The beach and campground here looked nice, with good amenities and plenty of old growth trees to keep things cool in the summer. The park also has free WiFi, which in this day and age helps make up for the spotty cell service I experienced. I visited on Labor Day weekend and the large campground appeared to be pretty much full.

The multi-use park area contains nine wooden pole "holes" for disc golf. For some reason, the old map uploaded here refers to the course as "The Basch". I just Googled "Basch" and the top result was the playable character "Basch fon Ronsenburg" from the Final Fantasy video game series, a "36-year-old man with a strong, muscular-though-emaciated build, a tall frame, and blue eyes." Take that for what it's worth!

Names aside, comparisons between this layout of nine wooden poles versus the nine wooden poles at School Section Lake Veteran's Park (another combination park/beach/campground run by the same county) are inevitable. Unlike SSLVP, Brower Park does actually have some interesting throws. I legitimately enjoyed hole #3, which plays 300' ish slightly downhill through a moderately wooded area, then out into an open field the last 50' or so to the pole. There are at least a couple of trees to work around on the majority of holes here, and some minor elevation changes on several holes (although I can't say it's enough to have a major impact). Hole #6 is wide open and flat, but it also stretches maybe 500' - giving players an opportunity to test their distance. The remaining holes are probably all in the 200'-350' range, so nothing to sneeze at.

There are plenty of safety issues here. On hole 4 and especially hole 5, a fence is in play and beyond that fence is a steep drop-off down to the Muskegon River. It might be very difficult/dangerous to retrieve discs that stray more than a couple feet beyond the fence. Elsewhere, hole 6 plays across a soccer field and ends near a pavilion and playground. Holes 7 and 8 play over the park road, which was a dead-end when I visited due to a gate being closed but may sometimes be more active. A tennis court helps define the fairway of hole 2.

Again, this course does not have baskets but rather just nine wooden poles to throw at. The nine poles are sturdy but looked a little worn, not unlike the description of Basch fon Ronsenburg. There is no other disc golf infrastructure (tee pads, tee signs, navigational signs, etc.) to speak of. The lack of navigational aids is more problematic here than at SSLVP for three reasons: 1) The course plays through areas that actually have some trees, preventing easy reconnaissance of the entire layout at once, 2) The holes are longer so the overall course is larger, and 3) The map uploaded here is now significantly out of date. The course does still start where indicated (near the tennis courts, behind the park office) and Holes 1-4 are still similar to what is shown. However, now hole 5 plays only back to a pole near pole 3, holes 6-7 make their way back to the entrance road and slightly across it, hole 8 plays back into the park to a pole near pole 1, and hole 9 finishes at a pole that is actually close to hole 3's pole in the trees. This means that holes 3 and 9 technically have crossing fairways (though I'm not losing any sleep over it in this case), and the course does not end where it starts. I accidentally teed off towards hole 9's post when intending to play hole 3, as it is more visible from pole 2 - but my RHBH drive hyzered out a little more than intended so it ended up being perfect to reach the actual pole 3. Still - it seemed like poles 3 and 9 could be swapped or repositioned slightly to remove the crossing fairways, without really taking anything away from the course.

There is a $10 day use fee to enter the park, payable at the park office mentioned earlier. Credit cards are accepted if the office is open. A note for diehard baggers: Once purchased, the day use pass is good at all Mecosta County Parks - including SSLVP mentioned previously. You shouldn't come here only to play disc golf - but if you do, make sure you also visit SSLVP on the same day to reduce your per-course greens fee from $10 to $5.

The pars listed on the old map are very generous, and likely assume that players will be throwing an Ultimate Frisbee.

I visited Brower Park immediately after playing SSLVP, and after that course this one felt like a breath of fresh air. I don't disagree with the two current 0.5 ratings, but I'm going to go with 1.0 myself. This course is still not very good - and the pay-to-play-poles aspect will keep most DG'ers playing Final Fantasy as Basch fon Ronsenburg versus playing this course - but at least there are a couple of interesting throws. If it's a pole hole course you are looking for, this is the best of the three that I am aware of in the area (the third is Conklin Park). Beyond that, I still can't really recommend this place for disc golf - but the campground looks nice!

aesthetic-- plays through a lawn area of a camp ground on the Muskegon River. I imagine that there will be non-dg'ers galore in the summer months.

Flow--poles have numbers, flow is reasonable with the map with the exception of 789 which are now in the same area as the rest of the course.

everything else-- gaw, where to start. again this land is going to be swarming with campers in the summer months. the holes are VERY short and there are no tee areas, just tee from the previous pole. the flow is somewhat easy but somewhat not. the numbers on the poles are small and you're never really sure where to throw... #5 as said is about the only star of this course. but the risk of ending up wet might distract people from actually throwing on this hole.

This course did have a couple of interesting highlight holes. Shooting down the slight incline, under the trees on #3 was interesting, as was the route to the #4 hole tucked into the woods, but the true gems in this otherwise blah course were #5 and #6. #5 has you shooting directly along a wire fence line that bars access to a good-sized drop down to the river. The prevailing winds also work against you, pushing your disc towards the OB water. Both of us held our breaths as our discs drifted farther and farther out over the river......then dramatically dove left and dropped to the safety of dry land. Pshew! #6 was a wide open, long hole with the pin under a huge tree - a great chance to let those drives fly!

This course is a single pole layout, with no marked tee area; you merely start at the corner of the tennis courts, then make your next drive from the pole you just holed out on. The only course markings are small marker numbers at the top of each pole. The map was useful for the front 6, since several of the poles are in sight at any given time. However, the map is so vague, we never did find the tee marker for #7 (on the other side of the access road), or any sign of #8 or #9.

We talked with 1 camper who said they just play from the #6 hole pole to the #7 pole, but that had us throwing over 5 boat trailers then blind throws across both the main entrance road and the service road. Ick. He also mentioned that #8 and #9 are buried in a very heavily wooded area. After searching for several minutes, we just gave up.

If you happen to already be at the campground for something else and just get the itch to throw a few, the front six will entertain you for a few minutes. Other than that, don't bother to drive out of your way to play this course! Seriously.