Mt. Pleasant, MI

The Ferns @ Odyssey

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2.85(based on 5 reviews)
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3 0
apdrvya
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 13.9 years 350 played 293 reviews
1.50 star(s)

hey, cheryl, they said your name on the family man, what? 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Aug 15, 2013 Played the course:once

Pros:

Aesthetic-- plays through a pine forest on the side lot of a Montessori school. walking trails intersect but didn't really seem like an issue.

Risk v reward-- risk comes in the form of the crazy rows of trees here. the use of the trees is done well.

Baskets-- nice discatchers on 8 of the 9 holes. a "tone pole" is still present on #6.

Teesigns-- nice with distance, layout and a little story about something or other related to the school.

Cons:

Variety- biggest con here. you are throwing down a 6-8' row of pines for 200-300 feet hoping to hell you don't hit a tree and fly off 50 feet. It goes on this way for 9 holes. #6 is about the only highlight and there wasn't even a basket...The walls were more of a nuisence than a challenge.

Blandness-- this course is eerily boring. we played this course last on a day when we played three other courses and were more than happy to be done.

Other Thoughts:

only play this course if you are already in mt pleasant. don't go out of your way to play it.
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2 1
jcarter
Experience: 17 played 17 reviews
3.00 star(s)

2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:May 6, 2012 Played the course:once

Pros:

great layout with little land they have to offer, very nice signs on every hole

Cons:

no baskets, its just poles, but i see that they are trying to get baskets, no tee pads just dirt.

Other Thoughts:

this was fun, every hole was very tough to shoot, will be back whne they put in baskets
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5 0
deBebbler
Silver level trusted reviewer
Experience: 28.8 years 75 played 34 reviews
3.00 star(s)

Should've been called The Comet 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Oct 31, 2010 Played the course:once

Pros:

Very challenging tight lanes in a narrow row pine forest. The ceiling is pretty high, and a full canopy has kept the ground growth to a minimum. You aren't losing any discs here.

Impressive length for a small course on school grounds. I paced out the holes during my round, and there are a couple that are close to 400'.

Evilly placed log wall obstructions on holes #1 and #3. The first is 10' directly in front of the pin, and the second is placed ~250' down the row.

Simple brush defined paths made finding the next tee a snap. The tees are simple, and easily defined. Although the tees are natural, they are in beautiful condition.

Cons:

Zero scenery. This is a dull pine forest with nothing to keep the eye entertained.

Not much deviation in shot selection. One hole is a monster right turning S that will give RHBH throwers a nice headache, but mostly you are threading a narrow alley throughout the course.

No baskets. No water. No OB.

Other Thoughts:

I was very impressed with what they did here. This is in no way ideal DG property, but the course offers a lot of challenge by design.

Take the poles, for example. They could've painted the stump a fluorescent color, or used a colored metal. Instead, by leaving them unpainted and using a dull metal, they blended in very effectively with the surroundings. Although this course is flat and straight, often I was essentially throwing blind from the tee.

This is a great example of effective minimalism in course design and execution. It is a good complement to the nearby CMU course which is very open and non-restrictive in terms of shot selection.

This isn't a destination course, but a fun and challenging 9 that should be hit up if you are in the area and have 30 min to kill.

Remember to bring a Comet.
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6 0
ChipFan7
Experience: 14.9 years 16 played 4 reviews
3.00 star(s)

Neat Course 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Apr 16, 2010 Played the course:once

Pros:

Very challenging, some long holes reaching up to 400 feet, beautiful scenery, constant shade for hot summer days, easy to find the next hole because there are paths mapped out with logs, tee areas marked with hole number and red reflector.

Cons:

No signage for distance, no garbage cans, tough to find because the campus map doesn't have the course on it, since there are so many trees it is tough to see where you are supposed to be throwing to on some holes, not a great variety of different types of holes.

Other Thoughts:

The course is located on a high school/middle school campus and is located in the woods for the entire 9 holes. There are no baskets, but instead there are wooden poles with metal tubing wrapped around the top 1/3. Hit the tubing to hole out. The course is very tough because almost every hole goes through rows of trees. The fairways are no more than 10 feet wide in most sections. If you are playing pro par, you have to throw your discs dead straight, because if there is even the slightest bit of tail to the left or right, you will be in thick woods and have few shot options most of the time. If you are lucky, you might be able to slalom between rows of trees and land in the fairway, but this is risky because you will most likely hit a tree 20 feet in front of you. Hole 6 is an extremely hard hole over 400 feet with an "S" curve shape. Most holes require a decent amount of power, but it is definitely a finesse course. I gave the course a "3 Star" rating because there are no signs and the poles are hard to spot from the tees on some holes. NOT a beginner's course
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4 3
JohnnyShoes
Experience: 18 played 5 reviews
3.50 star(s)

Quiet and Serene 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Nov 18, 2009 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

A quick course out in the country, expect to play this course in around 40 minutes.

If you are sick of CMU or Midland being packed and rowdy, this is a nice quiet course. You are often the only person out there.

The tee pads are made of dirt and are very flat and smooth. There are some stumps on the tee boxes, but they don't really come in to play.

Each tee pad has a sign with hole distance and direction. You can usually see the basket from the tee. There is also a bit of information on the tee sign about the area.

The alternate tees are being installed this summer, and should add a little challenge. They are going to be shorter, but with harder angles and less forgiving.

The randomly placed walls around the course don't really add any challenge, but they are an inventive use of the lumber that has been cut down.

There is a class at the school that helps maintain and improve the course. From 5-10 students spend an hour each day moving logs, cleaning tee pads, and adding challenges. The outdoor class is working on taking out a few trees to make the course more playable.

Cons:

Mosquitoes. The land adjacent to the course has a slow flowing stream and wet lands, so there is an astonishing amount of bugs.

The trees. The course was installed in rows of CCC pines (see hole 2 for info). If you clip a tree and go off the "fairway", you can be in quite a bit of trouble.

Hole Number 6. There is no basket yet, but I hear the school is working on getting funding for that.

Other Thoughts:

The students designed this course with little to no knowledge of what was going on. With gentle nudges from the teacher, the course is getting on track.

Now that there are benches, tee signs, course maps, baskets, and alternate tee pads; this course will be a nice addition to the disc golf community
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