Burchfield Park is a sprawling multi-use complex located just south of Lansing, MI. There are plenty of amenities to attract both DG'ers and non-DG'ers to the park, and plenty of space to keep the two groups well separated from each other. This review is for the Renegade's Trail course (formerly "Devil's Den" as I understand it), which is one of two 18-holers on site.

This course offers two teepads and two baskets per hole, creating four official signed layouts (the only exception to this is hole 17, which has a single basket in the center of a man-made island formed with bound together tree trunks). I played one round from the short tees to the long baskets, then a second round from the long tees to the short baskets. This was like playing two different courses. Of those two layouts, I would say that the short tee to long basket layout was definitely a little tougher - and both layouts were plenty tough for a noodle arm like me. I'm pretty sure I still would have enjoyed the shorts to shorts too, and plan on trying that for my next visit. The shorts to shorts would be a challenging but forgiving round for newbies, and recreational players could probably finish around par. The longs to shorts and shorts to longs will be plenty to challenge most disc golfers. The longs to longs provide a championship caliber round. As if these four layouts weren't enough to choose from, you could pretty easily play holes 1-8 and 18 for a 9-hole layout.

By Michigan standards, Burchfield Park is fairly open for the most part. However, there are enough trees and bushes on almost every hole to make you think and shape your shots. Ball-golf-style sand traps and other designated OB areas add some extra challenge on many holes. Elsewhere, a few holes play along tighter fairways in wooded areas. Hole 8 may be the tightest, and also has a marsh area defining the left side of the fairway. Rolling elevation changes are used well on many holes. The hills are not extreme here by any means, but overall I think there is either some elevation change, or trees to work around, or both on every hole.

The baskets are a mix of Chainstars and Chainstar Pros, all in good shape. Several baskets are either raised on mounds or sunk in small depressions ("anti-mounds"?), adding extra intrigue. Many baskets have flags on the top to help with visibility.

All 36 of the tee pads are concrete. These are narrower than most concrete pads I have seen, but long and in good shape.

The signage here is good. The tee signs look brand new (updated since photos here were taken) and are located at both long and short tees. They have a map of the hole, distance to each basket from the current tee, and all the other info you would expect. The navigational signage is omnipresent and very clear, differentiating between next long tee and next short tee where needed.

The other amenities are top notch. There are two practice baskets, and a wide open driving range between them. There is a real restroom at the parking lot. There are benches at most tees, and trash cans periodically. There are even water bottle filling stations at strategic locations throughout the course, which I used many times during my visit on a 90 degree day. The fairways are very well defined and were freshly mowed when I visited. Maintenance was impeccable throughout the course.

With all of the other outstanding amenities, I was surprised to not see a kiosk for this course. It almost looked like there used to be one, but the space was now taken up with an advertisement for a mountain biking track in a different section of the park. Next to this was an empty scorecard box and a sign in front of it to use UDisc instead. Navigation is fine here as stated above, but why not have kiosks and scorecards?

There was a weird low wall about 100' off of hole 2's long tee. I think it is intended to increase the challenge on this hole (i.e. you are supposed to throw over it), but I felt like it was kind of gimmicky.

Dirt drives are in play on several holes. I think these drives are more for park maintenance vehicles and not really open to the public, so only a very minor concern.

Although the fairways are pretty wide, the rough lurking next to them is thick in spots. You will want to keep a close eye on your throws that drift off course. I wouldn't say disc loss is likely, but it is possible.

The mix of Chainstars and Chainstar Pros is fine, but the way they are mixed was pretty much random as far as I could tell. It would be nice if it was consistent (i.e. all short baskets are normal Chainstars and all long baskets are Chainstar Pros, or vice versa). Not sure if preferred tournament layouts have something to do with this.

There is a fee of $5/car for a day pass to enter Burchfield Park, and an additional $5/person fee to play disc golf (there is a discount for Ingham County residents, and a yearly pass option available). Your fee covers an entire day of disc golf at this course and the other 18-holer on site, River's Edge. River's Edge is currently closed due to construction in that area of the park, but starts from the same parking lot as this course when open. All of the fees are payable at a staffed booth just inside the park entrance. Credit cards are accepted.

This course is very, very good...but besides the minor Cons mentioned above I think it just kind of lacks that "it" factor that a 5.0 rated course would have in my book. The park is very clean and well-kept, but there aren't any panoramic views. The individual holes are all good, but there weren't any that I will remember vividly next year - or even next month. Still, this is an amazing course that is absolutely worth the trip on its own. Throw in the fact that the River's Edge course is also on site (when it reopens) and you have a must-visit disc golf destination!

- Challenge: from long tee to long pin, this is an actual pro level course requiring no changes. Excluding #17, every hole requires big power and precise control. The par4s and par5s are true. The CCRO event in 2019 didn't even use the gold layout for 4 of the holes.
- Variety: with 2 tees and 2 permanent pins on each hole you can scaffold down the difficulty if needed
- Maintenence: the fairway grass was cut to a perfect length. Looks like they have a real staff that maintains the course. Some of the holes are gorgeous with OB, boulders, fountains, etc...
- waterless OB ponds/zones. The challenge without the risk of losing the disc.

- the rough is rough. Use a spotter if you're trying a big shot past your comfort zone
- Needs OB stakes. Since the rough is not OB, you can smash full power shots and land off fairway with no penalty. The 2nd shot of hole 6 comes to mind where you can go deep left to avoid the trees and OB pond. The pros really abused this at the CCRO event.
- cheat lines: guys with over 500 feet of power can "break the course" by throwing over some of the obstacles. A few strategically placed trees (or Mandos) could help here

This is a 100% must-play destination course. If you want to play a real-guy open course with par 4 and 5s, you HAVE to experience it. It has extra layouts and another course on the property (rivers edge) so you can make a day out of it. The river's edge course had a breath taking back 9 by the way.

Devil's Den boasts multiple amenity-laden, mostly open layouts to provide fun and challenge to every mood and skill level. More than any other non-ball-golf course I've played, Burchfield Park's Devil's Den course puts disc golf on par with our more well-known brethren. Every hole is outfitted with dual concrete tees and dual Chainstar pins, each of which features a large flag identifying the hole number and layout color. Boundless amenities add to the professional sheen, including benches, next tee signs, well-built wooden structures/obstacles, and on the 92 degree day that we played most recently, large water jugs strategically positioned throughout the course to refill bottles. Maintenance was impeccable, with every hole mowed and devoid of trash. This is the kind of pay to play experience that makes me happy to shell out a few bucks ($3 entry fee for Ingham County residents, $5 for non-residents, plus $4 per player) for a superior round or two.

The design is pretty solid too, with the dual tees and pins offering different looks as opposed to simply added length. All layouts are what I would call open strategic, where hitting the preferential landing zone is helpful but not essential to achieving low scores. This is a high fun factor course which maximizes the time spent throwing discs while minimizing the time spent searching for them. There's a clear skill level division on display in the layouts, with short to short offering a good layout for casual and rec players, short to long for intermediate, long to short for advanced, and long to long for pros. The long tees add an especial layer of difficulty, begging higher skill levels to attack the holes with nontraditional shots (i.e. rollers and, on Hole 2, a thumber or tomahawk tee shot). Old sand traps play as OB, and finding them is not as difficult as you might think. I speak from experience... Individual hole highlights include the gauntlet Hole 11, with its heavy premium on hitting the correct (left side, but not *too* left) landing zone to score well, and Hole 17, an attractive island green playing as a fun little late-round gut check that isn't punishingly difficult.

The Hole 18 Gold green deserves special mention, as a landscaped rock outcropping resplendent with a small fountain that wraps up the round in a neat little bow. Little touches like these make Devil's Den feel like a cared-for priority at Burchfield Park, a breath of fresh air compared to many other county park courses.

For a busy park, the area Devil's Den sits on is pretty exclusive to disc golf. The dirt road to and from the maintenance building sees a little bit of traffic, but the non-golf foot traffic on the course is almost zero.

There's a decent amount of overlap between the Holes 11 & 15 fairways, and it's not too much of a stretch for drives to end up in the way of another group. Golfers should be aware of players on the companion hole and adjust accordingly.

I would've preferred a little bit more hole variety (flat and sparsely wooded is the name of the game), but most of that can be found on River's Edge, the other course on site.

Off the fairway, the rough can be a little thick and laden with poison ivy, but it's still much thinner than River's Edge.

Devil's Den is the rare public course whose generous amenities nudge up the course quality and rating by a measurable amount. Even if the open design style isn't your bag, only the most sour discer could leave here feeling like they didn't get their money's worth.

Well groomed and roomy enough fairways, 4 courses in one, benches at all holes, picnic tables at many, shade available at each tee, insulated water jugs with drinking water were placed at about every 4th tee in summer, variety of throw skills required, friendly people, worth the price of admission, bathrooms and water at main building, next tee signage, flags on top of baskets with hole numbers. The short tee to short tee course is challenging enough for an advanced player with might be playing with rec players.

The rough most likely has poison ivy. Could use next tee stickers on each basket to help you find the next tee post signs. The rough is thick. Navigation at tee 12 gets tricky.

Could use some thinning of the rough adjacent to some of the narrower fairways and/or some trails hacked into the rough to facilitate finding a disc in said rough. Read other peoples reviews if you want to know about holes.

Intro:
I almost didn't get to play this course. I was in nearby East Lansing, visiting the prestigious Michigan State University campus (GO GREEN!) on a trip visiting Indiana. However, I sold my soul to the devil, AKA my mom, who is actually a sweet lady, but I needed to make a metaphor, and got to play this course. And boy was I glad I did.

Pros:
The first pro was present on all holes. Two nice concrete tee pads, two Discraft Chainstar baskets, and two super detailed tee signs. These are some of the most professional things a course can do. It provides the player a complete mix of challenges, with four different layouts on each hole, none less appreciated than the other. Some people don't like two baskets on every hole, but this was executed very nicely. None of the baskets were in the way of each other, and the gold baskets were not just longer versions of the blues, but a different layout altogether.

This park was in immaculate condition. The fairways were mowed to almost ball golf fairway length (Ok not quite that short), the trails were mulched, and the shrubs and undergrowth were well groomed. This is always a plus, no doubt. This was one of the best maintained courses I played.

Most all the baskets had large ball golf-like flags with color of layout and hole number. This was a very nice touch, adding to the well groomed and manicured aspect of this course.

The course design was of course well done too, or else this would not be a 4. I honestly threw almost every disc in my bag off the tee alone. There was a good mix of short and long holes , especially with the multiple tees. There were the wooded holes, and the open bomber holes. They had lefty friendly holes and righty friendly holes. It was very nice.

Navigation was fairly easy. There were a lot of directional signs, and most of the baskets were numbered, along with all of the tee signs. There were gold tee signs and blue tee signs as well as flags, so you would always know if you were throwing to the right spot.

There were some nice man made added obstacles. This was my first experience with bunkers on a disc golf only course. They were not deep, just OB sand circles somewhere around the basket. Some people might find this gimmicky, but I liked it. I think it was a nice way to add a death putt of sorts without the use of the non-abundant elevation in eastern Michigan. I liked the little rock greens that were made, and especially the beautiful fountain around 18's gold basket, seen in the picture of the course.

There are not that many things wrong with this course. Honestly. I really loved the course and how it was designed and maintained. There are a few things I can nitpick, but I will emphasize the fact that this course is a must play.

There was not a lot of elevation on the course. Where there was elevation, they used it well, but you never had a downhill bomb, or an uphill skill shot, which sucks, because that's one of my favorite shots to throw.

Some of the back nine holes were close together, most specifically 11 and 15. They ran parallel to each other, and as of the writing of this review, one of the baskets on 15 was without the blue flag, so you could possibly run into a nice throw to the wrong basket. (If the flag gets fixed, please let me know so I can remove that part of the review)

Navigation was tough on maybe one or two holes, mainly because it was behind the gold basket, which was way behind the blue basket a couple times, so that could be a little bit of a problem.

Cost to enter the park and disc golf fee. I didn't have to pay to enter the park, there was nobody at the booth. There was not a real place to pay for disc golf either, you have to go inside the building and near the office, if there is anybody there. I ended up paying there, but it was kinda weird.

There are two pro level courses onsite, within a great park. I could honestly see this being a great tournament venue, as it has two fantastic courses. It is a great addition to the amazing disc golf scene that Michigan has to offer, and I would highly encourage you to visit Michigan!

Fantastic course design. Fun deuce or die shorts to shorts. Fun, challenging two shot par fours from the longs to longs. Long basket positions are challenging and unique in many cases. I used to think of elevated baskets, man made obstacles, etc as gimmicks, but this course uses just about every trick in the book well without seeming like putt putt. The course maintenance/landscaping is better than any course I've played (this was #73). The OB sandtraps are used brilliantly on several holes. This is the first 5 I've given. It's based on the whole complex. (I lied, also gave Flip a 5)

Many people think I'm a tough grader. About my only con for this course is the mando wall on #2. Just seemed silly to me, and is about the only "clown's mouth" thing that detracted from this course.

The park is a very nice county park with numerous options for things to do. Having two completely different courses, as others have mentioned, makes this possibly THEE destination location in the state. Add to the fact Devil's Den is really FOUR courses in one with the tee/basket options...you could make this a multiple day trip and not be bored. The addition of short tee pads on River's Edge to make it more beginner/junior friendly is literally about the only thing lacking at this facility.

A superb course that rivals Flip city in it's fun factor: Levithan in distance and is in a class of its own in variety. 4 different courses long to long, long to short, short to long, and what seems the most popular amongst locals was the shorts to shorts. I saw no one playing long tees which seemed like a pro level course to say the least. I played the short tees to the long baskets and that is what I'm basing my review on.

I thought the course was very challenging with distance shots, it was long, and had manicured fairways. Well defined and had varied routes to choose from.

Excellent set of tee pads that were concrete. Clean course no trash lying around.

High fun factor 5 out of 5
Beginner to pro level
4 different layouts
Epic holes
Dog friendly
Clean
Elevation
Water holes
Another different 18 hole course next to it
Well maintained
Good signage shouldn't get lost
Friendly helpful locals

The course shared a lot of characteristics with some of the higher rated courses in Kentucky that I've played.

It might be to rough in the summer? I can see an issue with thick growth, I played on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. No winds sunny. No plant growth. Primo conditions. Terra firm and I witnessed no snakes.
Bugs as early as March. But not unbearable.

A few holes were average and forgettable. Gimmick on 2 and 17 but unique. Tee signs could be more detailed but trust me I'm nitpicking.

Well worth the 4 dollars each person to play.
In my top ten courses I've ever played!!
Worth traveling to.
A destination course.

Very Open
Well Groomed
Mildly challenging basket positions
Great options for all skill levels with the Short/Long tee and basket positions
Signage at each tee box

Only con I have is that there are a few holes near the road but it really is not anything to complain about

As a newer player, I really enjoyed this course. There isnt a ton of spots you can lose a disc. There are lots of fields edged by tree's used on this course which is great for a newer player. I can throw hard but not accurately yet so there is a lot of space for my discs to fly and not get lost. They have some really neat basket positions too within the trees which force you to make a great drive, or a good mid range shot to get in position for a easier putt.

Overall, I really think this is a phenomenal course for newer or intermediate players alike. Or a great practice spot for higher level players who can make the difficult shots that the long/long requires.

- Dual Tee/Basket locations
- Manicured
- Lots of length as well as short technical
- Pay to play to keep the riff out
- One of two excellent courses in the park

Hard to find many cons with a course this clean and well taken care of. It can take a little longer if you get stuck behind a group of newer players because of the length. There was quite a bit of Ivy in the rough (that can be extremely thick so pay attention to your shots)

One of the few courses ive played that I had a hard time nitpicking at least 1 or 2 holes. Well worth stopping and even traveling to. Ive only played twice, one round being a tournament but it seems to be quiet and secluded during weekdays. Looking forward to going back

This is going to be a fairly short and concise review as I will direct you to BogeyNoMore's review further down. He (I assume) nails it. I will just add a little bit of peanuts to his butter.

This course is what I imagine a disc golf course is like that is created like a ball golf course without actually being on a ball golf course. Pristine as can be. Truly have to hand it to the maintenance crew of this course, just spectacular. Hell, I saw only two random beer cans on the whole course and their presence was shockingly obvious.

How cool is it that in essence this course offers four courses in one? Two tee pads with two baskets on most holes. Diversity. I ended up playing long tees with gold baskets. One of the longest courses, if not THE longest course I have played. It was great.

Once again, see BogeyNoMore's review for agreed upon cons.

A few I might add.
I would have liked to seen more shorts on the longs. Weird I know.
Elevation was lacking, no fault of their own, and I'm from Ludington, so that doesn't help either.

In my changing top ten as of right now, and in my top 3 of maintained courses in the states. Go play. This course is going to take multiple play throughs to even feel it's greatness. Amazing job to those that are involved in the course design and maintenance. bravo!

This course was amazing. We researched courses in the area to play while we were traveling from VA to Grand Rapids, Michigan and were very glad we chose this.
You will throw a lot of discs in your bag. There was a great variety of shots and every hole had a great location.

The only thing negative was a lot of mosquitoes.

And maybe not scheduling enough time to be able to play the course again from the other tee or to the other basket.

It's worth your drive and the fee to play. It's well designed and well maintained.

Long/short Baskets AND Tees

Two sets of descriptive teesigns on every hole

Course and park maintenance is top notch from the mowing to benches and trashcans throughout

Many pin placements have small, but interesting factors such as being on small knolls or sunken into bunker-like craters.

The long tees and pins are definitely long, but definitely fair and don't try too hard to prevent access either down the fairway or to the pin.

17 and 18 provide an exciting finish with 17's island shot and 18's beautiful fountain.

Fairways are definitely fair, but if you find rough it can be punishing either from very dense tall grass or poison-ivy laden brush.

Mostly an open, placement shot course. However I didn't feel like the long tees requiring many max distance drives were that repetitive. River's edge helps to mitigate the open ness of this course.

The mando on #2 is a little strange but it adds to the professionalism of the course.

DD compliments River's edge almost perfectly. If you play this one after River's Edge, it's a nice opportunity to let it rip and blow off some frustration from it's heavily wooded counterpart. This is one of the premier 2 tee 2 basket courses in the state of Michigan. The man-made O.B. features have really shaped up nicely since conception; I actually think there could be more permanent OB features in and around the fairways and if that were to happen I would seriously consider this course a 5*. What it lacks in constant elevation it makes up for in trickier pin placements and distance off the long tees.

Two sets of tees and baskets on every hole, creating four course configurations.. This flexibility extends from an intermediate course (short tee to blue baskets) to a very long pro-level course (long tee to gold basket). I played the long tee to blue basket layout, and it was still quite long with two holes over 600 feet. The longest configuration has two holes over 1000 feet (Holes 5 and 6), eclipsing Hudson Mills Monster and Leviathan in terms of sheer length.

Most holes are meadow holes, with vast, green mowed areas. Hole 2 has an innovative wall obstacle in front of the long tee, with several holes having sandtrap-like hazards . Tree sparseness on the meadow holes is about right, rewarding skill. Lots of cunning pin positions show course design expertise. Simple yet effective signage at the tees and between holes. Has two complete sets of long, high-budget concrete teepads. My favorite was Hole 10, a grassy meadow hole with isolated patches of thick forest protecting a basket about 360 feet away. Not surprisingly, this hole is similar whichever tee or basket is selected.

Has nailed a lot of details, with picnic tables, trash cans, and water jugs (a life saver on a hot day, being a fairly open course). No smoking course, but the sign at Hole 1 specifically allows for beer and wine (but not liquor). Another small perk.

Some of the meadow holes are a little too close together for comfort (Holes 11 and 15 are the worst offenders). The short wooded holes form a minority, but have the feel of filler holes. Some of the long tees could be tricky to find, often requiring backtracking. However, the short tees are easier to find, and all baskets have large, visible flags (blue or gold).

Though large areas were recently mowed, many very rough, disc-eating areas were present. Not the best way to create challenge...I did not appreciate losing my favorite driver on the 300-foot Hole 14. The best courses south of Cincinnati in north Kentucky (Lincoln Ridge and Idlewild) deal with this issue better. $40 for an annual pass ($4 daily fee), with a separate charge for golf ($3) means you might have to make one more ATM stop when you're running late.

Course versatility, challenge, design features and amenities make this far and away the best course in the area. Congrats to the Lansing for finally getting a pro course..

Sorry for the length, but there's a lot worth mentioning, starting with a beautiful course in a beautiful park that was fairly litter free. Everything 1s well maintained and in great shape. Attention to detail is apparent everywhere you look.

• Disc Play:
+ Trees and elevation well utilized throughout; nothing huge but definitely a factor - keeps you engaged the entire round.
+ Fairly open design allows for numerous routes to the pin. Most holes are sparsely dotted with well-placed stands of trees and brush, forcing you to make decisions on the tee. Relatively few holes were "point and shoot."
+ Really doesn't favor lefties/righties, FH/BH/OH... it favors players who can adapt their game to avoid obstacles (including judicious use of OB) and execute. Evidenced by some tee signs displaying different distances for lefty/righty routes. Provides plenty of variety. You may not need every shot in your bag... then again, you might.
+ Wonderful execution of dual tees with full time dual pins (and some occasionally masterful placement) allows you to select the level of challenge you want. Yellow tees are longer than the blues, and typically have tighter/tougher lines to hit. Yellow pins were not only much longer, but better protected than the blues, with trickier approaches... so well done it merits elaboration:
• Short Tees/Short Pins: fun for experienced players without being too intimidating for beginners.
• Long/Short: increases distance while requiring more accuracy off the tee.
• Short/Long: requires even more distance than Long/Short plus greater accuracy on approaches.
• Long/Long presented a suitable challenge to local Pros I saw playing.
Consider that sometimes the tees/pins on a given hole are at different elevations, and the "season to taste" layout scheme truly provides expansive variety as well as red, white, blue and gold level challenge, allowing any skill level to "appropriately" use pretty much every type of disc off the tee.

• Equipment: Wonderfully maintained, everything's in tip-top condition.
+ Quality tee markers at all tees show layout, pin locations and accurate distances along - some even show different distances for different routes.
+ Yellow/blue flags on baskets help you spot Chainstars hidden among the trees from a distance, and help gage wind.
+ Concrete tees are level, large enough for reasonable run-ups, provided excellent footing and in great shape.

• Routing/Nav: Course is fairly well secluded from other park activities - I've seen very few non DG'ers in this section of the park. Flows pretty well for the most part, but there are a few spots where finding the next tee is less than intuitive. Fortunately, they've provided plenty of help:
+ Signs with the next hole # and an arrow pointing the way.
+ Mowed paths from green to next tee scream "that-a-way."
+ Map on back of scorecard.
+ Concrete tees and tee markers are fairly easy to spot as you make your way around the course.

• Aesthetics - Plenty of eye appeal and some special touches (11's long tee and 18's long pin) show they put time, effort, and money into this. Nicely manicured fairways, tees and greens all look wonderful (I hope they hold up well to traffic over the years). Feels very much like country club disc golf, everything's nicely groomed and beautifully presented.

• Extras:
+ Clean bathrooms with running water located near the parking lot.
+ Scorecard/map & pencils available near parking lot closest to 1st tee.

This really is a great course. It doesn't need gimmicks like:
• Gimmick 1: The wall in front of 2's long tee is artificial, contrived, and stupid. The ultimate Mando? Perhaps, but playing long tees to long pins is challenging enough. Toquote Ronald Reagan "...tear down this wall!"
• Gimmick 2: 17's "reverse" island green, where the "green" is defined as OB. Fascinated at first, my 2nd time around, I realized it's just dumb: if you hit metal off the tee and chain out, you take a stroke? That's BS. Tourney rules (posted on a temp sign) called for a conventional island green: land inside the zone or shoot from the drop zone with a stroke penalty - makes a lot more sense. But unlike the wall, you can play this however you want.
• Not that the course lacks shot variety, and maybe it's just me, there are no tunnel shots that really force one specific line and dare you to execute it. If nothing else, their more claustrphobic nature changes the feel of a hole. While Devil's Den requires you to hit some tight windows, you never have to thread a shot a long way through a gauntlet, nor does it have even a small smattering of densely wooded holes. These elements would make the course more complete.
• 11 and 15 play parallel and close to each other. While I was playing 15, a disc thrown from 11 came fairly close to me - there seems to be enough room available to avoid this.
• Much of the rough is the kind of low lying prairie grass, weeds, and burrs that serves no purpose other than to make looking for discs miserable and frustrating without affecting disc play. More on point, bad shots aren't necessarily penalized.
• While the tee distances seem quite accurate, the fairway shapes/pin locations as illustrated often seemed exagerated, to the point of being misleading in some cases.

They got all the big things right, and most of the little ones, too. Attention to detail and little touches are everywhere. The result is a 1st class course that's polished and suitable for any tournament or player.
• Not sure how typical wind is here, but it definitely affected my disc choice and shot selection on this relatively open course.
• One element (employed on 2-3 holes) I haven't seen elsewhere: baskets sunk into a large depression in the ground. Hence, approaches that roll are likely to help rather than hurt, as they roll toward the pin at the bottom of the pit... those who throw rollers might really like these. Intriguing perhaps, but could be listed in cons to the extent they minimize risk reward, and provide no incentive to lay up whatsoever.
• I can't really complain about the $5/per car entry, plus $4/per player fees because everything's thought out and kept up so well you'll never wonder "Where's the money going?" It's steep for one solo round, but with a 2nd quality course onsite, and all the extra touches, it's hard to argue that it's not worth it, and only a bit more than Hudson Mills or Deerfield park. If it bugs you, bring friends to split the entry fee 'cause this gem's worth sharing.
• You pay the entry fee coming into the park, but where do you pay the add'l disc golf fee? There's no collection/donation box or attendant anywhere near the courses. The person collecting the park entry fee never asked if we were playing DG, so all I paid was $5 entry fee. If they truly want the add'l $4 to play, make it obvious and easy to pay it.
• While some of cons seem unnecessary (wall, reverse island green, even the sunk pins), at least they're the result of trying too hard, rather than mailing-in something that's "good enough." That said, effort doesn't factor into my ratings. Don't come here because they tried - come here because they succeeded.

Overall, this is a phenomenal course that could stand on its own anywhere. The good news is the few elements I thought were lacking are present in spades on River's Edge. They're so dissimilar that they provide a sort of disc golf Yin and Yang. Two high quality courses that feel and play so completely different from each other make this a splendid location for mutliple round tourneys and a no-brainer destination if you can get here.

- short and long tees
-variety of holes
-very clean with garbage cans everywhere
-easy to find your way for first timers
-water coolers at a lot of the holes for hot days
-very scenic

-alot of mosquitoes when muggy out
-if you are a non resident it is a little pricey

We played when it was on an off rain but not to bad so I believe there were more mosquitoes out then normally but I would advice to bring bug spray otherwise you will get eaten alive. (I don't know about this for dry days however) I found it strange that they would build very nice brick wall just to be used as obstacles around the park but it was a nice addition I have never seen at a DG park. The 18th hole is very unique and I loved the idea of the fountain. I am not from the area so when my friend and I came to pay we were surprised we had to pay 9 dollars for one round but If I was in the area again most likely I would come back.

+ Multiple tees and pins maximize playability
+ Looooong teepads
+ Necessary tee signs helped navigate and explain the layouts on some holes
+ Carved/mowed fairways were in great shape
+ A big disc golf equivalent of a regular golf course in terms of layout and features
+ FLAGS - I loved the blue and gold flags that improved visibility of baskets
+ Stones marking distance to long pins (300 feet)
+ Memorable holes/amenities (18's basket placement, 2's obstacle, sandtraps)
+ Low repetition on hole layouts, but distance was often rewarded more than accuracy
+ Benches/trash cans
+ Great facilities
+ Great parking
+ Right next to River's Edge

- Rough brush off the fairways is gonna suck when it thickens (but will up the difficulty for a +)
- Although I really learned to like the options at each hole, without a guide the first round played here is probably going to be stressful for anyone
- Layout options also made it difficult for people searching for bad throws that landed on fairways that bordered shared rough between holes
- Flimsy, temporary tee signs were absent from many tees
- Hole 17's OB was a bit odd
- Hole 2's wall is silly
- Course map isn't very easy to follow

OVERALL: I really liked Burchfield's original course. Accurate upshots was not the challenge here, shaping long drives was, so I could see it being a very fun place to develop distance and good form (although you'd be spoiled with the large tee pads). Fortunately, the grand scale of the course made grabbing different drivers based on wind direction and the various obstacles really, really fun. The varying levels of difficulty kept the layout interesting as well, especially as I struggled to stay near par up to hole 18.

DESTINATION COURSE: This course could provide an excellent reason to visit the park, which has a lot more to offer than just disc golf. Also, the park is very family and dog-friendly. Lots of activities for everyone. I really appreciated how nice it was. We visited on a disc golf road trip to Grand Rapids from up north and were very happy we chose to go out of our way to play here. I have to admit, however, that I had way more fun on the 11 holes of the "River's Edge" course (hopefully won't be flooded soon) than the original for sure (despite mixed tee pads). So, put the two big, nicely maintained courses together and you have an amazing opportunity to fill a whole day with 3-4 different rounds. Your arm might be jelly by the end, but it'd be worth it.

COMPARISON TO HUDSON MILLS: Please excuse me for using Hudson Mills as my main comparison for this course, but it truly embodies a similar feel. It's a very large and well-maintained piece of land requiring a bunch of drivers, throwing grass in the air to get wind direction, and well-placed, long and accurate throws. Burchfield Park's Original layout is like an expanded and better maintained Hudson's Original course holes A-F. Similar to those holes, the majority of Burchfield's original course plays through fields with the rough being unmowed growth and several sparsely located large trees providing the majority of obstacles. Pin placement is also very similar, except Burchfield has more trees, which makes it more fun!

LAYOUT CONFUSION: The layout problems really were a bummer and I weigh them significantly in my rating.

Like I said before, I really liked the course a lot, especially after getting into the layout's quirky and sometimes confusing rhythm. We gained some momentum on our first round here around hole 8. My biggest gripe with this course isn't the layout, however, it's that quite a few of the tee signs were missing. The signs are just flimsy laminated pieces of paper stapled to wood blocks about a foot off the ground and therefore were blown away from many tees. If there were more directional markers and if every tee had a sign, the course would be "Phenomenal". However, I think these small details have been taken for granted. In my opinion, they're essential to give first timers a smooth round since the provided course map just isn't enough. The random absence of each one provided us with just enough doubt to make the layout confusing. [What tee is this? I don't know, check the map. Well it could be this one or this one. Hmm, it must be this one! Oops, it was that one... Sound familiar?] My advice is to print the map from here on DGCR. It helped to bring it up on the smartphone at times.

By the way, other people on the course definitely had the same confusing experience as we did. We asked a few groups some simple layout questions and anyone who was playing it for the first time had the same confused look we did.

Once we come back and play all the layouts and if the tee signs are all in place, I'm sure this review will go from 4.0 to 4.5 discs. Not perfect, but it has the potential to be amazing.

Thanks for reading!

Love it. Can spend ALL day here. Worth the 5$.

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None really. So much to pick from

Massive holes if you play gold.

Designed and manicured very well. Lots of perfectly placed autumn olive shrubs and the like make its many open holes not feel at all like open holes.

Long and short tees and baskets for each hole means 18^4 different game permutations are available! Long tee to long basket setup is over 9,500 feet for the pro and advanced player. Short to short is in the 4,500 feet range, and you could devise anything between the two to suit your desires. There's something for everybody.

Artificial O.B. is created niftily in many spots throughout the course. There are several unique features, too, such as the brick wall on #2's long tee, the "island" basket placement nearer the end of the course, and the breathtaking use of box elder trees that grew diagonally for the long tee on one of the holes later in the course.

Pay to enter and pay to play (as much as $9/day for out-of-county residents) probably helps keep the riff-raff to a minimum.

Anything in the "con" category is merely nit-picking...

I dislike the basket placements on top of pimple-like artificial mounds.

There could be a few more tightly wooded holes to balance the game-feel. Only #8 sticks out in my memory as I sit here as primarily a wooded hole.

The logistics between #10, #11 and #15 can be confusing if you miss the signs.

Burchfield Park (in combination with the brand-new River course) is a destination Disc Golf facility all day long. I played it today for the first time, and the excitement I've got is similar to when Hudson Mills first put in their Monster course back in about 1997, and many of the holes feel similar. In fact, my 79 and 81 playing the Long to Long setup is commensurate to what I'd shoot playing Hudson Mills' Monster...except that Burchfield is only 18 holes, HMM 24!...and I loved nearly every inch of it.

I want to draw particular attention to Hole #10. Every course should have several holes like this one. It's not even close to the best hole here in terms of cool terrain, unusual trees, or some sort of unique device on it (such as #2's brick wall!), and it's dead flat in terms of elevation, but I just adore the designer's eye for creating an actual GOLF hole here. There is risk/reward if you choose to go right...You risk going O.B. due to the perfectly-placed park road, and if your Disc barely peters off to the left, you've got the large circle of dense shrubbery...BUT, if you pinpoint a great 300ish foot drive, you've got an easier (not a breeze, though!) upshot at the basket. If the drive to the right seems too risky for your desires at the moment, you can instead aim way left and have a longer, tighter tunnel to the basket for a second shot. Less risk at the beginning, but more at the middle to end of this option. #10 is simple, yet outstanding...And I'd like to see a lot more of this kind of thing throughout all of our courses (especially since it doesn't take a lot of special terrain or obstacles to make it happen).

The four permutation-per-hole setup is...is...astonishingly awesome, and this layout is a prime example of how you're supposed to make "open" holes. My 1996 self is giddy to see that we've finally arrived at a time and place in our sport's history when courses like this seem to be popping up on the map all the time. To think I used to travel this far for courses much more banal...

- Pro tees / Pro Baskets
- Wonderfully maintained
- Wide variety of difficulty
- Very long course

- Sort of confusing for a first timer. The next hole doesn't start until after the Pro basket which can sometimes be hundreds of feet further.
- Some of the signs were missing
- No bathrooms
- Very long course

Hole 17 is a 100 ft basket surrounded by an island of sand. You must land your disk in that island or else it is out of bounds. I LOVE this concept! Very creative.

This course is super, it has elements of Flip City (my favorite) with the some rock landscapings and Hudson Mills (my 1st favorite course) with some "prairie" golf holes while being extremely well mowed. Generally I despise "prairie golf" but it was so well maintained it didn't feel like it.

The park/course is beautiful. The cut grass defined the fairways in a terrific fashion. Moderate elevation and sand traps made this feel like a ball course at times. It's one of the best manicured courses that I have seen including Idlewild.

Two baskets on every hole, the blue (short) was a nice challenge for this Adv Masters player while the yellow (long and extremely) were pro or world class caliber.

Extra long concrete tees.

A few ace runs and some holes over 500 ft from the short tees, nice variety. Nothing too tight on the wooded holes.

Secluded feeling in the park is much appreciated.

#18's long basket area with a rock wall, flowers and a waterfall!

It's now in my top five out of 300+ courses played!

Not obvious from the parking lot to find tee #1, after you start it's well marked with plenty of next tee arrows.

The long baskets were EXTREMELY long in places. I thought about playing from the short basket to the long basket several times.

I played here after Labor Day and didn't have to pay but am willing to send a donation to this great DG destination. Donation sent!

The baskets and flags do NOT have the hole number on them.

The mando wall on hole #2 made me think "WTF" from the tee but my tomahawk shot cleared it easily.

When playing #11 it is easy to throw at short #15.

While playing it I was thinking of rating it a 5 but due to some slight repetition and not enough elevation as my other 5's have, I'd like to give this course 4.75, it's that good!

Playing it a 2nd time a year later (short tees to long baskets) I'm upgrading my rating to a 5!

A 2nd course is also in the same park, you have to see and play #2 down the toboggan run. Do not leave without doing this!