Harvey, MI

Silver Creek DGC

3.645(based on 7 reviews)
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11 0
DFrah
Gold level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 5.8 years 227 played 225 reviews
3.50 star(s)

My second favorite Silver Creek DGC! 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Oct 1, 2021 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

Silver Creek DGC is one feature of a multi-use park just outside of Marquette in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The park also has a baseball field, soccer field, playground, and tennis court, but the course stays well away from these.

This course has two tees per hole. The long (Blue) tee pads are concrete and the short (Red) pads are rubber. Both sets of pads are large and were in good shape for each of my visits
(one in summer 2020, another in fall 2021). The tee signs are nice as well. They appear at both Blue and Red tees, and are color coded accordingly. They show a map of the hole, including surrounding holes which is an added feature that I personally appreciate. Other information on these signs includes hole distances and pars to both the main basket location and an alternate basket location. There was one basket per hole in the main pin position when I played, and it wasn't clear to me how often (if ever) baskets are moved to the alternate location.

Regardless of the tee you choose to play or what pin position is currently in place, this is a relatively short but highly technical round. From the Blue tees, this course will be a moderate challenge for recreational and intermediate players. There is a nice mix of left turns, right turns, and straight fairways cut through the woods. Although most holes are under 300', some of the lines are quite tight. The tree trunks are thick off the fairway but the ground cover is thin - perfect rough for adding challenge without hiding discs. On most holes, with a poor tee shot you could easily card a bogey - or worse.

The course isn't terribly hilly, but moderate elevation changes affect things on a few holes. Hole 17 is the only semi-open hole, and it plays 300' across a valley. The opposite side ridge slopes down to the left, making this a tricky throw for RHBH players.

The Red tees are generally quite short, with most holes under 200'. This looked like it would be a nice round for new disc golfers, and might even be enjoyable for those using a Frisbee or only 1-2 discs.

The baskets are Chainstars, all in good shape. There is also a practice basket. This is located between the parking lot and the first tee, along with a kiosk. A porta potty is also nearby. A few benches are scattered around the course.

Cons:

I thought the navigation here was a little bit tricky, and I got turned around a couple times. The kiosk had no map on it when I visited. There were no Next Tee signs. A couple of the tee signs at the pads mention where the next hole is, but with a few long walks between holes I didn't think that was enough. I used the map uploaded here, but a couple of the holes appeared to have been moved since that was uploaded.

There were some picnic tables near hole 12's fairway that are blind from the tee but could be in play. A few of the other holes seemed a little close together, but overall it wasn't bad safety wise.

A couple of the lines almost seemed too tight.

Beyond that, there isn't a lot wrong with this course but it just doesn't have much to interest better players. I think the designers did the best they could with the land available, but that land is simply not very remarkable. It's not particularly hilly in most places, and there isn't enough of it to really mix in some longer holes for bigger arms. The course's namesake creek does not come into play, but rather is across the road. There weren't any holes that particularly stood out to me, and certainly none that "wow"ed me.

Other Thoughts:

Overall, this course is a nice technical option for locals and visitors. If I lived near Marquette, I would play here all the time. The Blue tees provide plenty of challenge for my current skill level, and the Red tees would be great for beginners. The soccer and baseball areas on site could also be used for field practice. For those visiting the area and wondering which of the four (as of this writing) 18-hole courses to play, I would say that Silver Creek may be your best option if you have non-DG'ers or beginners in your party. For serious disc golfers, I believe Powder Mill and Old Town are both slightly better choices (Al Quaal has solid potential too, but is still a work in progress as of Fall 2021).

On my personal ledger of Silver Creek DGC's, this one ranks #2 behind the one in Manitowoc, WI. I was between a 3.0 and 3.5 for this one, and ended up settling on 3.5 but I think it is pretty close to maxed out on the land available. If you're looking for a relaxing, family friendly technical round near Marquette, look no further!
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6 0
jeremyhilss
Silver level trusted reviewer
Experience: 11.5 years 50 played 30 reviews
4.00 star(s)

The most polished course in Marquette 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Sep 20, 2017 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

Challenging, defined tree lined fairways, which perfectly frame the line you need to hit. All different directions are used, and a good amount of elevation too. The lines are very technical, but not as tight to feel like you are being constrained - I would say this course is overall a bit wider in terms of the fairways than Old Town, while still being almost all woods golf.

Good distance variety, although it is still a par 3 course. Many ace runs, but also some holes that will make you feel grateful for par.

Elevation - what the land offers, is used. There is a basket on top of a big dirt ridge on one hole, an ace run down a steep hill on another, and an awesome open valley carry on 17 - these are the main ones that come to mind, but there are others. Approximately 2/3's of this course offers some kind of elevation, even if mild.

Clean cut and worn in fairways - the ground sees lots of traffic and the underbrush is minimal. There aren't any stupid problem branches that hang in the middle of fairways or thick leaf clusters to block the airways.

HUGE concrete teepads - perfectly level and offer tons of room.

Good teesigns with distance par and hole map (satellite images used).

Chainstar baskets in great shape.

Pretty good flow and navigation. I don't remember exact details but I do not recall any issues finding my way around.

Cons:

Aside from 17, all the holes are heavily wooded. Which in my opinion is ok, but the best of the best courses to me offer a bit bigger mixture of both. Technical and wooded is this course's identity.

A couple holes feel like poke and hope (hole 1 comes to mind) - there aren't many, and I must stress that 95% of the holes are VERY fair, but nonetheless, there are a couple that could raise that concern.

Red tees are gravel and uneven.

Other Thoughts:

Excellent disc golf at Silver Creek. Out of the three 18 holers currently in the area (as of 2018), SC is the shining trophy of the three, in terms of presentation. What it lacks in distance and open vs. wooded variety, it certainly makes up for in maintenance, upkeep, and general appearance. You will be throwing all the shots in your bag here, and scrambling if you get off the fairways. Shouldn't disappoint any avid disc golfer.
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9 0
XC_Eddy
Bronze level trusted reviewer
Experience: 16.7 years 30 played 13 reviews
4.00 star(s)

Technical Wooded Course 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:May 12, 2018 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

Beautiful Pine Forest is a wonderful setting for disc golf.

Many of the lines are tight, but few if any are truly poke and hope. I attribute this to the fairways being very well maintained. Players have to avoid the large pines, but are not unnecessarily encumbered by lots of small trees.

Dense Pine forest provides natural OB. If you get off of the fairway, good luck. You'll need it to successfully scramble for par.

Creative use of elevation. #3 is slightly uphill and sits directly on top of a steep 7ish ft hill. Several downhill holes including #13 and #14.
#17 is a 300 ft over the valley shot with a green that slopes away from the pin off to the left.

With the exception of #17, almost the entire course is heavily wooded. There is one other, #12 I believe, that does go through an open field, but the tee shot on that hole goes through a tight gap between trees and has a heavily guarded pin. However, none of the holes feel repetitive. Some wooded courses can be summed up as a series of tunnel shots; not Silver Creek. It is better described as a series of unique lines within the confines of a tunnel. Some of the holes bend left, some bend right. The course design and specifically placed trees demand very precise shots. Playing this course well requires golfers to have a ton of different finely tuned shots in her/his bag.

Excellent blue tee teepads. They were concrete, long, and wide. Their sheer size almost threw me off because I'm not used to throwing on such generously sized teepads. I was very impressed.

Tee Signs on blues were all present and appeared accurate both in map and distance. I noticed one red tee sign missing.

All the baskets had a number INSIDE the basket on the pole. All baskets were marked. Very helpful.

Occasional white wooden arrows indicating the location of the location of the next hole were helpful when present. Course flow was mostly intuitive. The paths lined with down trees were helpful.

Practice basket present near start of course. Chainstars throughout the course function appropriately.

Board near start of course contained some basic information pertaining to rules and throwing form that could be helpful for newer players

Surprisingly clean. I could not believe how clean it was. Maybe someone went through recently. There are no trash cans, only a sign near the entrance saying that there are no trash cans, and that players need to pack out anything that they pack in. If not, the course could potentially shut down. Apparently the sign is working. I have recently started carrying a plastic bag to pick up trash at my local courses, usually picking up 5-10 beverage containers per round. I picked up exactly 0 trash during my two rounds at Silver Creek today. Well done, locals, because littering is stupid and unnecessary.

Cons:

I would like some indicator of which pin position the hole is currently in. Some courses use something as similar as two screws labeled "regular" and "alternate" and a washer on a rope indicating current pin position. Others use an alternating pattern based on month. It'd be nice to have some idea of where the pin is without having to walk out and look for it.

Having only played the course one time through before playing two rounds today and writing this review, I had to walk up and look for most of the baskets. Tee signs were helpful in giving a general idea of where to look. I believe all or most of the pins were in their regular positions.

Additionally, the gray Chainstars were moderately difficult to spot in the woods. The blending in does add to the aesthetic, as bright yellow disc catchers certainly don't feel natural to the woods, but I wouldn't complain about having easier baskets to spot. People who play here regularly likely don't have this problem.

The red teepads are rutted out and uneven. It appears that they have been framed to eventually be poured in with concrete. If they turn out as nice as the blues, then I'm more than happy to have contributed my $5 today.

Only a few of the holes are over 300', and a couple of those are downhill. #17 is the only open drive on the whole course, and even that one is technical because of the steep drop-off directly left of the green. Definitely not a course that encourages players to open up and throw with full power.

A possible critique of the course design is that it demands very specific shots, thus restraining a players creativity in finding lines. Most of the holes have a very specific line you have to hit to be successful. There were a couple times on right bending holes when I threw a backhand anhyzer rather than a forehand, but even those sorts of decisions were fairly limited by the tight fairways and dense woods. I personally don't mind this when the holes have good variety and still demand lots of different shots. I do know some players that prefer lightly wooded courses to heavily wooded courses for this reason, though.

Other Thoughts:

$3 per round or $5 per day is very reasonable for this course considering the obvious work that is going into installing excellent teepads and keeping the fairways fair. Silver Creek is quietly one of the best courses that the UP currently has to offer.

I encountered close to ten other groups from noon-three on a Saturday afternoon. That's a fair amount of traffic compared to what I have seen at other courses in the UP. Three of these groups were comprised of families and included children, which I consider to be a good sign of a healthy course. I was very impressed with Silver Creek, will play it again the next time I am in Marquette, and recommend it to anyone who lives in or is visiting the area.
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7 0
glassila
Experience: 12.7 years 117 played 12 reviews
4.00 star(s)

Equal brother, not little brother. 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Aug 18, 2016 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

Beautiful setting- this course plays through an old pine forest with massive trees on most holes. One of the benefits of pines is they block out the sun so there is very little underbrush (not much searching for discs).

Chainstar baskets, all in perfect condition.

Nice hole variety - there is a good mix of holes (straight, left to right, and right to left). According to my count, there were 4 straight holes, 6 that favored a backhand and and 8 that favored a forehand for righthanders.

Very clean - there was maybe 2 beer cans on the entire course. After reading a previous review I expected a lot of trash.


Cons:

The directional signage was a bit iffy. If we did not have a local with us we would have gone the wrong way a few times.

The tee pads are getting a bit rutted out, but not terribly so.

I prefer a little more length than this course had, but with the tight fairways it was definitely OK.

Other Thoughts:

Me and 2 friends drove to Marquette to play Powder Mill and Silver Creek. We all agreed that we preferred Silver Creek to Powder Mill. We had planned to play just one round and decided to play a second because we like it so much.
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2 1
topcide
Experience: 6 played 6 reviews
2.50 star(s)

OK. 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Jul 25, 2015 Played the course:once

Pros:

Nice setting, plays through a nice wooded setting.

good variety of shots needed.

Cons:

Lots of trash, for a course so remote it was absurd. No trash cans to be seen.

Hard to navigate.

Hole layouts not the best

dirt pads

Other Thoughts:

Ok overall, I did enjoy playing this course, and I Know that disc is just starting to take off in the UP, I played 4 courses during a UP trip, and this one was my least favorite. With that said, I would play it again.

I personally thought that the pin placement was not the best. The alternative pins were in, and I honestly found some of the placements to make no sense at all. I am not against challenge, I like hard courses, but many of the alt pin locations had no real fairway leading to them - one literally was tucked off the back of the "regular" fairway through what I would consider rough with no real shot through it other than luck. Many of them also had no realistic lines to them either.

Some of the holes were in ROUGH condition with debris, and just generally needed to be "beat in." From what I was told by a local, a few of the hole were just put in, so I am sure this will change as the course gets more traffic.

The navigation was really hard, If i was not playing with a local, it would have been really frustrating.

You can tell lots of love was put into the course but It appeared to me that the designer tried to do too much with it. Some of them were just dumb hard for the sake of being hard. With the regular pins in it may have played a bit different. there were some great holes though.

The lack of concrete pads seems to be common across the UP, and i am sure more courses will get them as things are updated and disc gets more popular, but even rubber pads would be a great advent to this course and would have bumped my rating up a little.
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5 1
apdrvya
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 13.9 years 350 played 293 reviews
4.00 star(s)

Little brother 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Jun 23, 2014 Played the course:once

Pros:

Aesthetic-- plays through two sections of the same park behind Silver Creek Church. Walking paths do intertwine so be wary of others.

Teepads-- Framed path mix in really good shape. Not rutted out at all and most of the mix is still in the frames.

Teesigns-- much like Powdermill these teesigns show both tee positions and both pin positions. Really nicely done.

Alt Tees/pins-- not sure when alt pins are in play but these will add a whole new dimension to your game. Teesignage do give hints to as how the hole is smartest played. Alternate Tees do add some unique vistas on this course but for the most part are just shorter pads.

Routing and nav-- great. next tee arrows are a great help here. there are a couple of longer walks that will lose you without the arrows.

Baskets-- Chainstars-- could be a little more visible in the thick woods. Bright orange necks or flags could make them magically appear in the thick woods.

Pin placement-- as with all WIB courses, the pins are impeccably placed.

Variety-- Does well in the variety department. a little of everything here. #12 plays across a meadow like environment. #17 plays off a dune and across a valley to an elevated pin.

Cons:

Elevation-- minimal use of elevation here a direct opposite with how much elevation there is at Powder Mill. Not saying there isn't elevation but it's not over emphasized.

Other Thoughts:

Truly a work in progress. this course will shine for a long time.
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5 0
superberry
Gold level trusted reviewer
Experience: 25.9 years 336 played 95 reviews
3.50 star(s)

Short but technical and challenging 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:May 10, 2014 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

A nice township park setting pretty much 100% wooded with decent amenities all around. Some natural ridges cross the property and allow use of some elevation and risky greens.
The layout is very technical and challenging. A well executed drive (putters, mids, and drivers) is needed to score well. Tight airways limit flight routes and encourage players to throw more than their go-to drive.
Two sets of good skill based tees meeting the goals of the course design for a neighborhood area and different than Powder Mill.
Alternate pin placements greatly change some of the holes and in all instances, one of the pins is in a pretty risky location, so putting must be on target.
Use of OB on one of the holes makes you have to play smart.
Elevation used very well.

Cons:

Trash and undesirables. Unfortunately the park seems to attract more trash than is ever necessary. It suffers from being very close to a school, numerous neighborhoods, and serving as a hangout area which increases the litter and other issues. It's not bad by any means, but could be better.
While 'Blue' tees were the design intent, the lay of the land and a few last minute necessary changes have created a low blue, almost white tee layout. Still, if your drives are off, it's not easy to score well. Plus, alternate pin placements add 600' to the layout.
Some perceived crowding due to the lay of the land, and also 'backtracking' from hole to hole, although this was done to maximize use of great terrain.

Other Thoughts:

Still slightly a work in progress with some cleanup, dirt-work, and additional finishing touches needed.
A cell tower will drive the need to redesign Hole 5, but it may get better.
This course is a great compliment to the Powder Mill course. 500' shorter from the red tees and 1000' shorter from the blue tees, creates a feel of 4 distinct skill/challenge layouts in the Marquette area.
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