Michigan Trip

[sscarmana]

I am headed to South Haven, MI this summer and I can't wait to get some golf in while we are there. My wife and the rest of the family are looking forward to sitting on the beach, but I am planning on getting in as many rounds as possible. I noticed that there are not any courses in SH, but it is a short drive to a few cities with multiple courses. Any suggestions on which towns/courses to hit up? Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids seem like the best options, but I was wondering if there are any "must play" courses in the area. Thanks in advance.

 

[Barefooter]

Find a way to Flip City, thank me later.

 

[ru4por]

Have to encourage you to make the trek North to Ludington, but that is a bit of a drive....but it has to be said. First, South Haven is a wonderful vacation spot. Great little town and beach, on one of the best lakes in the world. Second, Kazoo has a nice collection of options for sure. I am not a big a fan of the GR courses.

Oshtemo- Championship Level course from the black tees, a nice challenge from the fronts. Three sets of tees make this a couple completely different rounds.

Robert Morris- Very nice park setting for a family...swimming, picnic. Woods and open. One of my favorite in the area.

Cold Brook-Old school round. Lots of short, technical holes. Test every part of your game. Another nice park with many activities and amenities.

Begg Park- City park, mostly open with a couple wooded holes. Not very hard, but a nice play. Island green signature hole.

Meyers Broadway- A bit of a drive, but two championship caliber courses is the reward. Again, a nice park to spend the day.

Not trying to provide a negative view of the GR scene. I just think Kazoo has a higher quality course selection. Maybe some of the GR guys could give some insight into their area.

 

[Emoney]

Meyer broadway courses, flip city, and leviathan are my favs

 

[sscarmana]

Thanks all! I can't wait for the trip. I'll try to get up to Flip City, but I appreciate the info on the Kalamazoo area courses

 

[Noill]

Oshtemo was mentioned earlier in this thread... if you are in SH that is not too far to get out to... also, in Watervliet is a really nice 9 hole course that has two tee settings so can be played twice as an 18. That one is called Flaherty and isn't too far from SH. In Holland, there is Macatawa (sp?) that is a mostly open course... used to be a ball golf course... I like it a lot but some peeps don't :shrug:...

note on Oshtemo... that course can get very congested on nice days with huge groups... FYI

The Meyers Broadway courses are really great.. both.

Shore Acres is a nice course too.. I think that is in Saugatuck.

If you want to meet a DGCR'er, hit me up when you are in that area... I have a cabin and small course in Allegan which is just by SH.

 

[Noill]

Flip City is about a 2 1/2 drive from the SH area... def worth it though if you can get the time for it

 

[BogeyNoMore]

I will echo ru4por's sentiment - I think K'zoo simply has more to offer the travelling player than Grand Rapids. The Ludington area and Flip have well earned reputations, but if your plans don't include the extra drive time, the area around K'zoo offers some good golf. I'd recommend any/all of these:

Shore Acres
Paw Paw Park (formerly known as Macatawa Greenspace)
Robert Morris
Oshtemo
Myers Broadway (both courses)

 

[davetherocketguy]

Have to encourage you to make the trek North to Ludington, but that is a bit of a drive....but it has to be said. First, South Haven is a wonderful vacation spot. Great little town and beach, on one of the best lakes in the world. Second, Kazoo has a nice collection of options for sure. I am not a big a fan of the GR courses.

Oshtemo- Championship Level course from the black tees, a nice challenge from the fronts. Three sets of tees make this a couple completely different rounds.

Robert Morris- Very nice park setting for a family...swimming, picnic. Woods and open. One of my favorite in the area.

Cold Brook-Old school round. Lots of short, technical holes. Test every part of your game. Another nice park with many activities and amenities.

Begg Park- City park, mostly open with a couple wooded holes. Not very hard, but a nice play. Island green signature hole.

Meyers Broadway- A bit of a drive, but two championship caliber courses is the reward. Again, a nice park to spend the day.

Not trying to provide a negative view of the GR scene. I just think Kazoo has a higher quality course selection. Maybe some of the GR guys could give some insight into their area.

Ru4por hit the nail on the head. Completely agree with all of the above. I will also second the recommendation to wander over to Watervliet (just head south out of SH on M-140 a few miles) and hit up Flaherty for a nice warm up round. There are 2 pluses for doing so: First it get's you pretty close to I-94 so it's sorta on the way to Kalamazoo. Second, there's a fantastic brewery that is very supportive of the local disc golf scene due north of the course about a block away called Archlight. They even have a small selection of Dynamic Discs...emphasis on small lol. Their "Black Mere" (I think that's what it's called) is a fantastic stout.

I play Flaherty A LOT. Can you tell?

 

[davetherocketguy]

Oh and when you make the trek to Flip...be sure to hit up Shore Acres on the way there for a warm up haha. Don't get me wrong, it's a great course - one of the best in Michigan IMHO. Also, I know I might rub a few feathers the wrong way for saying this but I DO NOT recommend Paw Paw Park in Holland during the middle of summer. Can you say disc eating prairie grass hell? The only times I recommend that place is during a dry and early spring (like now but drier) or late in the fall. If you do go, bring several people so you can spot for each other.

 

[discNDav]

Oh and when you make the trek to Flip...be sure to hit up Shore Acres on the way there

Agree with this, Shore Acres is a very worthy course and not far from the highway.

 

[Reniger]

Cannot recommend Shore Acres enough. I take a yearly camping trip to South Haven with a group of old college friends and Shore Acres has been a high-light for the last two years. It's about 30 minutes north of Van Buren State Park and is a great course. Also, if you want to hit up Grand Rapids, we have some very nice parks that are getting a lot of work this summer for the upcoming 2017 Masters Worlds. I'd be happy to throw a couple rounds if you'd like a companion.

From my Shore Acres review highlights;

•Great Layout
Very good use of elevation, wooded and open areas, guard trees, left-to-right and right-to-left holes, short and long holes. Grassy fields, to wooded technical shots, to sandy dunes. Beautiful varied course
•Very Well Maintained
Local DGC performs upkeep, signage, pads, baskets and very nice hand-made benches at each hole. All baskets were in great shape and most holes had a second basket (they are currently about half way through building a second 18 hole course)
•Well Groomed
Tightly trimmed fairways, some tall rough, but not overbearing, heavily wooded holes still maintained and playable. Clean, textured concrete pads in good condition.
•Good Signage
Map and scorecards at the 1st. Good signage at each hole with most holes having two baskets - both marked at the teepad.
•Trash Cans on Every Hole
No trash to be found at this park whatsoever besides the occasional cigarette.
•Friendly DGC
Ran into two locals from the DGC cleaning benches, picking up trash, cleaning tee-pads and removing graffiti. Both invited my girlfriend and I back for that night's Glow Round while we were in town on vacation

 

[BionicRib]

beauty, beast, goliath, and leviathon....nuff said

 

[BogeyNoMore]

Also, I know I might rub a few feathers the wrong way for saying this but I DO NOT recommend Paw Paw Park in Holland during the middle of summer. Can you say disc eating prairie grass hell? The only times I recommend that place is during a dry and early spring (like now but drier) or late in the fall. If you do go, bring several people so you can spot for each other.

I think Paw Paw's a great course, but the man's 100% correct... the tall grass off the fairways there is a b!otch (said as much in my review). I don't recommend playing there solo.

 

[Future_Primitive]

I really enjoy the Kzoo area myself (Zip 49053), playing disc golf all day and then winding down at Bell's to recap the days events. Oshtemo, Cold Brook, Robert Morris, Vicksburg, Meyer Broadyway North & South are all high quality courses. If you are going to do Oshtemo I highly recommend going early to beat the casual crowds as that place gets jam packed during the day.

 

[Reniger]

I think Paw Paw's a great course, but the man's 100% correct... the tall grass off the fairways there is a b!otch (said as much in my review). I don't recommend playing there solo.

This this the one that used to be Macatawa Greenspace? I gave a bad review and got about 15 PMs telling me what an idiot I am! lol!

Okay, just looked it up, and yes. It is the course I'm thinking of... Played this on my way back to GR from SHaven. No bueno. And this was Memorial Day weekend. Not even the thick of summer. But this place was BEASTLY over grown... Beautiful course, great signage, great baskets, amazing teepads, but it's laid over an old Ball Golf course and they did not widen fairways at all and don't even attempt to mow or brush-cut the rough anymore.

While a golf ball is intended to fly straight, a disc (as we know) must flex right to left/left to right to achieve max distance. This course is laid over an old ball golf course meaning that the fairways are usually 20-25' wide with 3' tall grass, thistle, thorns, burrs and rhubarb to hide your disc. I appreciate rough punishing errant throws, however, this is overboard creating a very unsatisfying round for players new to the course. Two accurate players that usually average 3-5 below par (everything as 3 pars) we still spent more time looking for discs than actually playing on the front 9.

We came out with cuts and scraps on our legs from thistle and thorns in the rough and burrs on EVERYTHING! lol

Amazing potential for that course as it truly is on beautiful land with some of the best signage and teepads I've seen in quite a while, but they really need to brush-cut the rough down to 8" max...

 

[ru4por]

Actually, with the responses here, one of the best suggestions I have is go to the reviews. Reniger has some great reviews on the GR course, in particular and Bogey and Daverocket are some of the sites best reviewers. I also am a big fan of apdrvya.

 

[TimSyl]

I really enjoy the Kzoo area myself (Zip 49053), playing disc golf all day and then winding down at Bell's to recap the days events. Oshtemo, Cold Brook, Robert Morris, Vicksburg, Meyer Broadyway North & South are all high quality courses. If you are going to do Oshtemo I highly recommend going early to beat the casual crowds as that place gets jam packed during the day.

Agree with this for the most part, although personally not a big fan of Coldbrook. If you are heading up toward Ludington or Flip, the course in Whitehall is very good too.

 

[Puckstopper]

beauty, beast, goliath, and leviathon....nuff said

For sure. Beauty and Beast were a nice followup to Flip. Flip is a legend for a reason, so definitely make that your top priority, but Beauty and Beast were great also. I didn't try Goliath due to lack of daylight, so I don't have any thoughts there. If you head up to Mason County take time to visit Pere Marquette Expeditions. They had a great selection of beers, and a surpisingly good selection of both discs and cigars. Between all that and the fishing stuff they sell they're one of the best "guy stores" I've ever been in.

 

[davetherocketguy]

Actually, with the responses here, one of the best suggestions I have is go to the reviews. Reniger has some great reviews on the GR course, in particular and Bogey and Daverocket are some of the sites best reviewers. I also am a big fan of apdrvya.

THANKS!

:hfive: