Road Trippin Near Southeast MI, help me choose courses

[sparty]

So, we have a group of 10 guys going on a disc trip next weekend. Have it narrowed down to a handful of courses for the weekend. Help me pick where to start, and what we should play. We are camping at Brighton Rec area just north of ann arbor.

-The Gulch
-Hudson Mills (Dexter, is this 2 diff courses or just one course with multiple tees?)
-Independence Lake (Redhawk, is this 2 diff courses or just one course with multiple tees?)
-Kensington (Should we play Black Locust or the Toboggan course?)
-The Lions Den
-Brighton Rec (Chilson, We will play this possible for night disc and a round during the day since we are camping here)
-Holly Woods


Help me out and lemme know what ones we should play. Much appreciated!! If I missed any that may be near by let me know.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

Help me out and lemme know what ones we should play.

Toboggan: should be gone by the time you get here. It's been in longer this year than I can ever remember, but when the DGPT event ends (Sun, Jul 8), the baskets are supposed to get pulled.

Hudson Mills: Two completely separate 24 hole courses that share nothing but a parking lot. Each has dual tees on all the holes. Always well maintained.

Indy Lake: there are a total of 36 holes (two 18 hole courses).
- Red Hawk Original has orange baskets, concrete tees, and is pretty east to follow.
- Indy Lake Red Hawk X: has plain Chainstars, natural tees (but decent signage and well tees are well marked) is a bit tougher to navigate. Both are quite good, but I'd gve the edge to Red Hawk X. Watch out for poison Ivy here. You can find it on most area courses, but it's more prevalent on both courses here than any of the other area courses.

Kensington Black Locust: is now two separate 18 hole courses. The green course is the more interesting/challenginig of the two, but both are quite solid.

Brighton Rec: If you like woodsy elevation, the back 9 really is pretty awesome - there are some great holes in the back 9, but last time I played, it still had natural tees. Front 9 has is semi-meh, but has concrete tees. It's possible that holes 6-9 are still incorrectly #'d, because when the front 9 was installed, the plan was for a 24 hole course - so the last few holes of the frt 9 were #'d 20-24. But the 15 hole loop after hole #4 so was or was never built. Then they built the back 9 in a slightly different area than the 15 hole loop was supposed to go. And I honestly don't recall if they ever redid the signs on the last few holes of the back 9... so it can get a bit confusing. Rough get very nasty in many spots. Personally, not sure I'd enjoy a low round here.

Lyons Den: Bomber course with plenty of elevation. Wind is often a factor here. A course with so few trees, it provides a refreshing change of pace from other area courses.

Holly Woods: pretty good course that demands pretty decent accuracy after the first few holes.

The Gulch: decidedly woodsy and mildly hilly, and while it's not bad, I'd say all the others you listed are better.
but when but that never happened.

My advice is to check each course on DG Scene for events (leagues & tourneys) you may want to avoid (or might want to participate in). It can be very frustrating to show up expecting to play a quick casual round, only to find out you stumbled into a tourney or league. If you plan ahead you can schedule around them (or plan to hit them if you'd like).

 

[BogeyNoMore]

Please disregard: ...but when but that never happened.
Wasn't able to edit that out before I got locked out.

 

[sparty]

Thx for the rundowns! Great write up, would any of these courses be good for a night round?

 

[Future_Primitive]

Thx for the rundowns! Great write up, would any of these courses be good for a night round?

Not really, most are metroparks or county parks and close down at "dusk". If you are down for some glow golf might want to check out Bandemer Park which is very player friendly for glow and virtually no closing time. Not the greatest course in the world, but a very fun glow course with 9 holes but 3 sets of tees (blue, white, red) on each hole so you can play it 3 different ways.

Note, Hudson Mills has a tournament there on Sunday so if you want to play those two courses (Original and Monster) I would suggest doing it on Saturday. Like Bogey said, two separate 24 hole courses with long and short pads on each hole. Very well maintained and a very fun place to play.

 

[sparty]

Heres what we did:

Camped out at Brighton Recreation Area (nice camp ground!)

Hit Hudson Mills in Dexter Friday and played both courses in 95 degree heat! both courses were pretty awesome.

Saturday we hit Kensington Metropark and played both courses, really nice!

Sunday played the Gulch in Hamburg, very challenging course, but cool.

Liked the courses and had a great time, was a good change of pace from Ludington. MAybe next year we will go back up north though. I really missed our Sunday Flip City tradition.