Pros:
+ 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
Cons:
- 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
Other Thoughts:
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!