Pros:
Hughes Park fills a small, wooded, pancake flat piece of land in Hudsonville, MI.
The concrete tee pads are all cement and in good condition. They are quite small, but more than adequate for the length of hole (also see Cons). At the front of each tee pad is a wooden kick plate with the hole number, a distance, and the par (which is always 3).
Each of the 18 holes here has a few trees scattered between the tee pad and basket - good shot shaping practice. The trees are all old growth, so there is no way you will lose a disc here (unless you throw it into the road or private property bordering two sides of the park - see Cons).
There is a kiosk at the first tee with the same map posted here (black and white version), and that map is accurate.
Cons:
Safety, safety, safety. Holy cow....where to begin. Out of the 50ish courses I have played to date, I think this one might be the most unsafe. Just take a look at the map uploaded here and you will start to get an idea.
- There are 18 "holes" but only 9 baskets. This means that each basket has two tee pads throwing to it. On a couple other courses set up this way that I have played, that means that you basically play around a loop twice (#1 and #10 share a basket, #2 and #11, etc.). Here, that is not the case. Instead, someone thought it was a good idea to mix it up and throw back and forth across the park to different baskets. This creates fairways that not only converge on a single basket, but actually cross. It makes it much easier to be unaware that someone is aiming at the same basket as you. And it creates more traffic at tee pads as you have to wait for multiple holes in your firing line to clear.
- Most tee pads are literally 10 feet from the previous basket, making each one in play on 2+ other holes.
- Holes #1, 2, and 10 play close to a busy road. Holes 3 and 4 play close to a fence with private property on the other side.
- Oh yeah, this is still a multi-use park too. A path runs through the middle of the park right next to two of the baskets, making it in play on four holes. Other holes play close to a playground, swing set, and other park amenities.
The course is incredibly short. The distances listed on the tee pads are longer than the actual length of holes here (must be a RHBH hyzer line or something), but even those distances listed are all short of 300'. Many holes are shorter than 200'. Leave your distance drivers in the car. The nearby Rush Creek Park course is almost as long as this course despite having only 9 holes.
Zero elevation change and zero challenge other than the trees. This is one of the easiest courses I have ever played, including many city park 9-holers.
Baskets are not terrible but have clearly seen better days - understandable given that each one sees your disc twice a round.
Other Thoughts:
If you are trying to bag every course in the area, maybe try to come play this one on a weekday morning or something when there is no one around. If you could play this course with zero other DG groups or other people in the park, it could be kind of a fun practice round. But add just one or two other DG groups and the danger (and time waiting at tee pads) increases exponentially. Beyond that, I can attest from personal experience that it just gets silly. You will spend more time waiting at tee pads than actually playing.
I have shared similar thoughts to this in a few reviews now, but I don't understand the reasoning behind trying to cram 18 holes into a space that is really too small for that and would be better suited to a 9 hole course. Maybe I am in the minority but I would much rather play a more spread-out, safer 9-hole course (twice, if I really want to play 18 holes) vs. a cramped 18-hole course that has other DG'ers to contend with on every shot. In the case of this park, even a 9-holer would be tight but I could at least not have to worry about people shooting at the same basket as me.
Give this place a miss. There are multiple better options - both 18 hole and 9 hole - within a short drive.