Maple Grove DGC is located at a combined park/campground in the northern Michigan town of Lake City. The 18 holes of disc golf here do a good job of staying away from campsites and other park attractions.

Holes 1-8, 10-11, and 17-18 are all very short throws in the 125'-150' range. However, they are tight little fairways in the woods. You will need to shape your putter/mid throws in a variety of ways to score easy birdies and have a chance at an ace or two. These also are good practice for new players.

Holes 12-16 are much longer and feel like a completely different course. These ones play in a moderately open area in the back of the park, with tall grass off the fairways and fewer trees. The longest hole here is #13, a 442' par 4.

The baskets are DGAs in good shape.

The tee pads are small slabs of concrete. Given the hole distances, I thought the length of these was fine. The tee signs are simple but unique. They are arrow-shaped pieces of wood mounted on wood poles, with the hole number/distance and a line routered into the arrow and painted blue. Some of these are very creative-looking lines that you won't actually try to throw, but honestly these little signs were an improvement over all four Cadillac courses where I had just played.

There is a kiosk at the first tee, although it does not have a map on it. There are a couple of trash cans scattered around the course, and a porta potty near the parking lot. The front 9 and back 9 each loop back to the lot.

The biggest problem I had with the course is the width of the fairways on the longer holes. Holes 12 and 13 in particular would be nice challenges with their longer lengths for the new/rec players who will be playing here most often - except that the fairways are only about 10' wide with tall, disc-concealing grass on both sides. It took me 15-20 minutes to find my tee shot on hole 12 even though it was only about 10' off the fairway. These should be widened to double or even triple the width of the current mowed area - then they will be more friendly to newer and more experienced players alike.

Better players will get bored by all of the short holes. Obviously, a higher-tier course would have mostly longer holes with only MAYBE a couple of ace runs like this mixed in.

The course is basically flat. There are some rolling hills in the back open area of the park, but it isn't enough to really affect play. Besides the sheer quantity of ace runs, nothing really stood out about this course for me.

Hole 9 plays next to the dirt park drive. It didn't seem to be too busy, so only a minor concern.

There isn't any navigational signage. The paths between holes were very well established when I visited, so just give me some tape on basket rungs and I'll be happy. Also missing are a practice basket, and any benches at tee areas.

Overall, this is not a bad beginner/rec course - especially if the park staff could just widen the longer fairways. The front 9 is a lot of fun for ace runs - there were two holes where the disc left my hand and I thought I might have one but alas, I narrowly missed.

If headed from western lower Michigan cities like Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo up north towards the Mackinac Bridge and Upper Peninsula, Lake City is on the fastest route. This course is no destination but it could be a decent place to stretch your legs and get a quick round in - especially with the options to play only the front 9 or back 9!

What a great little course! It has well-cleared lanes, really nice signage and flow, and beautiful tee pads. There's lots of lefts, rights, and "Esses", and plenty of shorter, technical warm-up holes before the course opens up and the holes get longer.

As a brand new course, there's still some really ugly shule and plenty of berry bushes in the rough. Once it gets played more, I'm sure this will get beaten down.

This is a great course for a quicky or a drive-by, and it's pretty beginner friendly with not a lot of risk. Bathrooms are available at the RV Park before you get to Hole 1.