I love this course and after finally playing it 7/16/21 I will come to play Micke G every time i am passing through Lodi of which happens a couple times a year.
Riding the rim of the park in the hardpacked dirt most of the course was perfectly fine because the parks interior was absolutely beautiful. We met some local club guys getting prepped at #1 once we finished the 18. Good guys and friendly.
Nice park, super fun course, good weather and freindly vibe...

Con: Aestetics - Lake has trash strewn all over the lakes edge.

Nice park. Good signage.

No imagination in design. Mostly RHBH shots. There is a large interior area that's mostly unused or poorly used making the course go in a clockwise order and RHBH dominant. Shots vary between high backhand hyzers over short trees to low backhand hyzers under tree limbs. It reminds me of the courses that were designed in the '70s or '80s.

Challenging, at least for noobs like me
Well kept, different tee placement options

Have to pay to park in Micke Grove

This was my 2nd time going in my life, so I'll have to go back and play again after getting a few more different courses in

5'x12' concrete teepads. Teesigns showing the three possible pin positions, and directions to next tee. Trash cans.

Practice basket. Bathrooms. Plenty of parking, with an option to start at number-7.

Out-of-bounds drive paralleling many fairways/near some basket positions - while non disc-eating oob is a good thing, it being something cars use is a bad thing.

Course plays in a zigzagging, clockwise manner in the (primarily) unused open space of a multi-purpose park. There are some random bits of minor elevation change, but the majority of the holes are quite flat. The Little Trees that are present on most holes generate the primary challenges, as they grow in many small, scattered groupings, with occasional mid-sized tree support. This combination is used to form a variety of shot-shape requirements (nothing extreme), often forcing the throw to have little altitude, other where up-n-over the trees is needed, and a few times where the player can decide which seems best - both shape-wise, and height-wise.

The landscape falls into three groupings - green/maintained (basket-12 through tee-17), the dry outer rim (2; 5-11), and the semi-arid remainder. Depending upon pin position, and experience of player, water could potentially come into play the last three holes, but likely won't. A few of the outer rim holes appear to have a concrete-but-unsigned alternate tee.

While I liked the short, left-turning, ace run, elevated tee to (slight) runaway green #12, my favourite hole was number-17. Again from an elevated tee, the basket sits amid a collection the trees, so throwing over them then diving/fading onto the basket seems the best tactic. Beware, however, the water (far) to the left, but also the trees holding your disc hostage - while not large, their foliage is thick - took me a solid 10-minutes to find which one was holding my disc hostage. Fortunately, it was small enough that I could shake the disc loose, as my tree-climbing skills are sorely lacking .

A good course offering both opportunities and challenges, worth a visit if in the area,

Good beginner course
Restrooms
Scenic

Most of course is dirt
No shade trees

This was my first course played. I didn't feel overwhelmed here and I didn't lose a disc. Most of the course was dirt which made it really hot and my discs got dinged up.

*Nice location
*Good difficulty curve
*Nice variability of terrain
*Restrooms nearby most of the time
*Clean course
*Multiple pin positions
*Wont be stepping on other players due to layout

*A bit flat on the front half
*Park closes at sundown
*Kinda pricy at $6 a carload to play
*Tall fence nearby on a few holes

This is the newest course I have played, and having Stockton as my previous closest course, I was elated to learn of this place. I enjoy it much more. The pins are varied, and there is a road in the park area you will have to mind the traffic at times, which is OB. There are a fair number of Dog Legs, all reasonable. The pins are all pretty good distance, 250-450ft mostly upping the difficulty in the few cases where the shot is pretty straightforward. Some blind shots and elevation changes up the ante. I have not experienced the mud issue I've read about here. On the back nine, there is a dirt area, then goes to grass, to me this terrain variability greatly enhances the experience. The established trees and natural obstacles all make for an enjoyable course. Recommended.

Easy layout, good course for beginners (hole 1-15), nice people at the front gate. Lost discs on display at gate, if returned. Parking was good and short walk to #1 tee. Great place to picnic and play. Will be shady when trees are full.

WIND, WIND, WIND
Water pins on 16,17,18 are not good for those beginners who can't control their shots. Needs benches for a quick rest. No garbage cans!! Needs more for garbage.

Will be back during better weather conditions. First time I've EVER left a course without my discs. Lost a putter and a driver...both in the pond.

Played the 18 holes twice today. The course is in great shape.

Can't get over how huge the Tee Pads are. They are plenty long and wide. They are the best I have ever played on (what you would expect from a newer course).

The signs are perfect: good map of where the hole placements are regarding the trees, color coded holes, and hole placement marked with its distance. The cap on top of the sign post marks the location of where the basket is placed. Best system I have seen to date.

Hole 18 was in it water hazard position which I dig. All holes have 3 basket placements.

I enjoy how some of the holes are on pure grass like a real golf course. You won't be able to skip your discs up to the baskets like dirt. It makes them a different challenge.

All the holes were in RED placements (shortest). Most, if not, all holes were under 300'. I am wondering if they had a junior or female tournament recently. I would have liked at least a mix of short and long holes (which they usually have).

Hole #2, #5, and #6 are almost identical to each other.

Occasionally have to wait for cars, bicycles, or people to pass by on the roads or walking paths. But the wait is not long.

You do have to pay $5 - weekdays, $6 - weekends, $10 - special holidays. But it's well worth the price.

Some complain about when the baskets are in the water hazard positions. Well good news, there is a local that tries to pull out all the discs from the pond every few months or so. He will call you if you have your number on the disc. He was there today. He had already rescued 7 discs. If you don't want to chance it, get the floating Wahoo (throws = to a Valkyrie or Champion Tern) for hole #16, #17, or #18. It throws well for those 3 placements. But please do one or the other vs complaining so they will continue to periodically use the water hazard placements for added risk/fun. Hardly any other DGC's in the region have water we get to throw around.

Overall it is one of the better courses in Northern California. Can't wait to go back.

I love how many trees there are to contend with here! Frustrating at times, but that just makes the good shots feel that much better. Only one other person on the course, and he was super friendly. This course is as cute as the Pudu Pudus at the Zoo onsite.

Flat, and not too long.

I came to Micke Grove about 3 years ago with my family to visit the parks and zoo, and thought back then it would be a great grounds for disc golf. Well, my wish came true, and designers didn't disappoint! I thought it would be easy, but turned out to be quite technical, yet leisurely. Very enjoyable.
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Uniqueness: A- (similar to nearby Oak Grove, but shorter & with more trees)
Difficulty: A- (trees, OB, more trees, flat)
Fun Factor: A (surprisingly challenging, rewarding birdies)
Aesthetics: A- (clean, some grassy areas, good layout for limited space)
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Overall: A-

Big teepads, and many pin positions. Love the teesign setup, where the cap color tells you the location of the pin. medium distances, nice use of elevations, obstacles, and the lake

Most the course is dirt, but near the front of the park it gets on manacured grass. Hole 3's teepad is u shaped, not level at all. get a map at the paybooth when you pay for parking, as this can be confusing for players who rarely play this course

nice course out in the middle of nowhere, definintly will play again when i'm in the area

Brand new baskets.
Hole 18 ends at Tee 1.
Practice Tee.
Friendly locals.
Baskets change location every week or so.
Nice scenery.
Easy to navigate.
Most of the trees are skinny or small.
PVC pipe availible for fetching discs.
Well groomed course.

Long distance from Basket 6 to Tee 7.
Hole 12 is sometimes in real whack position way off to the right.
A couple of the front holes are boring.

If you park on the North Side of the outer fence you don't need to pay and can start on Hole 14, ending right where you started on Hole 13 for a fun 18. BE CAREFUL! THERE IS NO PARKING ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE OUTER FENCE.

Cement tees and 3 pin placements on 16 of the 18 holes (hole 1 has 1 pin and another hole has 2 pins). Very well made signs showing hole layout, pin placements with distances, and out-of-bounds areas. The sign poles have different colored caps indicating the current pin location (each pin on the signs is in a different color). 1/3-1/2 of the baskets are moved weekly to alternate pin placements. Lots of trees to shoot around. There is a large, deep pond that is in play on 3 holes, especially on hole 18. Well maintained beautiful park with facilities on site. Moderately challenging with some decent distance and technical shots.

Pay to play ($5 per car on weekdays, $6 on weekends). This doesn't downgrade the quality of the course for me but it is still a negative aspect in my book. The course has many trees but it still feels very open. There is only a little elevation change throughout the course. Some holes play close to the road, so a really bad shot could mean you have to hike all the way around the park fence to retrieve your disc. Depending on the pin placement some baskets can be close to other tees.

I was actually very impressed by this course. After reading the reviews I didn't know what to expect but the developers did a great job with the space available. The course layout is easy to navigate and hole 18 ends where hole 1 begins, right next to the parking lot. The layout isn't extremely challenging but isn't extremely easy either. I like that the park road and beyond is marked as out-of-bounds areas as it adds some difficulty to the course. As for hitting cars or buildings; it would take a really bad, and long shot to hit the booth at the park entrance. Car traffic is minimal so a little patience and courtesy to let a car pass before throwing can eliminate any danger of hitting a car. Overall I enjoyed playing the course very much and will return soon and often. Thank you Mike for the guided round

- Park is pretty and well-kept.
- Brand new course, so teesigns are not vandalized and baskets are in excellent condition.
- Lots of different shots need to be used here.
- Not far from Sacramento.
- Most of the holes show nice design and challenge without becoming stupidly hard.
- Teesigns are present with well-made maps.

- Some holes bring roads, the front building, or fences into play.
- Trees are super-grabby.
- Some holes seem to be placed in arbitrary areas without a lot of thought to design.
- No marker to show which pin position is currently in use on teesigns.
- Pay to play isn't my favorite, because you risk paying to play a course that you'll hate (although you chance finding a course that you find to be awesome, too!).

This park is super pretty. The fountain, the zoo, the lake, the bridge, the well-kept grass and the challenge scream for you to play here.

The only really bad part about this place is the fact that a fair number of the holes here, especially with certain pin positions, can have you playing over roads or near a high fence. Hitting cars is an obvious danger, but if you manage to pull one over the fence, you have quite the trek ahead of you - the only way out is the front gate, where you would have to go all the way around to your disc, and all the way back.

One of the holes, when thrown RHBH (or RHFH if it skips), goes directly at the cars coming into the park, risking damage to the booth and cars.

Overall, it does need some polishing, but I think that they made pretty good use of the land. It seems like it used to be an orchard, so there are lines of trees that are fun to throw through. I also like that there are multiple pin positions on each hole, so you don't get bored with the same old thing.

The potential is high for this course to be amazing, and I might go back.

• A number of interesting/challenging shots
• Great tee boxes
• Easy to find
• Practice Basket
• Beautiful park overall with playgrounds, picnic areas, a zoo, a museum, restrooms, water, and who knows what else I missed.
• Friendly locals
• Beginner friendly-ish (more on this below)
• Cool method for identifying the basket positions (uses a color coded pole cap)

• In spots it's a bit tricky to navigate depending on the basket positions. Pay attention on #s 3, 8, 10, 11, and 13 to ensure you're throwing at the correct basket.
• Pedestrian/vehicle traffic is very much in play.
• Parking fees. These vary depending on the day and time but it's $6 on the weekends, and I think $5 on weekdays, $10 on holidays, $20 if it's a full moon, and $30 if you're driving a red car. Granted, there's a lot going on in this park, but it's a bit steep if you're just playing the disc course. Hopefully some of that money goes to the course. If that's true, then I'm cool with it.

Tips:
• Do use the map. They are available at the entrance gate. I didn't have one initially but got told later they existed.
• When you enter the park, you will come to a turning circle. Go left, and when it dead ends, the #1 tee and practice basket are on your right. Park anywhere convenient.

Random Thoughts:
This is a great start to what should be a fun little course once it's complete (although it is fun now). Right now the tee areas are all finished and it seems like all the alternate basket positions are in the ground. The only thing missing are the signs, which we were told by Mike (who I believe is the course designer, and a nice friendly dude as well) were coming next week. So I'd call it 90% done at this point. As for the course itself, it basically wraps around the main area of a good size and very nice regional park. The general theme of this course is fairly precise ~200-250 foot shots through some pretty dense trees. Quite a few shots are tunnelish with very low ceilings with #1 getting you started right off the bat. The ceiling on #1 might be 5 feet off the ground. Good times for your first throw of the day. Outside of that, you do have some shots where you have room to let fly but even in those times it usually means you're trying to hit an open slot in the trees near the basket. But with all that said, I never felt boxed in on second shots. There are decent paths to get to the basket should your first throw go awry. Skill-level wise, I would think an advanced player or above will do quite well here. None of the holes are particularly long or difficult from a par perspective. I actually threw an under par round which is pretty rare for me. All of this also means that you'd do pretty well to bring beginners here and expect that they'll have a good time, however, with the closeness on some of the holes to people, cars, and water, you might want to skip some holes or throw very cautiously, which leads me to the Cons. Quite a few holes (2, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, and 15) have you throwing directly into the road which is a bit unnerving even though you can see the traffic pretty well. #12 in particular I'd suggest moving the tee box back to alleviate the fear factor. I don't know what's normal, but on the day I went, there was a heavy amount of cars coming through. It's also a bit inconvenient to have to run and get your disc out of the road before it gets run over. But, with that said, I understand that they did the best with what they had and I suppose it's better to take you out over the road then over the fence. Roads are much easier to climb. ;-)

Bottom Line:
This is a beautiful park with about as good a course as you could squeeze out of it. While some shots are a little too close to the peeps, for the most part, it was a fair and enjoyable experience. Kudos and thanks to the course designers for creating another fun destination in NorCal.

Update 04/16/2014:
I had a chance to revisit this park over the weekend and was impressed with the progress. All of the signs are in place and they are very clear and descriptive showing alternate basket positions, next tees, OB areas, and other important bits of info (like don't climb the fence, and in case you forgot, don't climb the fence). I really like the alternate basket positions and the way the course has a mix of long and short shots now. That really added a nice bit of variety to the round that wasn't there on my first visit. I was also happy to see a couple minor adjustments to the tee/basket positions that lessened some of the danger of being close to the road(s). One thing I forgot to mention in my prior review above was that water is in play on a few holes, and I don't mind that at all. There are certainly safe routes but direct routes are not for the timid. Summing up, I'm not sure if the overall course is like this all the time, but I'm quite pleased with the result. I have bumped my score up ½ a disc in response. Bravo!

Update 10/30/2020:
It's been a couple years since I've been to this course and clearly the course crew has been hard at work. At least half of the course now has alternate tees with multiple baskets in the ground on several holes, giving you a 'choose your own adventure' feel. Of course, you can follow the basket marker, although it gets a little tricky to figure out which basket is which in spots but with a little study of the map, you can figure it out. There's also a very cool stepped basket on #9, complete with locally appropriate wine barrel, which I love. There's also been a couple course tweaks with lots of clean-up throughout the course including some trash barrels here and there. I must say, the crew here is doing an excellent job, and I see myself coming here more often in the future. Great job!

Micke Grove is a large regional park with a zoo, an amusement park, expansive gardens, tons of mostly flat open space and some large ponds providing water hazards. The course is actually an Eagle Scout project with the scout and his father working together. They've both been discing for about three years. I've played a couple of Eagle Scout courses before but never one of this size and development. They're selling sponsorships for each hole for $600. This pays for the sign, concrete teepad and basket. The baskets are Discatchers with the yellow rims. The metal posts for the signs are up and the pads are roughed in but not poured yet. They're doing things first class in this regard. The course starts out in an area of the park with many young oak trees and along the fence near the railroad tracks. It then winds through an area that has recently been dozed and is now just very loose dirt. I'm told after the very rain, this area will pack down. A couple of holes play on green grass before finishing next to the ponds back where you started.

# 7 is a bear of a hole. It's probably 400 feet to a basket sitting up a hill.

To me # 12 will be one of the signature holes on the course. You actually have a little elevation here, getting to throw off this little hill to a basket about 225' away. It's one of the few ACE runs on the course.

I'm concerned about a couple of the design features. # 2 has you throwing a hyser right into the incoming traffic. And then # 5 and 6 play along side next to the fence by the train tracks. Many a disc is going to hyser over the fence here and the parks department won't be happy about golfers scaling their nice chain link fence or the safety aspect of golfers dodging 50 ton locomotives.

And I think # 13 is a real problem. Currently, you tee off throwing back to the basket which it set to the left of the entrance shed where you pay your $5. It's probably 280' and many players will end up throwing an anhyser in the direction of the shed. Cars entering the park might get hit or the shed might find itself under attack. It's not a ideal hole and should be changed now before concrete is layed.

The $5 to enter the park each time you play might deter some players.

It's wonderful to have a new 18 hole course in Lodi. The amenities (signs, pads, baskets) will be first class. It's a wonderful park but the area they've been given to work with is mostly flat and rather uninspiring. The design and safety flaws worry me.
While I was playing, a train passed and gave a long toot of it's whistle. That could become a signature feature of this course. At Safeco Field, where the Seattle Mariners play, trains go by 2-3 times a game sounding their whistles. The sounds of the train's whistles during your round here could become this course's identity, like your grandfather smelling of Old Spice!

multiple choice of shots,some tight technical,some wide open.variety of challenges

4 holes in very soft sandy dirt.restrooms and garbage cans are available,but not very close.roadways are in flight path on a couple holes

its gonna be a lot nicer with concrete tee pads and once the loose dirt packs in. beautiful lake and fountain,lots of picnic areas,could be great location for tournaments

18 holes in Lodi, good use of available land in a very cool park complete with a zoo, an amusement park, and gardens. Some water hazards (possible con for some). Multiple pin positions should make for some changeups.

Sometime plays too close to roads and multi-use areas for my own personal comfort.

The course is a work in progress, the baskets only went into the ground four days ago. You can clearly see the prep work going into pads and signs coming. That being said it wasn't to hard to figure out navigation. The only mistake made was we played 5 before realizing that 3 and 4 were across the road. I have to admit I came to this course a little prejudiced against it. I was well familiar with Micke Grove and the available land and how overall flat it all truly is, and I know the park wasn't going to give up the beautiful 100 year oak areas. But I was pleasantly surprised, the course designers did a good job putting 18 decent holes into a high traffic multi use park. The course winds through mostly barren flat dirt under relatively young oaks. But there are a good number of shots woven into the course and what little elevation there is is used to advantage to provide engaging shots.
Teepads and signs are now in and pin placements located by color coordinated pole tops on the signs.