Pros:
Beautiful Pine Forest is a wonderful setting for disc golf.
Many of the lines are tight, but few if any are truly poke and hope. I attribute this to the fairways being very well maintained. Players have to avoid the large pines, but are not unnecessarily encumbered by lots of small trees.
Dense Pine forest provides natural OB. If you get off of the fairway, good luck. You'll need it to successfully scramble for par.
Creative use of elevation. #3 is slightly uphill and sits directly on top of a steep 7ish ft hill. Several downhill holes including #13 and #14.
#17 is a 300 ft over the valley shot with a green that slopes away from the pin off to the left.
With the exception of #17, almost the entire course is heavily wooded. There is one other, #12 I believe, that does go through an open field, but the tee shot on that hole goes through a tight gap between trees and has a heavily guarded pin. However, none of the holes feel repetitive. Some wooded courses can be summed up as a series of tunnel shots; not Silver Creek. It is better described as a series of unique lines within the confines of a tunnel. Some of the holes bend left, some bend right. The course design and specifically placed trees demand very precise shots. Playing this course well requires golfers to have a ton of different finely tuned shots in her/his bag.
Excellent blue tee teepads. They were concrete, long, and wide. Their sheer size almost threw me off because I'm not used to throwing on such generously sized teepads. I was very impressed.
Tee Signs on blues were all present and appeared accurate both in map and distance. I noticed one red tee sign missing.
All the baskets had a number INSIDE the basket on the pole. All baskets were marked. Very helpful.
Occasional white wooden arrows indicating the location of the location of the next hole were helpful when present. Course flow was mostly intuitive. The paths lined with down trees were helpful.
Practice basket present near start of course. Chainstars throughout the course function appropriately.
Board near start of course contained some basic information pertaining to rules and throwing form that could be helpful for newer players
Surprisingly clean. I could not believe how clean it was. Maybe someone went through recently. There are no trash cans, only a sign near the entrance saying that there are no trash cans, and that players need to pack out anything that they pack in. If not, the course could potentially shut down. Apparently the sign is working. I have recently started carrying a plastic bag to pick up trash at my local courses, usually picking up 5-10 beverage containers per round. I picked up exactly 0 trash during my two rounds at Silver Creek today. Well done, locals, because littering is stupid and unnecessary.
Cons:
I would like some indicator of which pin position the hole is currently in. Some courses use something as similar as two screws labeled "regular" and "alternate" and a washer on a rope indicating current pin position. Others use an alternating pattern based on month. It'd be nice to have some idea of where the pin is without having to walk out and look for it.
Having only played the course one time through before playing two rounds today and writing this review, I had to walk up and look for most of the baskets. Tee signs were helpful in giving a general idea of where to look. I believe all or most of the pins were in their regular positions.
Additionally, the gray Chainstars were moderately difficult to spot in the woods. The blending in does add to the aesthetic, as bright yellow disc catchers certainly don't feel natural to the woods, but I wouldn't complain about having easier baskets to spot. People who play here regularly likely don't have this problem.
The red teepads are rutted out and uneven. It appears that they have been framed to eventually be poured in with concrete. If they turn out as nice as the blues, then I'm more than happy to have contributed my $5 today.
Only a few of the holes are over 300', and a couple of those are downhill. #17 is the only open drive on the whole course, and even that one is technical because of the steep drop-off directly left of the green. Definitely not a course that encourages players to open up and throw with full power.
A possible critique of the course design is that it demands very specific shots, thus restraining a players creativity in finding lines. Most of the holes have a very specific line you have to hit to be successful. There were a couple times on right bending holes when I threw a backhand anhyzer rather than a forehand, but even those sorts of decisions were fairly limited by the tight fairways and dense woods. I personally don't mind this when the holes have good variety and still demand lots of different shots. I do know some players that prefer lightly wooded courses to heavily wooded courses for this reason, though.
Other Thoughts:
$3 per round or $5 per day is very reasonable for this course considering the obvious work that is going into installing excellent teepads and keeping the fairways fair. Silver Creek is quietly one of the best courses that the UP currently has to offer.
I encountered close to ten other groups from noon-three on a Saturday afternoon. That's a fair amount of traffic compared to what I have seen at other courses in the UP. Three of these groups were comprised of families and included children, which I consider to be a good sign of a healthy course. I was very impressed with Silver Creek, will play it again the next time I am in Marquette, and recommend it to anyone who lives in or is visiting the area.