Pros:
- Silver Creek's 36 (!!!) holes challenges players of all stripes with a compelling mix of parkstyle, wooded, and prairie disc golf. Distances range from short ace runs (e.g., hole #2 at 147') to long downhill bombs (e.g., hole #14 at 478'). The course can be played as one 36-hole monster, as separate 18-hole loops, or as an 18-hole Silver Cup with even longer tee pads and pin placements. Silver Cup holes have their own signage so keep an eye peeled during navigation. The Silver Cup holes, which my review will reflect, are a real challenge of length, line shaping, and course management.
- Good use of water, from the several wooded holes along the creek (e.g., hole #'s 1, 4, 5, 14) to the raised lighthouse basket (hole #26) located on a peninusula surrounded by raging Lake Michigan. No big water carries or anything of the sort, but the creek is lurking, especially over the first 18 holes, waiting to spoil a round for the careless or unlucky.
- Great use of elevation throughout. Big bomber hill, check. Rolling prairie-style holes, check. Fast greens dropping off into creeks, check. Downhill doglegs through woods to elevated baskets on the shore of Lake Michigan, check. Awesome uphills aceruns (hole #17), check. This place does elevation right. Nothing mountainous or crazy, but they squeeze all the goodness out of the property, and it's pretty darn good.
- Plethora of ups, downs, rights, lefts, into the woods, out of the woods, etc. Mandos in several places to facilite safe play and rule out cheater lines. This course will give your shot repetoire a workout over the full 36 or playing the longest Silver Cup layout.
- Concrete tees, good signage, large map at kiosk near parking lot.
- The only course I know where you can run straight into Lake Michigan for a quick swim mid-round with your own private beach. Bringing trunks and cooling off mid-round is a pro move.
- Not a ton of the typical multi-use park amenities on site (or at least, right at that parking lot). This is pretty much a disc golf centric area of the park. However, the courses itself has tons of wooden structures to help mitigate wayward shots falling on players at the next tee, benches, bridges, etc. Course signage, baskets, tees, and next tee signage (for the most part) are all in fine condition.
Cons:
- The shortish walk to hole #1 isn't immediately apparent. Walk straight past the kiosk along the edge of the woods until you see the signs for hole #1, tucked inside the trees along the creek. Check the map if uncertain. After that the course flows pretty intuitively. The one big confusion, every time I play here, is I seem to want to always climb the hill after hole #20 and go over the bridge. Don't do that! Instead, go underneath the bridge to reach the next hole.
- A few of the holes play a little close to roadways (hole #'s 4, 12, 36) and park infrastructure (hole #4 has some small utility building in play).
- Hole #36, the penultimate hole, is a weak open ace run with only a small bush mid fairway as an obstacle. Obviously a throwaway hole for routing back to the parking lot, I can't help but feel a bit let down by such a bland finish after such an epic round.
Other Thoughts:
- Be aware, the pictures as currently shown are out of date and do not reflect the current layout/numbering, although the actual physical hole remains. For example, hole #16 according to the pictures is now hole #21 with the current numbering configuration.
- Silver Creek, an old friend I've revisted several times over the years, is a chewy, challenging course (or courses) definitely worth stopping by and getting to know. The design offers a ton of variety: a shorter 18-hole beginner's layout, a 36-hole slog utilizing the longer tees to the short pins ideal for intermediate/advanced, the 18-hole Silver Cup challenge, or any combination/permutation thereof. Mix and match this course to your heart's content.
- If this course were chopped in half, I'd rate the first 18er a 4-disc and the second 18er a 3.5-disc. I'd rate the Silver Cup layout a 4. That's a lot of quality golf. Combined into one mega-course, Silver Creek clearly deserves a 4.5-disc rating.
- Silver Creek brings the disc golf.