City Park is located right in Iron Mountain, MI. It is a huge complex filled with all of the usual park amenities, plus some unusual ones like a 12 point buck viewing pen. One side of the park is home to an 18-hole DGC.

This plays as a very technical course throughout. There are a great mix of fairway shapes cut through the moderately to heavily wooded area utilized for the course. Elevation changes are also present on almost every hole, and in some cases they are pretty significant. A few holes that still stand out in my mind three months later include the opening one (a steep downhill throw back towards the parking lot), #7 (a nice left turning fairway playing down a valley then back up the other side), and #15 (only 164' but requiring a thread-the-needle line down another steep hill). The distances are not very long (all holes are between 200' and 300' except for #15 and the 312' #5) but the amount of technical challenge will keep this course interesting for many disc golfers.

The baskets are yellow banded DISCatchers in fine shape. One per hole. There are very nice sponsored wooden benches at most tees, and trash cans spaced out periodically around the course.

The other infrastructure is a bit of a mixed bag.
- The tee pads are rubber mats that I found to be a little bit uneven and slippery.
- Each hole has a long Blue tee, and most also had short Red tees. Both tees are marked by a post with the hole number and the top painted blue or red (which is nice), but the tee signs only appear at the Blue tees. These tee signs are a little weird. They show a photo of the hole taken from the tee with a suggested flight path, the hole number, and distance. Many also have OB areas indicated, and distance "to the corner" of the dogleg which is nice. But some of the lines depicted seemed misleading, and overall I would have preferred actual maps of the holes.
- The navigational signage is decent overall, but I did have issues finding the first tee. You can see the basket for this hole near the parking lot, but you have to walk up the path to the right of it up the hill to find the tee. Some signage directing here would help start the course off on a better foot.
- There is a kiosk, but no map was posted on it when I visited.
- I didn't see a practice basket, although there is an open area next to the parking lot that could be used for field work.

There are some cross-country ski/hiking trails that run through the course. People were using these during my visit, so the several blind throws at/across it were a little concerning. I also thought that a couple of the fairways felt pretty close together (5/6, 17/18) so be sure to look out for other DG'ers when playing those holes. Hole 15 starts a little too close to hole 14's basket for my liking, and could also use some stairs cut into the steep downhill fairway.

Those looking for long bomber holes or water hazards will not find any here.

Overall, this is a solid technical course with a few issues. I would love to have this one close to home. As is, I won't go out of my way to play here again but would definitely hit it if I happen to be back in the area.

Happy New Year!

- fantastic elevation change
- practice basket by hole 1
- nice Discatcher baskets
- nice full color tee signs at each hole
- dual tees, though shorts can be harder to find
- bathrooms in park but not specifically by disc golf area
- some benches and garbage cans throughout course
- some good next tee signs
- rough is very manageable throughout course
- mostly wooded and very technical with some more open shots on some of the big elevations
- area is mostly dedicated to disc golf and away from other park activities
- really quick round of 18 if you want to get a lot of disc golf in

- finding tee 1 is slightly difficult
- rubber tees are just ok
- tee signs have pictures of the fairway instead of a hole map, which is unusual and not as useful
- secondary/short tees have no tee signs
- some ski trail/bike trail interference, differing seasons mean not too many safety hazards
- some navigation issues, but good aids/map
- some may feel it is too short
- some built in stairs would be beneficial (particularly on 15)

City Park is a fantastic course set right in the city of Iron Mountain. You almost wouldn't know you're right there in the city, as this park is a very serene natural setting. I got pretty turned around at first, going too far down the main road into the park and ending up back by hole 17 in a different lot. When you are coming up on the main parts of the park, you have to turn right off the main drive and take a different road way out to the side of the park to get to the disc golf parking area. Then you take the built in stairs up to the top of the hill for hole 1, which isn't completely obvious.

Once I got going, the navigation aids were generally good and I didn't have too much trouble. The walks between 9 and 10 and between 12 and 13 backtrack a bit, potentially leading to people walking back down the fairway, which definitely isn't ideal. Other hazards were limited; the cross country ski trails cross the fairways a bunch, but this won't be an issue unless you're playing in significant snow, which would be a challenge on a course with this many slopes. Some people do use the trails to bike and I had a couple of hazards there with someone riding an electric bike down the middle of the fairway.

I played The Tailings in Iron River the same day as this course, and while both are fantastic, I think Tailings is the more unique, one of a kind experience. However, I rated City Park half a disc higher. Why? The Tailings is wild and unkempt, with tons of tee signs missing and a very rough feel. Despite being an incredible course, it needs some TLC. By comparison, City Park is very well maintained, with all the signage intact, better baskets, good navigational aids, etc. You can tell this course has been taken care of.

City Park is pretty heavily wooded for most of the course, with some truly spectacular elevated shots including 1 and 15. Hole 1 has nice built in stairs; 15 could use the same treatment, as it is a very steep descent. This course is actually quite short for 18 holes at around 4500 feet. I played this course in just over an hour solo never having played it before. I didn't feel like I was rushing, and I had a great time and a good challenge. Despite all the up and down trekking, the course plays pretty quick.

The course is technically challenging to make up for the short distances, but fair. It felt like there were a lot of doglegs and an emphasis was placed on hitting your fade/turn at the right place on the fairway to get that perfect line. For a wooded course, the rough here was very reasonable. It made the course play quickly and pleasantly not having to constantly hunt for discs.

This course may be just a slight stretch to award a 4; it's probably about a 3.75, and most reviews seem to come down on one side of that or the other. Overall, it was in great shape and I found it really enjoyable and exactly the type of hilly, wooded course I visited the UP for. If you like coffee, there are also some nice independent coffee shops in Iron Mountain. A visit to the Iron Mountain/Florence/Iron River corridor for disc golf is highly recommended and this should be a stop for everyone.

City Park DGC is an awesome mix of woods and elevation for the entire round. There's really only a handful of holes that are truly flat. The elevation goes from undulating fairways to massive downhill and cross valley shots. Trees on every hole to maneuver through and around accentuate the challenge.

The baskets here are your standard Discatchers with the yellow bands. As usual these pop out nicely in the shade of the woods. These baskets, while a bit older, still catch great. One pin and pin position per hole.

The tee signs, where present, are a bit odd to say the least. They have the hole #, distance, par and actually show the distance to the corner of any doglegs, which I can't recall ever seeing before. The map on them shows a picture of the hole with yellow dots showing the discs flight path from the tee perspective. There's a few next tee signs scattered throughout the course in needed spots too.

The design of the holes here (flow not so much) is very well done in my opinion. They use almost every square inch of property in this corner of the park to great success. The hole 14,15 and 16 section is pretty cool.

The wooded hills generally offered a couple ways to access the pin. One might be skinnier or less obvious but there were multiple lanes on most holes. Nice mix of left, right and straight shots here though, at least as far as the intended lines.

The course plays on the shorter side. Definitely a par 3 course. I don't think there were any holes over 300' or just barely if there were. I don't think this is a con at all. This is a pro in my opinion, especially with the space available here. Forces shot shaping and accuracy over sheer distance.

The course is permanent and free to play. Numerous benches scattered throughout too, which is nice after some of those uphill walks.

The tee signs are one of the bigger cons. Not so much the signs themselves but all the missing ones, which was quite a few. I also wasn't a big fan of the hole map shown from the perspective of being on the tee. Kind of strange. A few more next tee signs would've been helpful in spots as well.

The course set up is a bit odd. We found 17 first, so played that and 18 before wandering around for probably 10 minutes before finding hole 1, which does NOT start near the parking. To find hole 1 you need to walk up hole 1's fairway the entire way, which ends with a huge flight of stairs you walk. Before starting your round. Throw your shot and basically head back where you just came from. Weird.

A fairly busy walking trail winds it's way throughout most of the course, sometimes blindly off the tee. Not the safest course I've played in this regard.

This was just a really fun course to play, once I figured out where the hell I was going that is. I'd absolutely recommend this course to anyone that's in the area. Not worth a huge drive out of your way to play by any means, but a really fun round. I'd be ecstatic to have this course near me.

This is a awesome park, there is a Deer reserve(Big deer) on the property that is really cool. This is a fun par three course, very wooded with some tight tunnel shots. Very technical wooded course. I would recommend you play this if you are in the area, go feed some deer some acorns. A lot of elevation.

It is a par three course, I would say the average Distance Is about 250 to 275.( not a bad thing for a smaller arm) the course could use some new placard's kinda got lost a bit. A lot of elevation for some this isn't great if there are older players or heavyset players, I am both haha and had a great time with the course. Alittle bit more work and this course could be5 Star Easy.

-Iron Mountain City Park DGC makes good use of the available space. A lot of course into a compact area.

-Phenomenal use of elevation changes. Hole #1 is a mostly open downhill throw. There's a short but tight steep downhill hole (15?) Hole #7 starts flat with a tight gap shortly off the tee and finishes right way uphill. Hole #8 is a wide tunnel shot that finishes, you guessed it, up a hill. This course makes up for it's lack of length by implementing elevation changes. Almost every hole on this course makes use of elevation change in some way.

-Mostly Intuitive layout. I had never played the course before, but had a pretty easy time following the course. Hole #2 feels like where #1 should be, but #1 is actually a climb up a hill to throw down #2. Once you find #1 it's not too bad finding your way around.

-Next Tee signs interspersed throughout the course. These were helpful.

-Nice Wooden posts with hole number at the back of teepads. Hole number is engraved into wood, which means that they won't wear out or disappear like all too many tee signs.

-Good teepads. I haven't used rubber teepads much, but these were nice. A flat rubber mat. My fear with a teepad like this was that they may not be flat, but they were as flat as most cement teepads. They are currently in great shape.

-Wooded but fair. Most of this course is played through the woods and is tight and technical. Most holes have a reasonable and intuitive fairway to aim for, but will punish you if you get offline. The fairways themselves often have trees in them to work around as well. The two most open holes, #5 and #6, make good use of trees in a mostly open fairway to create some difficulty.

-Hole Variety: There are few holes that few the same as other holes on the course. Each one is a little different than the next. Hole types include but are not limited to: Uphill, downhill, straight tunnel, tunnel that finishes right, tunnel that finishes left, and a hole over a valley. The only thing this course is missing is a true bomber hole.

-Benches. They exist and are relatively plentiful. Considering all the hiking up and down hills this course requires, the high number of benches was an excellent choice. Other amenities include restrooms by the playground near the beginning of the course. I advise hitting them on your way in (though the course is wooded and secluded enough that you can certainly pee in the woods if that's your thing and you don't mind breaking a minor law.)

-Nice new baskets that are in great condition. Bright yellow disc catchers that are easy to find. There was one of them sitting a little crooked, but some of the local club members are aware of and will attend to that.

-Burgeoning local scene. I played the course for a tournament that the local club was putting on as a fundraiser towards new teepads for the red tees. The local club clearly cares about the course and is putting in the work to make it great! They were fun to play with and helpful in navigating the course my first time through. Additionally, there were several groups of people not participating in the tournament that were using the course while I was there. I consider that to be a good sign. I even saw a couple 12ish year old kids playing the course, which was awesome. Casual players is a sign of a healthy course. It's good to see interest growing in an area where the course is relatively new!

-Course not fully developed. There are posts for short tees, but they have not yet been put in. The current tee signs, which are laminated paper, are moderately helpful at best. Difficult to see/read and will need to be replaced at some point. Distances to pin and "distance to corner" were helpful, as was the projected flight path that showed you which direction the pin finished. From what I hear, permanent signs are on the way, but with some of the baskets moving there may be a hold up on this.


-Recently moved baskets. A few of the baskets have recently been moved, which is not yet indicated on tee signs. I saw where #3 had been and where it is now, and that was a good move. However, the new #4 is poor choice. #4 is 200+ ft down a tight wooded tunnel before abruptly turning 90 degrees left to a basket placed 75 feet into the trees. It plays as a weird tweener hole: The only ways to birdy are to play poke and hope, get lucky on your tee shot, or hit a 40 foot putt.

For reference, I won CTP on this hole for the second round of the tournament I played (which included a player setting a new course record), and was looking at a 40-50 ft putt. I wouldn't be surprised if there were 0 birdies on this hole for the entirety of the two round tournament. However, #4 is too short to be a par 4, though I saw plenty of bogies and double bogies on my card. Some would praise this hole as difficult par 3, but I consider it poor course design and a rash decision to move it from its original location. I suppose it's a matter of par philosophy; I personally like to see players rewarded for an excellent tee shot with a good look at birdie rather than an easier par.

-Hole #5 and Hole #6 have overlapping parallel fairways that presents a very real danger of hitting other players. #5's basket is by #6's tee and #5's tee is by #6's basket. Furthermore, the logical line on #6 is to throw at number #5's tee and finish right towards #6 basket as there are denser trees on the right side of the fairway.

-Similarly, there are walking trails and such through the course that are not always very visible from the teepad. I was always a little afraid that someone might come walking around a blind corner after I had thrown my teeshot. This feels like a course where you could easily get hit by an errant disc.

-Lack of length: There are 0 holes over 300 feet. No opportunities to open up and throw far. This is a great course to test your ability to hit tight lines, but is nice to open up and actually throw a distance drive at least once during round.

Beautiful Course in a beautiful wooded park. I recommend the course to anyone who is in the area and has time to play it!

Awesome elevation changes and unique hole placements. Great Tee-pads with brooms on almost every pad. Almost no trash on the course, well kept up and respected.

I did only pull out my driver twice, but the technicality of the course is the reason I used my consistent midranges. A couple of the signs for hole placement have been water damaged, but generally easy to find each basket after finding the first tee pad.

Aesthetic-- plays through a very large multiuse park. Intertwines with hiking/mountain biking trails but the trails are marked where they intersect fairways (there is warning for both users).

Teepads-- diamond plate rubber mats identical to those at The Tailings. Nice touch here, the mats are surrounded by rocks framed with 4x4's to hold every thing together. Really solid teepads.

Teesigns-- Adequate for now. the posts are the real stars here as they stick out in the woods and have numbers on them so you can find them easier. The signs themselves are laminated paper so they will need replaced at some point.

Routing and Nav-- easy peasy. You are directed to the first tee from the parking lot (as the logical #1 is actually #2). Next tee signs are abundant throughout.

Variety-- Kept up nicely. rights, lefts, ups, downs. All nicely represented here.

Rough-- positives and negatives here. For being a new course, the scrubby rough is light. Kind of impressed at the work that has gone in here to make it easy to find discs.

Baskets-- all brand new DisCatchers. Nice and easy to see in the thick woods.

Gratuitious use of elevation-- I did NOT expect this much elevation here. Was truly surprised by the workout this course gave us.

Risk v Reward--This course is just as much about placement shots as it is "going for it." Teesigns list distance to "the corner" on anny/hyzer shots and a lot of holes require a good placement shot for the approach.

Rough/log piles-- The only issues I had with the rough were the large log piles. I understand that keeping it on the fairway would have negated this negative but they could make it uber hard to find an errant disc.

Length-- I understand the space constraints of this park but I would have liked to see some longer holes.

a great surprise.
This course is in it's infantcy, can't wait to see where it goes from here.

Good mix of hole styles and elevation changes. Fairly tight wooded course. Well maintained, partially by me, ;-P. More to come.

Average hole length is a little short for better players who like to stretch it out but the technicality keeps it fairly hard.

- Brand spanking new DisCatchers makes it easy when searching for the basket from the tee.
- Rubber tees set atop a level gavel pad.
- Course played in a heavily wood section all by itself.
- Ton of next tee signs that really help you make you way around the course.
- tee signs were decent, gave distances and flight path
- decent variety(lefts , rights, straights, few open but mostly wooded)
- Course is very wooded and technical.

- Distances were rather short.

Beginners will enjoy the course as it shorter and scorable but Seasoned played will like just as much because of the tight lines and ace runs. This is a great course to grow the sport, Florence/Iron Mountain makes for a great day of golf.