Just a few minutes south of the Michigan-Indiana border, the Clay Township Park DGC offers a weird hodgepodge of wooded and open holes that misses the mark.

The course's beauty, from grassy fields to groves of trees, is one of the best aspects of the course. The DGCR photos do an excellent job of displaying the elegance surroundings.

The course wraps around the perimeter of the park and concludes not far from the parking area. The mostly flat course is fairly easy to walk.

The course is very clean and seems to be well-maintained.

Most nine-hole, city-park-style courses are guilty of being homogenous in design. You won't find that at Clay Township Park. The hole diversity ranges from a wide-open 400-foot-plus hole to a silly, jump-putt of 100 feet, to one of the worst wooded holes I've played. Perhaps the designers were instructed to not make any alterations in creating the course, but even so, a majority of the designs flopped.

The first oddity is the teepads, which appeared to have been rotated 90 degrees so that they are wider than they are long. The teepad signs are a wooded, rustic design that contain only the hole number and distance; on a couple holes, a map would be very beneficial to avoid having to walk down the narrow fairway in search of the path and basket.

The peculiarity continues with the course design.

The first basket is out in an open field but the teepad is set behind an enormous tree, and with a fenced-in area on the right, the 400-foot-hole will be a challenge to birdie for all but the best disc golfers. The second hole is shorter, but goes over a railroad-tie-style fence and the park through road.

Hole #3 is one of the most disappointing designs. The 420-foot-hole is open field for the first half, then goes into a gorgeous straight-line grove of trees. Instead of creating what could have been an awesome 200-foot ace run with a tight line and low ceiling, the designer decided to double the distance for no good reason. And calling this a par-3 hole is hilarious. Only a perfect roller has a chance to land anywhere near the basket.

Hole #4 is listed as par 3 as well, but this time, it's only 100 feet in the woods. C'mon, this hole might be a chance for an ace, but what a joke.

Holes #5 through #7 are also in the woods, but their fairways appear to be adapted from the narrow nature paths already in place. The area just off the fairway is extremely difficult to get out of, and while Holes #5 and #7 are about 300 feet, you can't see the basket from the teepad.

Hole #7 is ridiculous. Listing it as a par 4 gives it a bit of grace … never mind, it's still ridiculous. The narrow walking path curves and changes direction about four times. Barring a miracle throw that might ricochet off several trees, discs don't fly that way. The best approach to tackling this hole might be three long putts and then a short putt to make par.

I encountered a few park participants during my round here. Several cars were parked near the fairway for Hole #2, a gentleman was seated on a bench near the Hole #3 basket, and the curvy trails on Holes #5-7 could present a problem for unsuspecting walkers.

The ambiance and scenery at Clay Township Park is excellent. However, the design falters and fails to live up to its potential. Plus, the teepads are the wrong way.

If you're willing to overlook these faults, it's a decent park course. But it could have been much more…