Leviathan is a recently redesigned 24-hole course in Ludington, MI. As I write this in November 2021 and update it in June 2022, some of the finishing touches of the redesign are still (I assume/hope) to come.

The course plays through a hilly wooded area. There are elevation changes on many holes, and they range from mild to extreme. There are a couple fun "valley" holes. It's a solid mix of left turns, right turns, straight shots, S-shaped fairways, you name it. A few holes are more open to keep things fresh. Several baskets are closely guarded by trees and/or on steep slopes to add extra challenge. Hole 2 plays only 200'-250' (depending on tee) but up a steep hill. I had a fairly easy putt for par, but hit the front of the basket and watched my disc roll all the way back down the hill and behind a couple trees. I ended up taking a six.

Several other holes are memorable as well. I liked hole 17 that plays over a ridge and down through a valley dotted with some tall pines. Hole 3 is known as "Dragon's Tooth" according to a sign near the long tee. From that tee this hole is a 742' par 5. It starts with about 450' of narrow fairway that looks more like a walking path, cut straight ahead through the woods. Even if you are an advanced disc golfer who can throw 400', it is going to be difficult to stay on this fairway. Then the hole plays another 300' down a slight incline (where you will find the short tee) and across a more open flat area at the bottom. Several clumps of small trees guarding the basket were chopped down at about waist level and painted white, and one stump was painted green. If you manage to birdie the hole with a witness present, you are invited to sign one of the white stumps. If you somehow, impossibly eagle the hole, you can sign the green stump. I decided to play this one from the short tee and managed to park my drive for an easy birdie (this doesn't count for stump signing though).

As alluded to above, this course has multiple tee options. From the short (Yellow) tees, Leviathan plays as a fun technical round that provides some challenge but is doable for relatively new players such as myself. I played this short layout and would have finished under par if not for my debacle on hole 2. From the long (Black) tees this course is going to be a significant challenge for any disc golfer. In addition to the length, the lines off of a good number of long tees looked quite tight. This is the sort of layout where if you struggle with accuracy and control it could consistently take you several throws just to reach the short tee pad from the long tee.

The baskets are all Chainstars in good shape.

There is a kiosk at the front of the course with a map of the new layout on it. The map also shows the hole distances and pars for the new Black tee layout. Note that on this map (which is now uploaded here), Hole 2 is drawn in the wrong direction. There are also mailboxes for scorecards next to the kiosk, but they were empty when I visited.

A porta potty is located at the parking lot.

The tees are what I hope/assume is still a work in progress. The teepads are concrete and some were great, but currently they vary wildly in size and installation quality. Some were not level and/or embedded into the ground yet (likely just dug up and moved from the old layout), and some were simply too small. There were some trash cans and benches, but more would be nice. The tee signs are currently nonexistent at the long tees, other than tiny flags with "LONG" and the hole number scrawled on them in Sharpie. The short tees have temporary yard-style signage that shows the hole number, distance, and par. Adding to the confusion, there are still many tee signs from the old layout in place all around the course. It looks like about half of the holes are reused from the old layout, so the old signs were still there. On these holes, generally the old Black tee layout is the new Black tee layout and the old Red tee layout is the new Yellow tee layout. Most of the reused holes have been renumbered so the hole numbers on the old tee signs were taped over. Currently only the new Yellow and new Black layouts are playable. The new course map suggests that there will also be a new medium Blue layout eventually, but no evidence of this is yet present on the course and actually it looked like the concrete from the old Blue tees had recently been removed when I played (again this is referring only to those reused holes).

Navigation is also a mess at this point. Next Tee signs are quite clear in some areas but missing in many other areas. They take the form of orange and green arrows nailed to trees. When present, they were definitely helpful. There are some long walks between holes, especially 12-13 and 18-19. In its current state you will definitely want to use the map (or UDisc, I assume) to navigate the course. That walk from 18-19 may also cross hole 20's fairway if you take the shortest route, presenting a safety hazard.

Other extras like a practice basket, etc. are currently missing.

The layout did not flow well in spots, and overall the course seemed a little cramped. It was a dreary, cold November Tuesday when I played (and a warm but quiet June Wednesday when I returned) so there were only a couple of other groups on the course. During busy times I could see the small distance between some of these fairways becoming a safety issue. More on this below. A couple of hiking trails pass through the course layout as well.

This course costs $1/day to play, payable in a drop box next to the kiosk.

Thanks to those involved in bringing Leviathan back to life. There is a fun story written on the kiosk about how Leviathan was "mortally wounded by societal progress" but is now reborn. I was not fortunate enough to play the old Leviathan layout prior to redesign, so my knowledge of it only comes secondhand e.g. from reading through the old DGCR page. The driving factor behind this redesign appears to be the construction of a new elementary school on the land that used to be the northern 1/3 or so of the course. It looked like the designers tried their best to keep as many of the holes from the old layout as possible, but I'm not convinced that was the best decision. When you take a good course and take away about 1/3 of the land without reducing the number of holes, it's most likely going to end up a little cramped/convoluted and that was how this felt for me. Some of the new holes felt like throwaways...one example of this is hole 14 which just plays in an open area next to the new entrance drive for the school. IMHO I think that reducing it to an 18 hole course could have been a better decision.

Once the finishing details are ironed out I plan on upping this rating to a 3.5 for sure, maybe a 4.0. This course still provides fun from the Yellow tees, and serious challenge for serious disc golfers from the Black tees. Even when fully implemented I don't think I could call this the #3 course in the state, which is what it was before the redesign. However, with so many other solid courses in the area a Ludington trip should still be on your disc golf bucket list - and this course is still good enough to be one of the stops!

UPDATE JUNE 2022: Nothing much has really changed in the eight months since I last visited and wrote the review above. Navigating this convoluted layout in its current state is very difficult. I needed to pull out the map uploaded here to get from hole 12 to hole 13, and several times to get between holes after #18. Some of the temporary tee signage has also gone missing, which didn't help anything. In general, the course gets more difficult to navigate as you progress through it. I played the shorts again today, and that's what I would recommend for anyone playing this course in its current state who wants to have fun. From the shorts this is a very doable round where it will be possible for many players to finish under par (even I did!). It's an enjoyable round, other than the signage/navigation issues and long walks between holes. I just couldn't stomach trying the longs yet. The holes that were not part of the old layout definitely need more clearing between the long tee and the short tee in my opinion, or at least they need braver souls than I playing them and trampling down the rough a lot more. Right now it feels like the beginning of the fairways (between the long tee and short tee) are basically just the walking paths most people are using to reach the short tees. If you do try the long tees, be ready for a smack down! No one has signed the green "tooth" on hole 3 yet, and there were only a couple of signatures on the white teeth. In its current state, I would put this course behind Whiskey Hills, Beauty, Beast, and Labyrinth in the Ludington area catalog.

This course has a lot of challenging holes with some variety in the layouts. Some are designed in ways that favor forehand throws, while others are designed to favor backhand throws. Most of the holes are in the woods, but there are a few that are outside the woods. The ones outside the woods have a few trees scattered here and there, and they make for some tricky obstacles. Each hole has two tee pads, one closer to the basket and one farther away. Also, the course is designed in a way that makes it pretty easy to find your way to each hole.

The fairways for a lot of the wooded holes are too narrow, and the woods in that area are real dense. If your disc doesn't land on the fairway (which can easily happen to a lot of players), chances are you're going to have to waste at least one stroke trying to just get your disc back on the fairway because you won't have an open shot down the field toward the basket (sometimes it'll even be difficult trying to throw it back onto the fairway because of all the foliage that'll be in your way). There are a few holes where it can be kind of easy to lose your disc in the woods if you don't keep a close eye on it. Also, keep an eye out for poison ivy.

Overall, this is a good course that can challenge your skills, but at times it seems too difficult for most players to enjoy. Definitely not a beginner-friendly course. I think it's ok for a course to have some holes with narrow fairways, but this course had too many, and the woods on a lot of those holes can be very unforgiving if your disc lands in there.