Nestled near the historic town of Harper's Ferry, this pretty park course is a welcome addition to an area that would benefit from more courses nearby. That said, Sam Michael's Park could use some work. Though there was some interesting disc golf throughout the round, the design leaves much to be desired. That said, there were some nice elements to the course such as open-format holes, some elevation, and natural beauty that any regular disc golfer would appreciate.

Set at the back of Sam Michael's Park, the course plays through a combination of open fields and young-growth trees as well as some ball fields in the middle of the round. The first hole opens from the gravel parking lot through an open field After you walk through a fence line to your right, you are met with holes 2-7 criss-crossing their way through tall grass and a few trees in the open field. Holes 8-10 meet the ball field fences and then holes 11-13 play down and along a small stream. Hole 11 is probably the signature hole: a 436 par 4 through a well-designed fairway and short trees. Holes 14-17 follow along a power line path on the back side of the park. Hole 18 is a cool little tunnel hole through the trees running parallel to 17 (back toward 17's tee pad), but is really out of place with the rest of the course.

The elevation on this course is used quite well. Hole 1 is slightly up hill and then nearly every hole from that point forward goes back and forth, up and down. Hole 14 is up hill and over a pond, which added a bit of difficulty. After a short down hill on 15, 16 is dramatically up hill again in a deceivingly difficult 171 footer. If you want your exercise, this is a good course for you.

As with many park courses, this course sports lush, leafy trees and abundant green grass in the summer. The stream and pond add some water beauty and the overall maintenance by park caretakers is evident. The only draw back to the beauty would be holes 15-17 as they play along the power lines, but the view of the valley is a nice compensation.

Unfortunately, this course appears to suffer from design (or park restrictions) that have left it a forgettable experience. Though the fairways were mowed and the baskets were high quality DISCatchers, with limited navigation, no tee pads, no signs, an inaccurate map, and some flow that did not make much sense, the course has the feel that the designer started and then stopped after getting the baskets in.

Because the issues with the natural tee pads, poor map, and lack of tee signs has been addressed in previous reviews, I won't address that much here. Just know that I had similar problems finding where to start each hole. What I will mention is the navigation and flow was not very intuitive (for a good breakdown of the first nine holes, see Crooow's review). I also struggled to find where to tee off throughout the course, searching for too many minutes for the little white markers that were shorter than the grass and difficult to see. The 15 minutes it took me to find hole 13 was frustrating. Turns out, you have to walk along the stream from hole 12's basket until you find a little bridge on the left. Once you cross into the other field, you must walk up to the top of the rise behind a large tree to find the tee markers. Navigation was a little easier after that, though the quality of the holes decreased. I think there was a lot of potential for this course, but as it stands there really is not enough to bring me back.

I usually would make a comment here about the fun factor. I had fun, of course, but it was not much because of the course. I just like playing disc golf and have fun most courses I play. This course did not detract from the fun I had, but it didn't add to it much either. It was a fairly standard park course, except without the basic amenities to make it good.

Odd Quirks: For some reason, the day I was there there was a guy practicing the Scottish bagpipes near hole 18. That was not the soundtrack for the round I was expecting, but I do enjoy Celtic music, so...

Also, there was a group of kids in an archery class playing right across hole 13's fairway, which made for an awkward experience. Fortunately, they stopped to let me throw (parked it with a gallery watching!) and then we all walked up the fairway together (me to finish the hole, them to retrieve their arrows out of the targets).

I was tempted to give this a 2.5 because there were some decent holes, but I feel a course needs some basic things like clear and maintained tee pads, or at least tee markers that are taller than the three inches of grass around them so we can see where to go next in order to receive a high rating. Without the fun factor, this course falls to a 2.0 for me. Though I was just driving through, even if I lived nearby, I don't think I would visit much.