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Alma, MI

The Runway DGC

3.755(based on 2 reviews)
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18 0
BogeyNoMore
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 19.9 years 484 played 183 reviews
3.50 star(s)

Get airborne at The Runway

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Jan 14, 2023 Played the course:once

Pros:

Well-designed and executed. Public property (although it's not located in a park) that appears to have been dedicated to disc golf. I didn't see any signs or fixtures to indicate other activities take place here.

• Variety: Excellent – Great range of distances. Fairways range from moderately to well wooded (no needles to thread or pinball, and #7 is the only real "Grip-n-Rip hole). Fairway shapes will have you throwing straight, hyzer, and forehand/turnover lines off the tee. All but a few holes have dual tees, plus full-time dual baskets further enhance variety.

• Elevation: Nope – A couple of baskets perched on mounds of earth to elevate them 2-3 ft, but other than that, flat as a pancake.

• Challenge: Excellent – Several of the long holes place a premium on setting up your 2nd shot. Quite possible for players who can easily hit 300-350 ft to overdrive the landing zone, leaving themselves them a tougher 2nd shot than a shorter drive might yield. There are some holes where extra distance off the tee will only help if well-shaped and placed. But there are still plenty of birdie opportunities for noodle arms, so it's not all about distance. The various possible layouts accommodate pretty much the entire range of skill levels. The rough is thick enough to make avoiding it worth your while.

• Aesthetics: Very good – Admittedly, I played well after foliage was gone, so there wasn't a hint of green. Everything looked brown and gray. But nothing gave me the impression this was anything less (or more) than a pleasant walk through the woods and wetlands of Central Michigan. I'm sure it's much prettier in the spring/summer when it's all greened up, or dressed in a fall wardrobe. A few holes offer views of the Pine River (which could come into play, but really isn't likely to, IMHO).

Lots of deer droppings means whitetail sightings. About half a dozen trotted across 17's fairway.

• Equipment: Excellent- All concrete tees are decent size and level. Blue baskets are short, red baskets are long. Wonderful tee signs show both basket locations relative to both tees. Next tee arrows nailed to trees near baskets make finding your way pretty easy.

• Fun Factor: Very good – I really enjoyed the shot variety and the ability to mix/match tees and baskets.

• Memorable holes: Maybe I'm getting jaded, but other than distance on wooded holes, nothing really checked this box for me.

• Routing/Nav: Very good. The next tee arrows (may have been installed since the previous review) and tee signs, made it easy to find my way without any help map. No long walks between holes and spent zero time finding the next hole.

Cons:

No glaring faux pas stood out.

• The grassy fairways were uneven and just bumpy enough to affect footing on my 2nd shot. Particularly frustrating on long holes when you're trying to reach the green from a distance. Less of a problem on short holes where it's easier to throw upshots from a standstill.

• On just a few holes, the different basket locations didn't make that big a difference.

• Dry when I played, but the wallowy nature of the ground and the nearby wetlands tell me this is a course to avoid after it rain or early spring when the snow melts.

Other Thoughts:

Full disclosure: All the holes basically playing flat curtailed my marks for Variety, Fun Factor, and Memorable holes. Even a a bit of gently rolling terrain makes things more interesting to me. Your opinion may differ.

I basically played short tees to long baskets (opting to play to the short pin on long holes). Since there was no traffic, I often took a 2nd tee shot at the short pin on short holes.

E-Mac got it right, and the Runway gets excellent marks in several categories. I briefly thought about a 4.0, but it doesn't quite stack up against courses I have at 4.0. I honestly feel it lands squarely between 3.5 and 4.0.
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16 0
volklgirl
Gold level trusted reviewer
Experience: 15.7 years 110 played 56 reviews
4.00 star(s)

Variety is the Spice of Life drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Sep 4, 2022 Played the course:once

Pros:

The tee signs are AMAZING! The course flows well, and Next Hole signs keep you headed in the right direction. The tee pads are HUGE, grippy, and perfectly flat. Longer holes had both a long and a short pad, and every hole had long and short baskets. The Veterans baskets are lovely and they catch very well. Holes range from around 200\' to over 1,000\', and cover the gamut from fairly heavily wooded and well guarded to wide open. As should be the case, the wooded ones were shorter, and the open ones offered distance. There are benches and picnic tables spaced through the course, and trash buckets approximately every other hole. Basket placemat is creative, utilizing hiding bushes, tree corrals, berm tops and berm valleys.

Cons:

The ground is very uneven and there are lots of trenches and holes in the fairways. Outside of the fairways are equally rough, including waist-high grasses, swamp willows, grape vines, berry bushes, and poison ivy. Several holes and additional tee pads are underwater in the spring. There\'s currently no bathroom facilities on the course.

Other Thoughts:

This course will be fantastic once it gets settled in. The lack of any elevation change really doesn\'t detract from this course at all - the variety in distances, hole shapes, and fairway widths and the creative basket placements more than make up for it.
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