Pros:
- Free
- Dog friendly
- Local disc golfers everywhere
- A great mix of wooded and open designs
- Beautiful landscape
- Very well groomed
- Concrete teepads for long tees
- Great signage for long tees
Cons:
- Located in a public park
- Designed around a maze of walking paths
- A few risky blind shots that are hard to spot
- No tee pads or signage for the short tees
Other Thoughts:
I played this course the last time I was in Thunder Bay in 2013 and my my has it changed. The old design was mostly a mid range and putter course with really slippery tee pads that was condensed in a small part of the park. I was fond of the course but mostly because I had aced #18.
To my surprise, the course, parking lot and pretty much everything in the area looked very different. The man made lake was also drained to give it an even more different look. I was lucky to join up with a couple locals that showed me the way around.
The new Birch Point has been expanded to be lots bigger than the old course. It's a full 18 holes of mostly 300-350ft holes and a few longer par 4s tossed in. We threw the long tees in all three rounds because the short tees aren't fully organized. They are marked with the slippery tee pads from the old course but not on all holes. It's not a long course but having proper short tees would make this course even better.
The course also has multiple pin locations for every hole with the hole's current placement being noted on each hole sign. Hole 5s basket location was fun but without a spotter, it could be a very risky shot. The entire course is nestled into a maze of public walking paths so there can be some waiting involved. The walkers all seem to be very aware of disc golf but caution is needed at almost all times on the course. While playing the wooded section, there was multiple people cutting across fairways so the path is not the only pedestrian danger. Keep your eyes peeled.
The course design really pushes disc golfers to have a full set of skills and shots available with a great mix of wooded and open shots that require all kinds of angles and types of shots. Players learning to play on this course will end up with a full skill set over time that comes in handy on any other course.
It's clear that a lot of money and work have gone into the improvement of this course since the last time I came to town. This is the course that got the sport going in Thunder Bay and it's very clear that the locals prefer this spot to any other. With short tee pads and signage, this is a 5 star course, everyone in the area should make a point of playing "the point".