Cascade Township Park is a multi-use park that has Pickleball, Tennis, Basketball, Playground, baseball walking trails, soccer, volleyball and a dog park to name some of the other things here. This has been one of the staples in Grand Rapids Disc for a while, and this is the newest layout which in the time of writing this review is already at least 6 years old.

Basket - These are older DGA Mach 3 baskets. I feel like I thought I would chains out of these, but didn't have a lot of issues.

Use of the Land - with the latest redesign of this course while there is a little extra walking throughout the park, they used it better to make the disc golf kind of by itself. It gets close and interacts with some of the other things (mostly the walking trails) it shouldn't be too bad. They also have a really good use of the elevation, you get a lot of different types of shots and they even throw in some nice tightly wooded holes.

Beginner friendly - this has some longer holes, and can get windy, but overall it should be fairly beginner friendly. It has some obstacles and a little bit of everything to really show what disc golf is about, with out making anything super crazy.

Hole 11, 15 are both two holes you want to throw some extra shots on in hopes for the ace and seeing the disc fly.

Tee Pads - These are gravel, and a lot of them are hard to do run ups on, and easy to slip. I really wish these had cement pads.

Navigation - Once you know the course it's not too bad, but I had to use UDisc while I was here and got kind of mixed up a bit. A few of the holes re fairly far apart and can be confusing to get to.

Tee Signs - Just a stick with a number and some of them have the distance. It's not awful as the holes are pretty cut and dry, but with the navigation issues if we had a map with "Next Tee" it would be pretty big improvement.

Multi-Use Park - While I think they did a really good job of keeping the disc golf by itself, there are some walking trails you may have to wait for people to get off of for a safer shot. Hole 8 has the tennis/pickleball courts sort of in play, and hole 9 has the basketball courts, but besides that it's mainly just walkers and not super bad, but if the park is very busy it could be worse.

This course is close to my work, so I think over all I will plan on playing it a bit more. This is nothing crazy, but its a pretty short nice course. I noticed someone mentioned playing 2, 11-18 as a nice nine holer. I may even give this a try sometime.

If you don't have UDisc or a Phone make sure to print the course map as you may need it for your first time playing. This is pretty on and off the highway, but there is also Thornapple Brewing right around the corner if you want to grab a beer after a round here.

Update: I know someone else mentioned this but my favorite layout here is probably playing "the short 9" per UDisc and it's hole 2, 11-18. Its a nice quick 9 hole run that plays pretty good without needless walking, it has a lot of ace runs and you get most of the best holes.

This is a hilly course that offers a little bit of variety. Although most of the holes are out in the open, there are a few that are in the woods. For the holes that are out in the open, some of them are long and some are short. Some have a couple trees as obstacles, some have woods nearby as obstacles, one has a tennis court as an obstacle, and several of them have hills as obstacles. The holes in the woods are mostly short, but they also have narrow fairways and are hilly. This course also has a few blind tee shots.

It's really hard to find all 18 holes. It's not even clear where you're supposed to park to play the first hole. Some of the holes are really spread out and you have to walk a long ways to get to the next one. The ones in the woods are practically hidden. There's no clear entrance in the woods to get to them. I would've never known about them had I not stumbled across a small sign that shows the layout of the course (that sign is located in a very obscure spot in the park between holes 11 and 2). Sometimes when walking to the next hole, you have to walk right by a previous hole, or cross over a previous hole entirely, and that only causes you to get in the way of other players who are playing that hole. Most of the holes outside the woods are too wide open. Some of them are also too short, which is sad because there's plenty of room for them to be longer. The 8th hole is a little too close to the tennis courts. There's a missed opportunity for the 9th hole to be trickier. Right now it's short and wide open, but if they move the basket out a little farther and to the left, it'll be between two trees that could serve as obstacles that could make the hole trickier and more fun to play. Most of the holes in the woods are way too short, especially the 15th which is more of a putt putt disc golf hole. Also, it would be nice if this course had cement tee pads for each hole. Right now they have loose gravel where you're supposed to tee off, and that's not ideal; the ground is uneven and shifts beneath your feet during your throw. Finally, the mosquitoes can be a problem during the summer.

Overall, the biggest issue with this course is trying to find all 18 holes and also having to do a lot of walking to get to some of them. The gravel tee pads are also a bit of an issue. As for the holes themselves, most of them aren't that bad - some of them just have small issues that require minor adjustments - but there are a few that need major improvements to make them more fun to play.

Cascade Township Park is a huge multi-use complex southeast of Grand Rapids, MI. It's near the airport and right next to the I-96 freeway. The 18 holes of disc golf here mostly play around the outskirts of the park, and mostly do a good job avoiding the other park amenities.

The 18 baskets here look old, but they still seem to catch OK.

There is a bit of variety here. The first 11 holes play in open areas of the park, over rolling hills. I wouldn't necessarily say that the mild elevation changes are "used well" so much as "present". These first 11 holes have few obstacles other than the little bit of elevation. A few of them have some decent length, with the longest hole being hole 4 (370' up a slight incline).

Hole 11 is definitely the signature hole on the course. It plays about 250' down an fairly steep hill, to a basket tucked between two groves of trees. As Valkyrie Kid said, it's hard to throw just one disc here.

In contrast to holes 1-11, holes 12-15 are short and play in tight woods - sometimes almost too tight. Hole 15 is a putter throw 120' downhill to the basket, with trees lining the fairway but not too tight. So ace it if it's that easy.

The course opens back up a little bit for holes 16-18. These holes are all short but there is a pond to your left on hole 17 (the only water hazard on the course), and one tree on hole 18 that is placed directly in your RHBH hyzer line.

Dirt/gravel tee pads. These are very uneven and a borderline safety issue. I think sometime in the last year tried to fill in the dirt ruts in the ground with gravel on many pads, but it didn't make them any more flat or level.

The tee signs are just posts with a hole number - no other information. According to some earlier reviews, it sounds like there were detailed tee signs at one point so I'm not sure where they went. They are now missing on all 18 holes.

Navigation/flow is a huge mess. There are no "Next Tee" signs, other than a couple on the wooded holes. On maybe half of the holes, it is not obvious at all where the next tee is. There is also no kiosk/course map posted on site, so downloading/using the map here is a must. The map posted here is mostly correct (note that the tees are represented by circles, and the baskets squares with the hole number - not the other way around). The one notable change from the time the map was made is that hole 15 now starts near hole 13's approach (you have to cross back over hole 13 to get there), and plays west/southwest down to a basket near tees 16 and 18.

Even knowing where to go, the amount of walking between holes is absurd. I think there may be more total distance covered between holes than during them. As others have mentioned, it's particularly frustrating to have baskets 4-6 all close together near the top of a hill but have to walk down the hill to reach #5 and #6 tee pads. Even though it's frustrating, I think if they were going to use this part of the park it had to be that way. If hole 6 in particular went the opposite direction an errant throw could easily carry the park fence and float towards the freeway that is maybe 100' away. Safety and keeping your discs > flow I think, if it comes down to it.

Walking paths and other park amenities could come into play on a couple holes, but overall it's not terrible safety wise.

Not enough length or obstacles to challenge better players, or force a variety of shot selection. I threw almost every hole here with just a fairway driver and putter.

Freeway noise can be heard throughout the park. It's not exactly an aesthetically pleasing round.

The front 9 holes here have the most walking between them, and have no obstacles other than a little bit of length and elevation. You could play hole 2 and then 11-18 for a short 9-hole round that flows pretty well and still has decent variety, without most of the walking. Or if the open holes and longer distances are more your thing you could play holes 3-11 for an open 9-hole round.

This course leaves much to be desired. It is fine for rec-level locals and families to practice, but it's definitely not a top option (or even a worthy option) for those visiting the area.

Update April 2022: No major changes in the past year. Playing here today, I found out that the course also holds a lot of water in the springtime. Holes 1-3 and 11 were basically water holes today. I'm not sure whether that added to or detracted from the course's appeal for me. No change to my 2.0 rating.

*a good amount of fun holes to throw
*decent balance of wooded and open holes

*tee pads are an actual hazard, you're better off driving next to half of them and not twisting an ankle
*the layout and order is very confusing
*could use some signs

its mixed in with a park but there didnt seem to be a ton of overlap with where you were throwing and where park visitors were gathered

Cascade Township Park has a fairly decent disc golf course. Much of it is wide open and forgiving, there are some entertaining elevation changes, and a nice shift in setting for holes 12-15 (from wide open to heavily wooded). Hole 15 is a little silly at 83 feet downhill. Only hole 17, with heavy woods and brush bordering a pond on the left, and the basket set near the water, forced my son (who heavily favors his forehand) into a backhand tee shot. None of the holes are oppressively long, so it's a decent choice for beginners and kids.

It's easier to find things not to like. The tee pads are all dirt, and the sign for each hole simply consists of a post and a number. Signage for guiding you from hole to hole is definitely lacking, and there are 200 yard walks in between some of them. The first time we played I used an outdated, pre-course-update online map, and without that we never would have found some of the tees for the next hole. I would recommend using UDisc for any first-time players. The park is near I-96, so there is considerable road noise at some holes. Being a large, mostly wide-open park that is near the wide-open airport as well, the wind can get whipping quite strongly on some days.

Hole 6 is maddening - after finishing hole 5, you're at the top of a hill standing 10 yards from the basket of hole 6, only to find that you have to walk the length of hole 6 to its tee. On top of that, you have to play the hole uphill! It would be gobs more fun to play it downhill.

In an area that has a number of decent disc golf course options, Cascade Township is nice for a change of venue, but it's hardly my first choice. Add some cement tee pads and better signage, reverse hole 6, and plant a few trees around holes 4-7, and this course could be vastly improved.

+ 18 holes
+ Open and wooded balance
+ Elevation
+ Nicer back nine

- Layout
- Horrible hole design
- Busy park
- Can be very windy
- Horrible dirt groove tee pads
- Not enough trash cans
- Walking paths through holes
- No direction signs
- Useless tee signs

It's convenient for me and a buddy, so we play here often. The township doesn't care about DG, but the rest of the Park is really nice and well appointed. It's always busy with tennis, pickle ball, basketball, dog walkers, runners, bikers, etc. DG runs through the whole thing and somehow became an afterthought. One of the worst course and hole designs I've ever played. It could really use a redesign and TLC. The walk between 3 and 4 is so annoying. Swap tee for pin on 6 and 7. Above all what this course needs is concrete tees. The grooves are horrible and the newer grooves right next to them are also bad now. New hole and direction signs would be really nice. A pragmatic course for just getting out and playing, but by no means is it one you should go out of your way to throw.

Cascade Township Park has a lot of activities going on with all it's athletic fields, playgrounds, dog park and picnic areas. There was lots going on when I played, walkers, joggers, cross country runners, some athletic team training. I did have to wait for some runners to cross in front of me.

As everyone has stated, the design is not great, the course just doesn't flow well. The first four holes are all over the place but # 5 is when it gets bizarre. After playing # 4, I walked to the top of this hill anticipating a juicy downhill toss. There seems to be a tee pad worn in the grass. But the basket is not at the bottom of the hill, the tee sign is. So someone expects you to walk down this neat little hill so you can throw back up it. They want you to throw up. I almost did throw up. I had to squeeze my lips together to keep it down. And I decided against playing # 5. As I was shaking my head in disbelief, I tried looking for # 6. The basket is up the hill and there way down the other side is the tee. The designers want you to walk down about 300' so you can throw this hill against. Imagine if all courses were designed like this? At Delaveaga, you could throw up that giant mountain. Par would be about 75.

Fast forward about two holes to # 8. It's about 270' playing across the lawn, an average, OK, typical, bland hole. But you could move this tee pad back to a number of higher spots, each of which would increase the fun factor. Has this course designer even thrown a frisbee? Does he realize that downhill throws are the most fun. With the excellent rolling terrain here, if designed well, this course would have about 6-7 really fun downhills, not epic, but great fun.

Speaking of those downhills, # 11 is cool 240' down a hill throw where the basket sits in a gap in the trees. It's hard to just throw one here. And # 15 could be the easiest Ace you'll ever get. It's 120' downhill, straight and not that tight. It's impossible not to keep throwing discs on this hole. You can empty your bag and all your misses should be close so you don't have to chase them all over the place. And I still couldn't get one to stick. 300 guys have signed the tee sign. They need a bigger sign!

Terrible overall design.

Bad flow.

Dirt tee pads. Fine in August, probably wet other times.

Lots of boring open throws.

This course could be so much better if they would fix 5, 6 and 8. The short wooded holes compliment the open holes nicely. 11 & 15 are holes that I would look forward to each round here. I don't know who has the final word here but someone needs to step up and rectify these design issues. I hate to see these delicious hills go to waste.

Course was recently redesigned due to a dog park and other additions. Course is well maintained as grass is cut regularly. Tees are well marked with wooden posts and now contain maps. Holes have a little bit more difficulty worked in as a few go into the woods. Hole 17 also has water at the edge making it a little more exciting.

Do NOT attempt the first four holes of this course without a map. It is ridiculously difficult to locate hole 2 after playing hole 1 and hole 4 after playing hole 3 without a map. The layout was poorly designed for these holes! Many of the holes are short distances with few obstacles which is also disappointing. Finally, the park can be quite busy, especially in evenings and weekends which can make disc throws hazardous to pedestrians and crowds.

Aesthetic-- makes better use of the entire park and avoids heavier traffic areas. I found that the holes that bordered the roads and paths were a bit more dangerous than before as they are on the left of the fairway in the majority of cases. Be wary of walkers.

Baskets-- Mach 2's. great repair. could use a little more color in some areas to make them pop. streamers in the woods help with visibility

Teesigns-- Immediate improvement. The teesigns on the old layout were just tee# and distance. these add a map

Elevation-- this design makes great use of available topography. far far better than the old layout.

Variety-- OMG better. The woods holes alone (while wonky in their own right) are so welcome here. I was impressed with 16-18 in the corner of the park. the incorporation of water on 17 was nice.

Layout/routing/nav-- You will never (I repeat NEVER) navigate this course without a map. 1-4 have to be the most assinine layout of holes I've ever seen. the walks from 1 to 2, 2 to 3 and 3 to 4 are massive and without the map, completely non-sensical. The fact you have to walk down to the bottom of the hill to get to the tee pad for 6 to throw back up the hill to throw down the hill on 7 is one of the dumbest design flaws ever. I think that with two simple simple changes this course shines. invert the pad and basket on 1 and 6 and life is good (great even) and the routing makes a TON more sense.

Teepads-- muddy but it's march. Not sure if cement is in the works or not but they would be nice here.

Overall a better course but still has some major flow issues that could be alleviated very quickly with the inversion of 1 and 6

• New layout offers new variety. Old course was quite stagnant and needed a change.
• New layout much better avoids multi-use areas like Soccer/Lacross fields, Basball diamonds, kids playgrounds.
• Better use of elevation - short holes shooting uphill to make them play longer, massive (I'd guess 70-80') elevation drop on hole 11.
• Now offers four wooded holes - a much needed addition from the old course which was ENTIRELY open. The fairways are non-existent, but they are very challenging with interesting basket placement that I really enjoy.
• Offers much more OB with parking lots and walking paths creating additional challenge.
• Added water hole - again, needed from the old open course with little danger.
• Layout starts and ends at the same parking lot and avoids most of the other park traffic.

• VERY poor layout for flow of the course. You walk back across 1 to get to 2, then a long walk to 3, then another very long walk to get to 4, ect.
• Holes get congested. 4, 5, 6, 7 all share a basket or teepad within about 50' of the center of the top of the hill. VERY close and dangerous for other players.
• Still short. No real bomber holes.
• Woods need maintenance. No fairways to speak of whatsoever. Not even walking paths yet. 2-3" deep leaves covering fallen branches and mole hills. Pay careful attention to footing.

Overall, I think it's an improvement. But there is plenty of work to be done. Reassigning hole numbers to make a more consistent flow and possibly changing the pad/pin locations on a couple holes then clearing some in the woods would be great improvements.

It's nothing amazing, but it is a nice variety for the course and an improvement from the wide open original layout.