The campus of Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City, MI is home to nine holes of disc golf.

This is a recreational level course, but I thought there were a nice mix of fairways here. #2 is a fun 285' hole playing near the college's small clock tower, through a field dotted with a few trees. #3 is a 163' ace run with only a power line pole in the way. #5 is a tightly wooded 154' fairway that requires a touch of anhyzer for RHBH throwers to reach the basket. #7 is a 332' throw that starts in a wide open field, but the basket is tucked into a wooded area to the left. This idea of tucking the baskets into tighter wooded areas is also used on several other holes, adding to the overall challenge of the course.

The tee pads are concrete. They appeared to be of varying age, but all in fine shape. Similarly, the baskets are mostly older DGAs but they still caught fine. The exception is #7's basket which was a new-looking red banded DISCatcher.

This course plays around campus buildings and near/across walking paths, so there are a lot of potential safety hazards. There are some areas where people could even be sitting on benches in areas that are blind but in play off the tee (hole 2 near the clock tower comes to mind). Be sure to look for pedestrians before throwing, walking up when needed.

Navigation is very difficult here. There aren't any navigational aids, and as others have mentioned the course does not flow well. The walk from hole 2 to 3 is huge, and 3 to 4 is pretty lengthy as well (the course does at least loop back to hole 1 at the end). You'll need the course map uploaded here, or UDisc to navigate. If you use the map here, note that hole #3 has moved even further away from #2. It now plays on the opposite/east side of College Drive, off of the edge of the cropped map area past the "Pine" parking lot.

There are no tee signs, so you have to just locate the concrete pads on the ground (good luck if trying to bag this one in the winter!)

The course is short (only one hole is over 300'), more or less flat, and has no water hazards.

No extras are present (trash cans, kiosk, practice basket, porta potty, free lunch, etc.). I did see several different signs making it very clear that everyone is welcome at NMC, so maybe you would be able to stop into one of the buildings and use the bathroom if needed!

To start at Hole #1, the best place to park is the "Chestnut" lot in front of East Hall. You need a parking permit to park in any of the college's parking lots before 6 PM on weekdays. Since that is also when the walking paths are most likely to be in use, I'd recommend only visiting this one on evenings after 6 PM or weekends.

I grew up in Traverse City and I think this was actually one of the first courses I ever played. I say "I think" because I only have vague memories of visiting back in the early 2010s or so, and I definitely was not tracking my rounds then. Today, I can say that this isn't anywhere close to even the best 9-holers that I have played - but even with all the walking between holes, it's still a fairly quick stop. Don't skip out on Hickory Hills to play here - but if it's a Saturday or Sunday or late in the evening and you have 30 minutes to kill, pull up your layout map and go for it.

(1.503 Rating) A recreational campus nine that lacks direction sense.
- MAINTENANCE - Like many school courses, you can expect a natural space here that's well taken care of. The grass was mowed the morning I showed up and trash was not observed. A couple places off the beaten path were a little hairy, but it was nowhere near the jungle like conditions I sometimes see in my southern neck of the woods.
- SKILL LEVEL FRIENDLY - Due to some recent layout tweaks, this is no longer a cupcake course from start to end. The current difficulty of the layout is set-up at an ideal level in my opinion. Skilled players will need to really work for it on a couple holes. Holes (2) and (7) are not easy shots, but they are also not so outrageous to scare newer players away. A little distance and a little precision is going to be needed to shoot well down. I figure even par would be around an 880 rated round as long as there's no OB.
- TEES - Concrete tees. Not the largest surface out there, but I was looking for positive things to point out.

This course needs signage badly.
- LAYOUT FLOW - Wow is this layout disjointed. First off, tee (1) and basket (9) are not near any parking area. Transitions are generally not intuitive. The walk between (2) and (3) is almost a thousand feet long. Then (4) is a few hundred feet away from (3). A couple other basket and tee transitions are apart by over 100 feet.
- NAVIGATION AND SIGNAGE - There was no tee signage on this course for my summer 2021 visit. Couple this with the above con comment and it becomes easy to realize that some people coming here are going to have some real issues. I for example, accidently played (9) right after (2). I didn't realize my goof until after putting out (9) and checking my navigational app. Baskets have the wrong number marking numerous times as well. First time players coming here may get lost.
- SAFETY HAZARDS - Once players get their bearings and actually find holes, they'll be presented with another constant issue. School roads or paths come into play on all but one hole. Tee shots (2) and (9) are particularly worrisome. A bench is literally in the middle of the fairway on (2) halfway down. From looking at the campus map, It seems like there is some more unused school property in the woods that could have been used. This is really disappointing if that's the case.
- AMENITIES AND EXTRAS - Baskets and tees, check and check. Multi tees, alt placements, practice basket, benches, tables and scorecards??? crickets. I'll also note that the baskets are generally machIIIs with a couple fill-in replacements.
- TIME PLAY FOR FIRST TIMERS - This one took me just over 50 minutes solo from getting out of the car and getting back in. I made a big nav error after (2), by playing (9) that cost me 5 minutes. I followed up this error by taking my next tee shot on (4), thus skipping (3) a second time on accident. Hole (3) was the last hole I played and it was then a ten-minute walk back to the car after this. Regular players will be done a lot quicker.

If you can stomach the navigational nightmares here, it's actually not a bad little college niner. My review may not entirely match the earlier reviews as it's clear that some things have recently changed here. I noticed three new concrete pads and hopefully (6) will get one soon as well. Maybe that's why the signage was gone for my play. With the signage back in place, this one will probably still be shy of the 1.75 threshold for a 2 in my books, but it will become a strong 1.5. With some benches and alt placements it would cross over the threshold. As is, this place is not worth checking out to those seeking destination gems. Hickory Hills clearly has that title wrapped up for the city. However, if in the neighborhood and wanting to add another notch, I say why not.
- NATURAL BEAUTY - 40 percentile. The school maintenance during the summer was good for my play. A couple lines popped a bit. I liked the heavily wooded hole on (5). The basket pockets for (1,2 and 7) had some allure. The drawbacks are minor. The built environment is generally in view. No massive elevation changes, back-drop views or water features to gaze upon keeps my course beauty ranking for this one just south of 50 percentile on my scales.
- HOLE VARIETY - Above average for a niner. An adequate mix of distances for an all par 3 course. A good mix of tree coverages and also a good mix of hole difficulty levels from Novice to Intermediate level. Elevation is modest with nothing much more than ten feet in grade change. No water in play and no multiplay holes. There are three pocket shots. Two to the left and one to the right.

Great beginner course. Elevation is consistent, but different terrain throughout the course, such as open fields and forests. Well-maintained and groomed. Pet friendly. Concrete teepads.

Tough to navigate. No signs at any of the holes. Course is throughout the campus, so players need to watch out for pedestrians. My boyfriend and I weren't able to play at one of the holes, due to a softball game going on and the hole went right through the field.

My first time playing here and probably my last, since I was only in Traverse City for the day. Don't know much about the campus, but they seemed to utilize the space they were given. A short and easy course to teach first timers!

-near to lots of TC attractions and multiple beaches to hang out at after a round
-you can get a full round in in 20 minutes
-new concrete tees
-about half the baskets are brand new
-very short and beginner friendly

-a little hard to follow if you've never been here before because there are no signs
-the closest parking lot to tee one is now permanently closed during the summer because of local teens trashing it and doing drugs/drinking there, so you now have to walk a hundred yards form your car to get to tee one and this can be troubling to figure out without signs
-no challenge for the experience player (only hole 1 is over 300ft, and that's wide open), and most holes have few obstacles

-the original 7 hole layout was the best, but NMC did the best the could with the space that they had to work with.
-adding cement pads was a very nice, unexpected touch
-new hole 2 is pointless. Old 2 was a great hole and provided some challenge, but the pin position was too close to the music building and people would hit the building/windows with discs, hence the change.
-it just seems like the new holes (2, 3, 4, 6) were forced into the layout to make it 9, and they don't provide much challenge
-its fun, but don't go out of your way to play it if you're just passing through quickly