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Sam Michael's Park DGC reviews
8
0
Okay Park Course 2+ years
Reviewed:
Updated:
Played on:Jun 8, 2019
Played the course:2-4 times
Pros:
Good condition DISCatcher baskets with bright yellow bands. Numbers on first 9-10 all of which are easily seen from the pad. Variety of straight, right-turning and left-turning fairways. Arrows on all baskets pointing to the next tee area. A little elevation change. Has a practice basket. First hole is wide-open which I like as a warm-up. Course eases you into it, starting with the simplest holes. Mostly isolated from other park activities; played on Saturday morning and had the course to myself.
Cons:
Natural tees; only one tee position and one pin position on each hole; current map is inaccurate; no long holes; tall grass on several fairways (see below); tee markers can be hard to find (see below); 1st time navigation. Woods are not used much. Long boring walk from basket #18 back to the parking lot (if you care about such things).
Other Thoughts:
The tee markers here are four white plastic corners for the natural tee. They are very low (to prevent hitting the lawn mower) which means they are also hard to spot from a distance especially when there are lots of stray leaves with whitish bottoms. For example, I could not spot the first tee from the parking lot and it wasn't until I got to the basket that I saw them so I went back and played the hole again properly. One of the markers on #17 was already cracked.
Hole #1: Right next to the parking lot. The tee is near the gravel path which runs between this hole and the practice basket (hard to spot). The hole is a straight slightly uphill shot which is a nice warmup.
Hole #2: If you follow the current map, you would walk through the tree line and turn left and start down the path and walk for quite a while seeing basket 4 off in the grass to the right and then eventually basket 6 at the edge of the woods. Then you'd realize the map must be wrong and go back to the original tree line and follow the path cut into the grass and see the tee markers right after the turn. This is another straight hole slightly downhill with a few trees in the fairway. I deuced it.
Hole #3 is similar to #2, a little longer and again the grass is not a factor.
Holes #4 and #5 are cut through three-foot high grass so if you go off the fairway, beware ticks, poison ivy and snakes.
Hole #6 is short with a right-turning curve to a basket in the woods. I deuced this one.
Hole #7 is a longer wide tunnel shot and is accurately depicted on the map. It's a fine little hole.
Hole #8: I searched for this as depicted on the map for a while before giving up and heading over to the next tee behind the center field fence. When I holed out I saw this this is actually #8 not #9 as it is on the map. Annoying.
Around this point the baskets stopped being numbered so I'll just say "next hole" as I think I played 18 holes (the flow was pretty obvious) but the numbers get fuzzy in my head.
The next tee is up along the fence in left field past the building - very hard to spot. An okay hole with the basket protected by a few trees.
The next hole was my favorite because the fairway does a double twist and there is a tree in it. Not that exciting but did make me strategize a little.
The next holes all blur together. At one point you cross a stream and the tee markers are in a field but up behind some trees so it took me a while to find them. There's a hole where you throw across a small pond which has a little stream beyond it. Only a problem for beginners. Then you throw down to a basket near a utility pole which gets you to the last three holes. Nothing wrong with these holes - just very routine.
Hole #16: no, no, no. The tee spot is an area carved out of the tall grass. The direct line to the basket is all tall grass. If you want to play it safe you have to throw way to the right which is definitely an added stroke. I spent 10 minutes looking for my very bright red disc on this hole. Hole 17 throws along the edge of the tall grass so you could end up with another search if you go offline. Neither will be a problem for anyone who throws 300 feet routinely but the rest of us will not enjoy these.
Hole #18 is a short slightly downhill tunnel shot which I deuced.
I vacillated on my rating. It started out as a 3, moved up to 3.5, then down to 2.5 and finally setlled on 3. NOne of the holes are challenging but they can be fun for the intermediate player. The problems are fixable: put numbers on the rest of the baskets; get a better map; get real tee pads and tee signs. I realize the last may be a restriction from the park or that they may be waiting to see if they want to re-locate any of the tee areas. But it made first time navigation frustrating. If I lived closer to this park, I would probably play monthly as it has enough fun factor for me. But it lacks the "take time to figure out the best strategy" factor - you pretty much know the best line the first time. No real risk-reward holes, just "don't screw up" holes.
From the wall posts, you can see that I came here and played before the tee markers were installed using the original map (so my 'first' time navigation is really my second time). Some of the holes I played were ridiculously longer than the "correct" layout. So there is good safari material here. A set of alternate longer tees could also make this course more of a challenge. I'll probably bring my friends here when they hit town combining it with Clark's Run, Poor House Farm and/or Jim Barnett. Or maybe even a warmup for Paw Paw.
Hole #1: Right next to the parking lot. The tee is near the gravel path which runs between this hole and the practice basket (hard to spot). The hole is a straight slightly uphill shot which is a nice warmup.
Hole #2: If you follow the current map, you would walk through the tree line and turn left and start down the path and walk for quite a while seeing basket 4 off in the grass to the right and then eventually basket 6 at the edge of the woods. Then you'd realize the map must be wrong and go back to the original tree line and follow the path cut into the grass and see the tee markers right after the turn. This is another straight hole slightly downhill with a few trees in the fairway. I deuced it.
Hole #3 is similar to #2, a little longer and again the grass is not a factor.
Holes #4 and #5 are cut through three-foot high grass so if you go off the fairway, beware ticks, poison ivy and snakes.
Hole #6 is short with a right-turning curve to a basket in the woods. I deuced this one.
Hole #7 is a longer wide tunnel shot and is accurately depicted on the map. It's a fine little hole.
Hole #8: I searched for this as depicted on the map for a while before giving up and heading over to the next tee behind the center field fence. When I holed out I saw this this is actually #8 not #9 as it is on the map. Annoying.
Around this point the baskets stopped being numbered so I'll just say "next hole" as I think I played 18 holes (the flow was pretty obvious) but the numbers get fuzzy in my head.
The next tee is up along the fence in left field past the building - very hard to spot. An okay hole with the basket protected by a few trees.
The next hole was my favorite because the fairway does a double twist and there is a tree in it. Not that exciting but did make me strategize a little.
The next holes all blur together. At one point you cross a stream and the tee markers are in a field but up behind some trees so it took me a while to find them. There's a hole where you throw across a small pond which has a little stream beyond it. Only a problem for beginners. Then you throw down to a basket near a utility pole which gets you to the last three holes. Nothing wrong with these holes - just very routine.
Hole #16: no, no, no. The tee spot is an area carved out of the tall grass. The direct line to the basket is all tall grass. If you want to play it safe you have to throw way to the right which is definitely an added stroke. I spent 10 minutes looking for my very bright red disc on this hole. Hole 17 throws along the edge of the tall grass so you could end up with another search if you go offline. Neither will be a problem for anyone who throws 300 feet routinely but the rest of us will not enjoy these.
Hole #18 is a short slightly downhill tunnel shot which I deuced.
I vacillated on my rating. It started out as a 3, moved up to 3.5, then down to 2.5 and finally setlled on 3. NOne of the holes are challenging but they can be fun for the intermediate player. The problems are fixable: put numbers on the rest of the baskets; get a better map; get real tee pads and tee signs. I realize the last may be a restriction from the park or that they may be waiting to see if they want to re-locate any of the tee areas. But it made first time navigation frustrating. If I lived closer to this park, I would probably play monthly as it has enough fun factor for me. But it lacks the "take time to figure out the best strategy" factor - you pretty much know the best line the first time. No real risk-reward holes, just "don't screw up" holes.
From the wall posts, you can see that I came here and played before the tee markers were installed using the original map (so my 'first' time navigation is really my second time). Some of the holes I played were ridiculously longer than the "correct" layout. So there is good safari material here. A set of alternate longer tees could also make this course more of a challenge. I'll probably bring my friends here when they hit town combining it with Clark's Run, Poor House Farm and/or Jim Barnett. Or maybe even a warmup for Paw Paw.
