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Irons, MI

Skinner Park

15(based on 3 reviews)
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DFrah
Gold level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 6 years 245 played 238 reviews
0.50 star(s)

Trustworthy. Loyal. Helpful. Friendly. Courteous. Kind. Obedient. Cheerful. Thrifty. Brave. Clean. Reverent. 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:May 11, 2022 Played the course:once

Pros:

Those are the nicknames, in order, of the 12 holes at Skinner Park in Irons, MI. If you ever were to encounter another disc golfer who played here, the conversation could be very interesting. "How'd your round go?" "Well, I albatrossed Friendly but then the wind really picked up and I took a bogey on Cheerful." "Oh no! Did you see the horse skeleton next to Brave?" You get the idea (more on the skeleton later).

Irons is a small village in the northern lower peninsula of Michigan, about halfway between Manistee and Cadillac. Skinner Park covers a large, flat plot of land on the east side of town. It has kind of a hybrid feel between your typical town park, and a county fairground or something of that nature. The course info page mentions that the park is the site of a "flea roast" and "ox market". I'm not quite sure what either of those things looks like, or if whoever wrote that actually meant "flea market" and "ox roast", but I would not doubt that all of the above happen here at some point during the year. For the hour or so I was on site in early May though, the place was completely deserted.

Now for the disc golf. There is decent variety here. A couple holes are wide open. Most holes have a few trees or man-made obstacles to work around. A couple of holes play through those groves of regularly spaced pine tree trunks. I should probably look up the term for this for future reviews (Two minutes of Googling didn't turn anything up. If you know the term, please PM me)! Anyways, "Loyal" (Hole #2) is the tightest of the bunch. It plays diagonally through one of those tree patterns. This is the only par 3 on the course that currently has a basket, but it is one of the more difficult holes here. I'm not sure what throw would work well. A roller maybe?

There are some longer holes too. Distances are not given anywhere but I estimated the longest hole ("Cheerful") at about 550' - and there are several more that must be at least in the 350'-400' range.

There is a porta potty available!

Cons:

There are lots of cons, but let's start with the baskets. They are either homemade or some variety that I did not recognize. They are awful. They look sort of like Chainstars, but with only one set of chains and all the rods are a little bit thinner and spaced out more. They do not catch well, and also are not mounted to the ground well. Several of them wobbled back and forth when catching my disc, and "Clean"/#11's was lying on the ground horizontally - pole and all. "Kind"/#6's basket was missing entirely when I played.

The teepads are tiny blocks of concrete - barely large enough to stand and throw. With the length of holes here, something larger is needed. The tee signs have the adjectives listed in this review title, and a hole number and par on them - but that's it. You can get a general idea of distance from the suggested pars, but some of these pars are very generous. I estimated "Friendly" (Hole #4) at only about 300', but it is listed as a par 5. The par may be based on the fact that directly between the tee and basket is another grove of those tree trunks. However, just off to the left is open grass with only one deciduous tree about 200' away to avoid. With a good RHFH or LHBH drive plus some luck with the chains catching your disc, a Friendly albatross is very possible here. If you bother to keep score at this course, you are likely to finish the round under par.

All other disc golf infrastructure is missing (trash cans, benches, kiosk, etc.). There is not any navigational signage either, and the tee signs do not point towards the baskets but rather are just mounted at random orientations next to the pads. You'll want to use the map I just uploaded here (or UDisc, I assume) to navigate.

There are no elevation changes or water hazards to work around. As of this writing there is, however, the skeleton of what looks like a small horse off to the right side of "Brave"/hole #10's fairway (after the end of the fenced-in area). Keep left of the fence line here, or you may need to be more Brave than usual to retrieve your disc.

Several holes play over or next to park roads, and "Cheerful"/"Thrifty"/"Brave" (#8-10) play parallel to each other and close together. If the park ever got busy, these could become safety issues.

Other Thoughts:

It took me a while to find the beginning of the course. I recommend consulting the map I just uploaded here so that you don't have to wander around the park aimlessly like I did!

The best thing I can say about this course is that it provided me with some interesting material for my 100th review. This one should be left to only locals and the most serious of course baggers. If you have to drive more than about 20 minutes to reach this course, it is almost inevitable that there is a better course closer to you than this one. I made the trek out from Manistee, and am highly unlikely to return. I guess I'll never know if they really roast fleas!
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