-Good,concrete tee pads on every hole.
-Great layout and easy to follow from hole to hole.
-Probably the most open hole is hole 1, which I count as a plus because I think it helps to be able to open the arm with an easier throw.
-VERY tight/specific fairways. Every single hole on this course is fair. There is a way to get to the basket for par. Some may not be possible for a birdie 2 if you play everything as Par 3.
-I played this in November, and the woods were very thin which made it easy to find errant throws. This would probably be a con in the more summer months.
-This course is more for veterans/big arms compared to newbies. You need crisp drives and up shots to par everything.
-Very RHFH friendly. Honestly you want both a forehand and a backhand for this one.
-It's a big park, so there should be bathrooms on hand. I did not check though.
-This course has a few legitimate Pro type par 4's (some aren't labeled that way. BUT, you need two perfect/precise shots to get to the pin- a 100-200 ft placement drive, followed by a 100-200 direct upshot.

-$10 to play during spring/summer months. I believe if you have a Michigan parks pass on your license plate that covers the fee.
-Hole 2 ends pretty close to a walking path. A long throw could hit a walker.
-Not beginner friendly
-Tee Signs are okay. They mostly explain where to throw. I say check ahead before throwing. Some signs are slightly off, that or the tee pads are facing slightly the wrong direction.

If you're new to the game and looking for an easier course nearby- I'd suggest Chippewa Banks in Midland as the best Newbie course around. EVEN SO, that course is tough, but it's more open than The Jungle.

I loved this course. Reminds me of Jomez Pro Video coverage of Idlewild near Cincinnati, Ohio.

Aesthetic-- plays through a county park area with many amenities. Area is most certainly NOT dg exclusive so huk safely!

teepads-- nice big concrete pads. in great shape

teesigns-- sweet dga signs. giving hole, par, length, and a map..

Variety--there's a little bit of eveything. lefts, rights, longs, shorts, elevation. sweetness.

challenge-- the challenge here is the tightness of the fairways. some of the fairways are insanely tight and leave little room for error. definite need for shot placement as the rough can be punishing. nice to have distinct "landing zones."

routing and nav-- very easy. pads are typically visible from the previous basket.

belle vista-- the lake here is pretty. hole 4's basket backs up to it!

us-10-- it's super noisy at all times not really controllable but hey, it's a negative.

dangers-- hole 3 crosses a park road, I saw several walkers even on a cold november morning..

pay to play-- although, when I played it was free. $10 to play a round of average dg is a bit much...

+ Fun fun fun!
+ No hole is impossibly difficult, but each hole seems to require thoughtful planning
+ The lovely lake sits by a couple of the holes
+ The course is maintained
+ Surprisingly it wasn't buggy in 2012 even when all the mosquitoes were taking over the other dg courses in mid-Michigan. I think that's because it's not a busy course and there are other places the skeeters can go to breed.
+ Although the course slightly favors RHBH, there are a few holes that switch things up
+ Lots of twists and turns and corners and hooks and a couple doglegs
+ The course keeps your attention throughout, there aren't many no-brainer holes that everyone just naturally throws great
+ The hole layouts/distances combine for very exciting play, upshots are especially fun

- $10 for a non-resident to park here.
- One side of the course is lined with a chainlink fence/highway that detracts from the overall feel of a forest, jungle, whatever.
- County park, so the parking is seasonal with county park hours
- Slightly favors RHBH

Over the past couple of years Sanford Lake Park has apparently been known to have annoying problems with vandalism and delinquency. I'm not exactly a witness to it, but I just started playing disc golf the summer of 2012. Anyway, the word on the street is that to reduce its problems, the park system increased their rates. Now it is $10 to park and play here. The official statement is that the park believes they have a quality product to offer and people will pay the price and they will keep it maintained. I usually express my opinion to the attendant when we pay the fee, but in reality the quality of the course is actually worth it. I just hope some day they will lower the fee, and I hope the problems they had (apparently caused by people who can't pay a higher fee) disappear.

The course itself is very good. It's fairly level, but it has a few impressive holes that make for very exciting play while in a group. A lot of the holes have blind pin placement and you really have to utilize different shots rather than go all out and smash the disc through trees. Whether this is a lucky coincidence because it wasn't designed carefully or deliberate because it was designed to be very challenging, I don't know. I just know that I get more frustrated here than any other course around (OK maybe Wickes, too).

Honestly, if you are skilled enough to stay on the fairway the whole time you'll love Sanford. I see even some of my most experienced disc golf buddies tossing some crappy rounds here, and we actually like it more because of that. Probably the biggest star on the course is the way trees and very minor elevation changes alter the way holes need to be played. If you resist the way the course wants you to throw, you're gonna be mad. If you just accept that you're going to have to be creative and utilize different shots, you'll be one with Treesus.

As I write this I'm reminiscing about some really good rounds here. It was one of the first courses I played and I remember accidentally learning to throw rollers on a couple holes and getting rewarded for it. I also remember throwing a Teedevil RHFH and yelling immediately after I released it because it literally flew sideways out of my hand and went over the fence by the highway. Pretty fun.

If you're just paying for disc golf, it would be best to come with friends to split the cost. If you have the time to make a day out of a visit to this course you could play the course right when you get here, enjoy the beach and spray park, have a picnic/BBQ, and then play the course again and maximize your trip.

Thanks for reading!

Nice and clean, feels secluded. Well suited for a rightie throwing forehand.

Pretty tough course for beginner and experienced. Very tough to place a good tee shot on many holes which leaves you to rely on luck a little too often. Of course the cost to enter has to be a negative, although we arrived at 7:10PM and he let us in for free.

I will wait until my level of play is a little higher before returning to this course. Had a pretty decent round but I was throwing great and had all the lucky bounces and could see where it could have been a horrible round.

This course will def. keep your head up or even down. This is a long course, u will use every disc in your bag, every hole had signs on them, long tee pads, nice baskets, when entering the park, the person gives u a scorecard. Built in trash cans

only 2 benches throughout the entire course, only one person can sit on the bench at one time. We had to PAY 10.00 to get into park bc we were non residents, its a rip off. Majority of the holes were S shots, insane shots, alot of mosqiotos, so bring the bug spray

It was the toughest course Ive played, played over 80 courses throughout MI, and this is thee hardest.

this park is in wonderful condition, large cement tee pads and nice baskets on all 18 holes. very challenging course, tons of variety, I liked that it mixed distance and acuracy challenges constantly. Well layed out and easy to navigate hole to hole, some fairways are tricky though. birdie holes are few but make for a nice break between some of the monster holes.

found myself having to walk ahead to "go find the basket" more than i would have liked.
Some shots here just seem impossible. maybe clear just a few more trees.
didnt see a practice/warm up basket near the first tee. was told they have one though.

very hard course, but very fun too. worth the drive, worth the entry fee. will return next chance i get.

-set in a nice park
-great tee pads, baskets, and signs
-well maintained
-trash can on every hole
-great variation in hole length
-easy to navigate

-way too many RHFH drives. probably 90% of the holes go to the right.
-most shots don't fit how a disc could possibly fly. It's ridiculous to lay up 100' down the "fairway", make a 90 degree turn and then throw 300 more feet to the basket.
-there is one hole (8 maybe?) that the tee pad is aimed straight at some trees not 5 feet in front of it. I had to use the far left side of the pad to have a look at the fairway.
-the course plays around a beautiful lake. but there is not a single hole that makes use of it. I kept waiting and looking forward to throwing near/over the lake but it never happened.
-Ive heard this course has some horrible drainage problems, like the entire thing could be underwater, but it was dry when I played so I did'nt consider it a con in my rating.
-VERY difficult. I'd rather a course where I know what I need to throw and it's just a matter of doing it. At this course I have no idea how to make the disc do the things that are required. It's either throw and pray or throw four 100' lay ups to navigate an impossible fairway.

$6 to get into the park. not sure if its a pro or con. keeps out the people that I hate at free courses yet costs me 6 bucks...

I never thought that being too difficult would be a con.

- nice parking lot
- nice pads, baskets and signage
- well maintained
- forgiving par 5's
- seldom busy or slow play

- pay to play
- a few unforgiving par 3's (#13 should be a par 4 or logged to provide any kind of vert tee shot)
- course needs to be beat in or logged in many places
- muddy in the early season
- can be buggy w/ lake so close

Aside from a few holes that need hogged out. this is a nice, but difficult course.

-Cement teas
-Easy to navigate
-Many Fun Technical holes

- $6 cost to get in and it is a county park so the state park sticker will not work.
- Not many open throws
- Was strange to have nearly 1/2 - 2/3 of the holes forehand.
- Poor Drainage

Great challenge of both physical and mental disc golf game. Risk-reward in play on almost all holes. Requires proper drive placement and discipline for low scores. SSA est. at near 54-55 at~5700ft long. Best course for pro players in the region.

More anhyzer/lefty holes than most. Tight fairways on many holes.

Will continue to get better with a bit more maturity. Complete disagreement with last designer about haphazard holes. This course will challenge the best disc golfers, and will frustrate many ams who just want to throw at a basket in front of them. There are no straight holes on this course!

Great park well maintained and new. Cement tees, signs, map, bathrooms, parking etc etc
Minimal ivy and rough, nice sandy pine forest with ferns.
Now not every hole is that bad, half are pretty decent with a couple very nice holes.

- Poor design (this is an opinion site), majority of the holes seem randomly tossed in without a care to a fairway. A few holes leave you just throwing into trees hoping for the best but knowing it's not up to you but luck. Several super-sharp turns that don't fit how discs fly as far as I've ever seen. Mainly, a most of the medium-length holes that could be reached by the average golfer cannot be parked due to having no flight line. I feel ridiculous laying up 150ft. off the tee on a 300ft. hole!

Cleary gets very wet/flooded sometimes on the first few holes.

With some heavy re-design it could reach '4' stars but the overall layout cuts out 1 star.

Very clean with good signs and tee pads
Not a lot of traffic, no waiting to throw
No real thick brush to eat your discs
Lots of variety requiring well placed hyzer and anhyzer shots.

A lot of water. One hole, i'm pretty sure it was #3 , had it's tee pad completely surrounded by water. Most holes had some kind of drainage issue, one had a small stream(~2 feet wide) running through it. At one point we had to cross a mud hole by balancing on logs that traversed it.

The transition from hole 16 to 17 is a little confusing, I would recommend printing off a course map before your first time playing this one.

I really liked this course, it was challenging but fun. Once it gets warmer I think a lot of the med holes and ponds will dry up. Until then bring your boots.

Extremely difficult through dense woods, nice mix of long and short holes, perfect concrete tee pads, each tee has signage and hole description, pretty land and lake views, trails between holes so you don't get lost, trash cans at many tees, benches throughout, park location so there are other things to do like swim, picnic, etc.

HORRIBLE drainage making for tough navigation, costs $5 per vehicle to enter the park.

This course has potential to rate 4.5 stars! However, there was atleast one 10-foot wide mud puddle ranging from 1-2 feet deep on the fairway of EVERY hole! I understand that this is Michigan, and we are in a soggy season, but the amount of standing water on the fairways is ridiculous! Many courses have a few holes with drainage issues, but every hole in my opinion is not acceptable. However, the course has a great variety of length and doglegs, and a very hard "S" curve hole, so I couldn't in good taste give it less than a 3 rating. This course is also new, so maybe they are planning on fixing some of the drainage issues later this summer. Overall, this course will challenge you and I will come back again as long as it is not underwater.

Great course design! Different levels of difficulty, a few hill shots, one of the craziest snake shots I ever saw, and I love having a practice basket. This course is kept very clean. You can tell a lot went into designing this course.

First time I played this course I got lost, arrow signs would be nice.

When I first heard rumors of this park I couldn't wait. I got to play it once before it was finished, and once right at the end of the year last year. I see that they made a few changes to basket locations. It was definitely worth the wait and will likely become my most played course.

I'm new to dg having started in Sept. 09 and drove a little more than an hour to the Jungle to get out of even deeper snow. Surprised pleasantly to see the first tee pad cleaned of snow as were all 18 pads. Even in winter it was relatively easy to follow the flow of the course. I think I looked a bit at 2 transition areas to find the next tree. Played the entire 18 in an hour.

Nice signage at each hole with fairway mapping on each sign. Rest benches are located in many areas.

Trees.. Tree.. Pretty typical of many Mi. courses. Again it was winter so the experience is what it is but not really much to knock.

It's easy to see some good though was put into the layout and hardware here. Also easy to see that this course is new as there are major trees here and very little scarring from disc strikes.

Very beautiful course!!! I loved the way the holes were set up. Trash cans were available at almost every tee. Navigation through the course was easy. I love the fact that this course has 7 holes with a par of at least 4.

To be honest I didn't really see anything I didnt like. Almost every hole, there is a possibility of having your disc land in some heavy trees. This course will challenge you to throw many different kinds of shots.

Very good signs, with distance, map, and par. Concrete pads at every hole, and every basket has a bright sticker on top, which I thought came in handy when looking for the basket on a number of holes.

Beautiful piece of property. Will test various parts of your game. On some holes judgement of landing zones is critical. On some holes you must stay controled and excecute. Dont get me wrong all the holes arent tough but even then you have to excecute. Shooting a Pro Par 54 is truly a good round and I have yet to hear about anyone shooting a 54 on this course yet. To all who claim its too hard ... think outside of the box ... you have to be creative to score well ... watch ball golf on TV ... the tough courses require control and creativity .. the easy courses end up 20 down as the winning score at the end of the weekend ... Yawn

The land prevents any grip and rip drives. This not a con to me since I cant grip and rip but I do know some will not like this. I would have liked to see a few less trees removed around a couple of baskets. Some have complained the course is too tough. Yes its tough but I think so many players have bought into the idea that you should have a chance at birdie on all holes and that a 3 should be the norm.. in ball golf Par for non scratch players is not the norm.

The Parks Dept is solidly behind this course and have spent alot of time, and money in it development. They look at "The Jungle" as a work in progress and will continue to improve the course. We will be fixing hole 9, the hole ended up tougher than planned and will be opening up the fairway to make it fairer.