(1.271 Rating) A tourist destination that happens to have a basic nine hole course.
- BEAUTY... OFF THE COURSE - One of only a handful of places I've been to where the other aspects of the location trumped the disc golf. Well in this case, it far out shown the course. Mackinac Island is like a journey through time. Getting off the ferry is something else. Tons of bikes and horses. Lake Shore Drive along the Ferry's pier is flanked with 3-story early 20th century historic buildings. The flowers and maintenance of all the businesses and houses was surreal. The only drawback was the smell of horse doo doo everywhere. Watch your step.
- BEGINNER FRIENDLY - Overall I would rate the challenge of Turtle Park as Novice level. Perfect for beginners to work on distance and RHBH hyzer shots. The odds of losing a disc is low.
- CHAINS - This is the first time I ever saw 9 portable DISCatcher baskets on a course. This will make it easy to tweak the layout into something more appealing.
- EXTRAS - Restroom, water bottle filling station, shelters and playgrounds are on site.
- QUICK PLAY - I took up less than 30 minutes of my families time to bag this one.

Lots of issues with this course.
- MULTI USE HAZARDS - Staring down the first hole I quickly got into the mindset that this course does not care about the surrounding built environment. Paths in play, buildings in play, sport fields in play and playgrounds in play. Almost every hole has a safety issue. Visitors who come here during an active park setting will likely have to skip several holes. I think more could have been done to limit some of this.
- LACK OF CHALLENGE - As noted above, it feels like a novice level course. I grabbed just one disc from the bag before boarding the ferry here and it did me just fine. I actually finished 3 under and should have been lower. Mostly park style shots. A couple are sub 150 foot dinker length. Even par I'd guess would draw ratings in the 830 range. Very little power or precision is needed here.
- MISSED OPPORTUNITIES - Man I wish more of the woods were used. Hole (5) is the only shot that makes a teasing poke into the euphoric woods. This course would be so much better if it played mostly in woods with a few treks into the open areas.
- LOCATION - This is officially the most remote course I've ever played, so good luck to all the hardcore 1000 courses bagged peeps on getting here. I only saw one of y'alls as marking this course as played. I seriously want to know how the f dgcr member Cox3 played here. Dudes from Louisiana and he's the sole 1000 courses played member claiming to have played this course. How did I end up here? It seemed like a good family pit stop on a drive between NE Wisconsin and Traverse City Michigan. If you end up here, I highly recommend checking out Arch Rock. I also enjoyed the graveyard. The drive across the Mackinaw Bridge is awesome as well.
- DISTANCE FROM PARKING - Also officially the farthest I've traveled from my car to get to a course. (I don't count Golden Gate DGC as I took the bus.) I parked 7 miles away. A twenty minute ride on Shepler's Ferry, then a good mile walk to the course. Bikes are rentable or you can also take a horse drawn carriage.
- PAY TO PLAY - It's not technically pay to play, but might as well be listed as one. My ferry ticket was $29. I spent over $100 to send my family of four over to the island.
- NAVIGATION AND SIGNAGE - Only rudimentary pieces of the hole signage is left. Players will need an app to play this one correctly. Only about half of the stone paver tee markings are left or at least that's all I found. No directional cues or course map on site.
- COURSE AMENITIES - Just nine nice baskets. Natural tees, no benches, no extra tees, no alt placements and no practice basket.
- HOLE VARIETY - Very bland considering the backdrop around the course. Mostly sub 250-foot park style shots. Many players will be able to get by with one disc if they are ok with not being competitive. Hole (5), imo was the only cool shot with the basket in a blind pocket at the top of a 15-foot mini bluff. Hole (1) and (9) has some modest appeal. The rest were forgettable.
- COURSE BEAUTY - I think I walked about 3 miles while on the island. The course part was literally the worst looking section I saw the whole time. Not god awful, but no better than 10 percentile among all the 500 plus courses I've played now.

One of the more unique places I've ever been too. Like taking a time warp back to 1900 due to the banning of regular motorized vehicles like cars, trucks and buses. I would come to Mackinac Island even without the disc golf course bonus. This place is a gem. As for the course, it needs lots of work. Definitely not a destination course. I would only recommend the regular player to come here if they are here for several days. It's very likely that most visitors that come here have a better disc golf example they call home.

There is a disc golf course tucked away off the beaten path on beautiful, historic Mackinac Island. It has nine DISCatcher baskets in good condition. The baskets looked like they might be movable, but I didn't investigate too closely.

Taken as a whole, your experience getting to this course and playing it is unique and memorable. Most likely, your journey will start by driving to the ferry dock in either Mackinac City or St. Ignace. After parking, pull a putter and maybe a midrange out of your bag and step onto the ferry for the 20 minute ride to the island. The ferry will take you across the Straits of Mackinac and near the awe-inspiring Mackinac Bridge. Once you reach the island and the main street, turn right and walk down it (being sure to dodge the horse crap and throngs of people riding bicycles). When you reach the lawn in front of the historic Fort Mackinac, turn left and get ready for a workout (yes, you're walking up that hill!) Head past the fort and leave the crowds behind as you walk through some very pretty woodland. Roughly a mile's walk later (as measured from the ferry dock) you will finally reach the park. This experience getting to the park is (in my opinion) the main draw of this course and what likely sets it apart from the other courses you have played.

Sorry to say, the actual disc golf here is mediocre at best.

The holes are very short. I'm not even sure the course reaches the 1670' currently listed on here.

Most holes are flat and an open shot between tee and basket. There is basically no challenge other than a couple of man-made obstacles.

There are no tee pads, and I couldn't find several of the tee signs (the tee signs I did find are carved/painted rocks on the ground, which was a nice touch).

If people were playing soccer, baseball, or basketball various holes would be unplayable. I suspect this is pretty uncommon though, and there were only a couple other people in the entire park when I played.

There is also no course map. Here is a rough hole summary:
Course starts at north end of park as noted in directions, and plays clockwise around park.
#1 plays past some trees towards the baseball diamond.
#2 is next to the baseball diamond.
#3 plays towards the soccer field, then hooks sharply left around a bend in the treeline to the basket.
#4 plays across the soccer field near one of the goals.
#5 plays along the soccer field.
#6 plays back across the soccer field to a basket in the center of the park next to the skatepark area. This basket is hard to see from the tee and tripped me up on my first play through because it's not on the edge of the park.
#7 plays across a basketball court.
#8 plays over the outfield fence of the baseball diamond.
#9 plays along a path up a small hill to a basket tucked just to the left of the path.

Here is my recommendation, and I'm going to kind of echo what other reviewers have said...If you haven't been to Mackinac Island before and you are only doing a day trip, you don't need to play this course. Rent a bicycle and ride it around the island, go on the horse-drawn carriage tour, browse some of the tchotdhkey shops and get some food/drink in the town, and take some fudge home.

If you have more time or are returning to the island, this course is worth checking out. I am a Michigander and have probably been to the island 8-10 times, and walking up the hill to this course took me to parts of the island that I have never seen before. I played the course twice and had an enjoyable experience. This course would be a 1.0 if it were located on the mainland/based solely on the disc golf itself, but the location and experience getting there bumps it up.

Nice baskets, nice clean park. Has some risk, being the rough adjacent to each hole is generally pretty rough. It is on Mackinac Island and if you go play this course it will take you to parts of the Island you would not have otherwise gone to, and see some cool cemeteries along the way. A chance to do something unique on the Island. Wind was a challenge the day we were there. Course is in a large bowl on top of island, making for some interesting wind challenges.

Course is in a sports field, so it is pretty vanilla. If there was any event going on you could not play. Holes are pretty much land it right of the basket and putt in. Some tee signs missing. Some early holes have poison ivy in the rough, close to baskets. Baskets are movable.

If you have been to the Island a lot of times but never played, here is a chance to do something new and cool. If you have never been and plan on playing here is my recommended list: Ride bikes around island ( bring your own bikes and lock if you have them), eat lunch at restaurant or what you packed, ride/walk up to Turtle Park and play disc golf, ride down to water and jump in. Not necessarily in that order. It is a fun day. The fact that this course is on Mackinac Island bumps it up to a 1.5