Pros:
Winstrom Preserve DGC sits on a heavily wooded parcel of land just outside of Holland, MI, near Lake Michigan and just up the road from Holland State Park. It's close enough to the lake that the usual grass/dirt gives way to sand in some areas, giving the course a little bit of a different feel.
This course offers two tee pads per basket. The 18 baskets are Chainstars. They are in fine condition but can be hard to see in the woods - I would rather see yellow banded DISCatchers or something. The tee pads are all cement (both sets) and large enough. The blue tee layout offers a moderately challenging round of disc golf, with hole lengths ranging from 198' up to 452' but the majority of holes in the 200'-300' range. The red tees are clearly intended to offer a short pitch-and-putt style layout appropriate for beginners and families. Each red layout hole is shorter, and usually also offers a clearer line to the basket...in particular for a novice RHBH thrower.
Each blue tee has a high quality tee sign showing a map of the hole including both tee pads and distance from each to the basket. One detail I missed my first time here is that these tee signs also show the general elevation contour of the hole. This is nice as there are several baskets that are up/over/down a hill and not visible from the tee. One thing that the tee signs are missing is the par. You could safely assume it's a par 3 course from the red tees. There are a couple of holes that could reasonably be par 4 from the blue tees (the 452' #9 comes to mind). I would also like to see the same tee signs posted somewhere out of the way near the red pads, but not a major complaint.
The most memorable hole here is definitely #5. From the blue tee it's a gentle dogleg right that plays 242' to a basket that is probably 10' in front of a rushing creek. The area from maybe 10' to 30' in front of the basket is also low-lying, making the green a narrow island depending on the time of year. Very pretty hole and great risk/reward with the water behind. The creek is probably small enough that you won't lose your disc though.
The front of the course has a practice basket and a nice kiosk with a map of the course. Take a picture of the map or download it from here...you will need it (see Cons).
Restroom on site though it is in kind of a weird spot for disc golfers (near hole 2 and 3).
Cons:
The routing and navigation here is...really strange. There are no "Next Tee" signs and there are several places where they are desperately needed - you will not be able to navigate this course your first time without a map. Some of the weirder hiccups are:
- After hole 14, you have to walk right past hole 16's tee to play hole 15 which goes 350' in one direction. Then you walk all of that back along a path to play hole 16 which goes 240' the other direction.
- After hole 4, you have to walk most of the way back on a path parallel to the fairway to reach #5. Then after #5 you walk back past both #4 and #5 tees (and #17) to reach #6.
- Holes 1-7 loop back to the parking lot, which is nice I guess. But then hole 18 doesn't finish at the parking lot - it's probably a 300'-400' walk back.
There are zero holes here where you can really air it out. I tend to prefer short holes that require accuracy vs long open bombers, but even so some of the fairways here are a little too tight for my liking. Many holes only offer one narrow line to the basket, and while that line does vary from hole to hole (i.e. left turn, right turn, or straight) if you can't hit that line precisely the rough will punish you. You could either look at this as a fairway driver accuracy challenge, or quickly get frustrated.
There is a little bit of elevation here and what is here is used well on a couple holes, but most of the course is pretty much flat.
Cement paths wind through the park and they are popular with non-DGers. Two of the holes cross these paths but the crossing is right off the blue tees. The paths could come into play on errant throws for a few other holes. Overall the paths aren't a huge safety concern - just something to be aware of. More concerning to me is that some of the tee pads can be sandy, and there are no brooms to clean them off. I almost slipped on one or two of them.
Other Thoughts:
It really seems like the course could flow a lot better with minimal redesign...like move a couple holes and just flip the basket and tee location on a couple others. Even the addition of solid signage to the existing layout would still be a huge improvement. If I was playing here with a family or group of beginners, I wouldn't want to spend time wandering around looking for the next tee all the time. Again, download/bring/take a picture of the map.
Still, the aesthetic playing through a nice park with woods and some sand make for a pleasant round. I wouldn't say this course is worth a long drive to play, but it's a solid option for those in the area looking for a tight woods course. Definitely worth a play if you are staying at the state park.
Update 6/7/21: Played the shorter red layout for practice...updated some of the verbiage above to reflect that.