This course offers a good variety of shots and challenges, a couple of holes where water comes into play, some open field drives, its a good mix for the property available

Parking Lots and driveway do come into play on a few holes, it was pretty wet when we played, beware in the spring there will likely be standing water. No wooded holes.

A nice course for the property, many varieties of shots and really quite high quality experience for a "church course"

- Nine holes of "championship" caliber disc golf on a church property. Mostly open and grassy with a few edges of woods and cornfields coming into play, water hazards dotting the course, and some decent seams of elevation to round things out.
- Fine amenities: concrete tees, descriptive signs, playground near parking lot, et al. Not sure I saw any trash cans so pack in/pack out. Grounds well maintained.
- Reasonable shots to be had. The water hazards don't consist of any carries, unless you want to cut the corner on #1. The mix of distances (182 ' - 600) ' is above average for a church niner. It's mostly about course management on the longer holes. Stay out of the water, navigate the seams of land to your advantage, stay out of the edge of the woods, avoid the entrance road. The shorter holes offer aggressive scoring opportunities.

- The course seems determined to play back and forth and over and across the entrance road as much as possible.
- Hole #2's basket is blind from the approach. #5's basket is across the creek and straight ahead, causing confusion. It is marked on the sign clearly, in hindsight.
- Cross the road to throw back over the road into some low bushes? Check (Hole #4). Cross over the road to throw over the road again? Check (Hole #6). Throw past a playground to reach the basket? Check (Hole #8). I'm beginning to sense a safety-related theme, here.

- Unbalanced. Four decent holes among the lot (hole #'s 1, 2, 3 & 7), with some absolute dreck (hole #'s 4, 6, & 8), from both a safety and a disc golf standpoint.
- Watch for criss-crossing flows of traffic, both on the course and quite literally in the road.
- Good intentioned, awkwardly executed, left wanting.

Wellspring Church is a large building set well back from the road in a semi-rural area outside Grand Rapids, MI. Wellspring DGC is a surprisingly lengthy 9-hole course that plays around the grounds of the church, along the entrance drive between the church and the road. The first three holes basically play up the entrance drive from the church to the road, and the remaining holes work their way back.

This is still a pretty new course as of this writing, and the basic infrastructure here is solid. There are large-ish cement tee pads at every hole and color tee signs with an artistic but well-scaled rendering of the hole and the suggested flight path. The Black Hole baskets are awesome, still in like-new condition.

This course has some nice long open holes, which is pretty uncommon for courses in this area. There are also four holes where water could come into play. The course starts off with a 600' par 5 that plays across a field with one or two trees, to a basket on the side of a small pond. Hole #2 is a 415" par 4 that plays along a narrow strip of grass between the entrance drive and some lowland, the latter of which is labeled OB. The last 100' or so kinks left to a basket tucked near some tall bushes/trees. There is a creek running behind the hole. The basket area here is very pretty in the summer. Hole #3 is a 550' par 4 that runs straight across a field to a basket on the top of a small hill. The remaining holes are shorter but mostly have one or two features each that keep them interesting (the creek and pond come into play again on holes #5 and 6, respectively). Hole #4 is only 197' but is probably my favorite on the course after #2. It plays across the entrance road to a basket tucked in the middle of a rock garden. Very unique for Michigan.

The course is well maintained year round. In the summer they mow the fairways regularly but let the grass grow up a little bit in the rough, adding a little more challenge.

Other than the distance and presence of water, there really aren't a lot of challenges or obstacles to be found here. The only time any sort of elevation change really comes into play is the hilltop basket on #3. There aren't really any holes where trees actually provide obstacles, unless you sail your drive or approach past the basket. On holes #3, 5, 6, 7, and 8 there are zero obstacles between the tee and basket. On most of the holes any kind of throw will work/you don't need to shape your shots.

This course has a few potential safety concerns, although they aren't as bad as I have seen on many other courses.
- Holes #4 and #6 play across the entrance drive, #2 plays alongside it, and most of the rest of the course is near it (the drive is never marked as OB). If there is nothing going on at the church, there should not be any traffic on the entrance drive other than disc golfers coming and going. Also, with the grounds being so open you will easily be able to see any approaching vehicles before you throw. However, if an event were taking place at the church I could see the proximity to the drive quickly making most of the course unplayable/dangerous.
- #7 basket is near a gazebo, and #8 plays next to a playground. If either of these were occupied those holes would become unplayable/dangerous.
- #9 plays along the parking lot. I could not find anything posted either at the course or on the church website about it being closed when church is in session, but I would definitely avoid it on Sunday mornings.

Although the tee pads and baskets are nice, the course is missing most of the additional infrastructure perks that a great course would have.
- There aren't any trash cans or benches.
- Although there is a nice course map uploaded here that was made by the church, I have not seen a copy of that map or any sort of kiosk at the course.
- There is not a practice basket. With the first hole being a 600 foot par 5, I'd really like a basket to warm up at prior to trying to rip a full power drive off of the first tee. I suppose my personal preference would be to start off with a shorter hole, practice basket or not.

There is a lot of walking between holes. Between the longer holes and these walks between them, you will probably take almost as many steps as you would playing many of the 18 hole courses in the area. The walk between #2 basket and #3 tee is particularly frustrating. It's 50' at most as the crow flies, but there is a small creek in between so you have to walk all the way over to the entrance road, cross the creek there, then walk all the way back (right through the green of #5). A little footbridge would therefore be a nice improvement to the course flow and safety.

With the course being so open, wind can be a major factor.

A couple of the other reviewers mentioned that the church was thinking about adding a back nine to this course over three years ago. That hasn't yet happened, and to contradict previous opinions I'm not sure where that back nine would fit into the course. There is maybe enough space to cram in some smaller holes near the back of the church property, but it doesn't look like the church has enough real estate to add nine more holes that have a similar feel to the nine here now.

I'm going to be honest, this is not a bad course at all (especially for a 9-holer) but it really just isn't my thing. I get more excited about a successful 200' shot that I had to shape around several trees than I do about a successful 300' shot across a field with no obstacles. So if this course had a few more obstacles (or I could throw 300') I think I would like it more.

If you like open, longer water holes and you're in the area, this course is worth a play. The designers did a lot of things right and the course is well maintained. I don't see it as a destination though, even if they were to somehow fit in a solid back nine.

Update July 2021: Just played the course again. No major changes (to course, or my thoughts on it) since January. If/when there are a lot of people at the church or coming/going from it along the entrance drive, most of the course would be unsafe/unplayable. But in 3-4 times here I haven't seen that yet. With no one around, it is a solid 9-hole round.

I always question why you would build an intermediate course on a church property instead of a fun little pitch and putt? After talking to Aaron, the guy in charge around here, he informed me that this course was designed as a community course with more challenge for all.

The Wellspring Church sits back about 1/4 mile from the street on a large parcel of acreage. This area between the street and the church is where the course is located. They've done everything first class with the help of their generous membership. One member donated the lumber for the tee signs. Another did the concrete work fir the nice tee pads. The tee signs are awesome giving you all the info you need including a route map. The baskets are triple chain MVP models. I agree with apdrvya that brighter bands on these would be best.

The course combines more difficult holes with some shorter and less challenging ones. # 1 is a 600' hole play beside a large holding pond and murky ditch. It's listed as a par 5 though on many courses might be a 4. So birdie it if it's that easy. # 2 is a 415' hyser around the thick forest area. You're throwing out over the church's entrance road so be careful of incoming cars. The basket is set fairly close to a creek. Next, cross the creek.

# 3 is interesting, some might say bland hole. It's a 550' shot with a 50' wide fairway cut out of the hay field. There is a larger landing zone about 225' out. This is so straight and cut so perfectly and then the basket is set upon a small hill near the street. Par Is 5'

# 4 plays 197'. It looks as though it could be on the grounds of an Arizona 5 star resort with the basket tucked into this amazingly beautiful desert looking landscaped area. Very pretty hole!
# 5 is a little anhyser throw over some tall grass. # 6 is 250' open but there is the creek in play just beyond the basket.

# 7 is 305' throwing directly toward the church. The basket is up a small hill and protected by trees around it. 8 is a little anhyser throw around the cool play area and then # 9 is a mostly straight, 205' throw to a basket set in the trees. I think a skip off the sidewalk might work here.

Yep, there are throws across the entrance road.

I might be a little concerned about # 8 when there are children playing in the play structure.

The holding pond, creek, deep rough on # 2 and tall grass all could mean looking/ losing discs
.

This is not an uptight congregation here. I'd say they're enlightened. Pack a few beers, that's OK. Smoke a bowl, no problem. Ingest some mushrooms, sure. Snort a little coke, cool. Shoot up some herion, go right ahead.

With plans for another 9, this could be one if the premier courses around. Come on out and check it out. It's already one of the better 9s you'll find.

When they make changes to the course, it would be awesome to see some of those shorter holes shuffled up and brought to the level of the other holes (possibly more distance?). On the back 9, it would be awesome to take advantage of some of the wooded areas BUT I would love to see the open spirt of the front 9 carried over too. A good mixture would be really cool to see on the back 9. I'm super happy about these larger, open holes, and want to see more of it. It's something you don't really get as much around here.

Absolutely beautiful course.
Great baskets (Mvp black hole portals with 3 layers of chains)
Great risk and reward on several holes
Feels like and 18 hole course
Some nice par 4's with fun par 3's, lots of cool ace lines
The church people are nice, and really want it to be a public course for everyone
Great use of terrain and water

9 holes
Hole 1 is probably a par 4 for higher rated players
The rough on holes 1and 2 can be rough, keep right on those holes.

Really glad to have a long challenging course in the Jenison and Hudsonville area. We are reall looking forward to the full 18 to come. Definitely worth a stop, you won't be disappointed.

Aesthetic--plays through the entry drive and near a parking lot on a large parcel of land owned by Wellspring Church. You do throw across the road and near a playground and parking lot. Throw with caution.

Teesigns--Boarder on amazing. These signs are truly beautiful and give all needed. Minor gripe would be the non-inclusion of the "next tee" arrow.

Teepads--again, brand new and beautful.

Terrain--The first two holes throw near a lake (retention pond?) and a creek. Hole 5 throws near the creek again. Great use of topography and available elevation changes.

Baskets-- New Black holes. I wish these had brighter bands

Navigation-- Decent. Look for the tee sign from the basket, it's pretty intuitive. Longer walk from 2 to 3 with a walk across 5's approach.

Minor stuff here

Safety--throwing across a road, near a parking lot and near a playground make this a semi-dangerous course. When I played I was pretty much the only soul on the property. The crossing of the walk from 2-3 across 5's approach was a dangerous thing.

A little vanilla--#4 plays 500' or so straight as an arrow with a 10' fairway. Each side is just tall grass. bleh.

The landscaped beauty of this course is something to behold and will place it in my top 3 9-hole courses for sure...

I think that a bench or two, along with a trash or two would make this place great!