Michigan New Course Updates

[DFrah]

im super excited

thank yall for the suggestions

ill report back

im taking a lot of chances this trip and hoping everything works out

Have fun! Don't hesitate to reach out again if you need more guidance mid trip.

 

[DFrah]

Updates on a couple of popular MI destinations:

I was at Burchfield Park on Friday. The River's Edge course is completely closed, other than the first two holes that play up and down the ski hill. There is a sign announcing the closure as you approach hole 3's tee. The sign says that the closure is due to "construction work zones", though none are visible from that point. The closure doesn't affect Renegade's Trail (formerly called "Devil's Den") which was in immaculate condition.

I also stopped by Mason County Park briefly today. I did not have time to actually play, but the signs announcing the closure of the Beauty course due to downed trees have been removed, so the course may be played again. However, recent UDisc "reviews" mention that baskets 9-19 are missing. I hope to get back to the park sometime this week and will try to remember to follow up here. Beast and Goliath are ready to go. There is also a new course at the Mason County campground, located less than a mile from the park. I had time to play that one. It's a quick round, holes are short but very entertaining playing up and down hills through tight woods. A great complement to Beauty/Beast/Goliath if you like technical woods golf (full review coming soon ).

 

[wolfhaley]

If travelling the U.S. 31 corridor north toward Flip City, I must suggest:

Whitehall DGC. 36 holes (3 sets of nines with 3 holes added each)
Henderson Lake DGC. 18 holes, one exit north at Montague.
Both of these are fully wooded, offer very solid golf, and are direct to the highway.

Branstrom Park offers great variety and is definitely worth a look.

This is excellent advice right here :thmbup:

I haven't played that much over there, but thoroughly enjoyed all 3 of these courses.

 

[davetherocketguy]

Speaking of the Ludington area...I have heard rumors that Leviathan is back open now that construction at the school is done. However, I do not believe all the renovations are complete so uDisc will be essential to navigate at this point. How good it is compared to what it used to be is tough for me to say.

 

[DFrah]

Speaking of the Ludington area...I have heard rumors that Leviathan is back open now that construction at the school is done. However, I do not believe all the renovations are complete so uDisc will be essential to navigate at this point. How good it is compared to what it used to be is tough for me to say.

It's possible I will get back there this week as well! I played there last November and it was definitely still a bit of a work in progress then.

 

[sparty]

Work has begun on Bertha Brock DGC

Played this a few years ago, great course! Would love to play again.

 

[XC_Eddy]

Current status of Hickory.

I was there a month ago and played one good 18 hole layout. My only complaint was that the 300ft uphill shots get really repetitive. 17 was the top of the world downhill hole. Unless I'm blind, that 18 was all that was in the ground.

 

[Nick Pacific]

I was there a month ago and played one good 18 hole layout. My only complaint was that the 300ft uphill shots get really repetitive.

Hickory is tough, but to be honest, that beautiful property would be wasted if it was a pitch and putt ace runner. That's a very unique piece of property in a very exclusive part of Michigan, and it would have been an absolute tragedy if it was a bunch of putter shots.

 

[DFrah]

Played Leviathan this evening. I updated my review with more detail if anyone wants the long version. In short, nothing much has really changed since I visited last fall. From the shorts (what I played) it's an enjoyable and pretty doable round, other than serious signage/navigation issues and long walks between holes. From the longs there is no signage at all and it looked like it would be even more challenging than intended, because more clearing/etc. needs to happen on the holes that were not part of the old layout. In its current state, I would put Leviathan behind Whiskey Hills, Beauty, Beast, and Labyrinth in the Ludington area catalog.

I still plan on hitting Beauty and Beast later this week.

 

[mrclc]

In its current state, I would put Leviathan behind Whiskey Hills, Beauty, Beast, and Labyrinth in the Ludington area catalog.

Co-sign on this assessment. Leviathan is currently a navigation disaster for a course that's a shadow of its former self. As the saying goes, the juice just isn't worth the squeeze. It's a fine change of pace if you never played the classic layout, but there are too many other better (and more pure fun if you count Tinderbox) courses in Mason County to bother.

 

[mrclc]

While we're on the subject, Tinderbox is a blast. Make time for it if you're in the area.

 

[DFrah]

While we're on the subject, Tinderbox is a blast. Make time for it if you're in the area.

I'll co-sign that in return.

It's currently sitting at #2 in my review queue. Should be written up this weekend or next week sometime.

 

[apdrvya]

I'll co-sign that in return.

It's currently sitting at #2 in my review queue. Should be written up this weekend or next week sometime.

100%, it was the first course my 7 year old played all 18

 

[DFrah]

As promised, here is an update on Mason County Park!

Beauty is back!!! Just to add a little context for those who don't know, it was hit by a major storm last summer sometime and has been unplayable since then. I visited the park for the first time last November and conquered (read: was conquered by) Beast and Goliath. I returned this afternoon. Beautiful summer day here, mid 70s and very little wind.

So this was my first time playing Beauty. The damage that was done by the storm was clearly pretty extensive. It affected most of the wooded area to the east of the park drive. It looks like they had to carve out paths for some heavy machinery to get into the area and help with the clearing. As of today, all of the baskets and tees are there and all of the fairways are cleared. There are still impressive piles of downed tree debris off to the side of several fairways. I think there was one tee sign missing and one other hole where the pad is basically buried in dirt. But overall the course is very playable.

There is also one hole that is redesigned. It's #8, which is the one labeled #7 on the map uploaded here (for those who haven't visited recently, they have new tee signs renumbering the holes 1-24 instead of 1-18 with a-f sprinkled in - this applies to all three courses on site). Based on the map, hole #8 used to play across the park drive and was located pretty much right where people would be parking for 9 months out of the year when the gate is locked. Now, the tee for that hole has been moved across the drive into the wooded area. The walk there from the previous hole is pretty long, but they planted a couple of Next Tee signs directing you across the road and onto a wooded trail, and I thought it was pretty obvious after that. The new hole plays 300' roughly south to north, down a wooded valley then slightly back up the other side. The basket is tucked in to the right behind some trees and also raised on a decorative pedestal. I really liked this new hole - it was one of the most memorable on the course for me.

All of the other holes were the same as far as I could tell (based on the map and comparing the tee signs to the distances listed here), although I would bet that between the storm damage and the machinery running through, some of them are not quite as tight as they used to be.

The Beast/Goliath side of the park is in great shape and was unaffected by all of this work on Beauty.

 

[elmexdela]

As promised the report on hickory I'm on my phone so I'm goin to be brief and have punctuation. Hickory has white 18 and blue 18 available to play. Major jam up with 3-4 groups on one of the holes cuz no one knew where to go. This double layout that overlaps a lot, unfortunately doesn't seem to work. Decent course tho.

 

[apdrvya]

Just to add a little caveat here, the redesign was there before the storm

Nothing major, just wanted to throw that in there..

As promised, here is an update on Mason County Park!

Beauty is back!!! Just to add a little context for those who don't know, it was hit by a major storm last summer sometime and has been unplayable since then. I visited the park for the first time last November and conquered (read: was conquered by) Beast and Goliath. I returned this afternoon. Beautiful summer day here, mid 70s and very little wind.

So this was my first time playing Beauty. The damage that was done by the storm was clearly pretty extensive. It affected most of the wooded area to the east of the park drive. It looks like they had to carve out paths for some heavy machinery to get into the area and help with the clearing. As of today, all of the baskets and tees are there and all of the fairways are cleared. There are still impressive piles of downed tree debris off to the side of several fairways. I think there was one tee sign missing and one other hole where the pad is basically buried in dirt. But overall the course is very playable.

There is also one hole that is redesigned. It's #8, which is the one labeled #7 on the map uploaded here (for those who haven't visited recently, they have new tee signs renumbering the holes 1-24 instead of 1-18 with a-f sprinkled in - this applies to all three courses on site). Based on the map, hole #8 used to play across the park drive and was located pretty much right where people would be parking for 9 months out of the year when the gate is locked. Now, the tee for that hole has been moved across the drive into the wooded area. The walk there from the previous hole is pretty long, but they planted a couple of Next Tee signs directing you across the road and onto a wooded trail, and I thought it was pretty obvious after that. The new hole plays 300' roughly south to north, down a wooded valley then slightly back up the other side. The basket is tucked in to the right behind some trees and also raised on a decorative pedestal. I really liked this new hole - it was one of the most memorable on the course for me.

All of the other holes were the same as far as I could tell (based on the map and comparing the tee signs to the distances listed here), although I would bet that between the storm damage and the machinery running through, some of them are not quite as tight as they used to be.

The Beast/Goliath side of the park is in great shape and was unaffected by all of this work on Beauty.

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

As promised, here is an update on Mason County Park!

Beauty is back!!! Just to add a little context for those who don't know, it was hit by a major storm last summer sometime and has been unplayable since then. I visited the park for the first time last November and conquered (read: was conquered by) Beast and Goliath. I returned this afternoon. Beautiful summer day here, mid 70s and very little wind.

So this was my first time playing Beauty. The damage that was done by the storm was clearly pretty extensive. It affected most of the wooded area to the east of the park drive. It looks like they had to carve out paths for some heavy machinery to get into the area and help with the clearing. As of today, all of the baskets and tees are there and all of the fairways are cleared. There are still impressive piles of downed tree debris off to the side of several fairways. I think there was one tee sign missing and one other hole where the pad is basically buried in dirt. But overall the course is very playable.

There is also one hole that is redesigned. It's #8, which is the one labeled #7 on the map uploaded here (for those who haven't visited recently, they have new tee signs renumbering the holes 1-24 instead of 1-18 with a-f sprinkled in - this applies to all three courses on site). Based on the map, hole #8 used to play across the park drive and was located pretty much right where people would be parking for 9 months out of the year when the gate is locked. Now, the tee for that hole has been moved across the drive into the wooded area. The walk there from the previous hole is pretty long, but they planted a couple of Next Tee signs directing you across the road and onto a wooded trail, and I thought it was pretty obvious after that. The new hole plays 300' roughly south to north, down a wooded valley then slightly back up the other side. The basket is tucked in to the right behind some trees and also raised on a decorative pedestal. I really liked this new hole - it was one of the most memorable on the course for me.

All of the other holes were the same as far as I could tell (based on the map and comparing the tee signs to the distances listed here), although I would bet that between the storm damage and the machinery running through, some of them are not quite as tight as they used to be.

The Beast/Goliath side of the park is in great shape and was unaffected by all of this work on Beauty.

Thanks for the update. I need to get my son up there for his first visit (I'd played it as far back as '98 on the "raskets" they had there but haven't been back in maybe 20 years). He'll be most likely playing in Am-2 at the states as a 13-year-old.

 

[ru4por]

I know we will shortly get to see Toboggan in it's full glory, but I thought I would give my impression. Got out and played (brutalized) on Friday morning. The changes are real. They have pushed back a couple pins since USADGC and it looks like they have one to go. The tee pads are top tier. We played shorts and this course simply does not provide for any break. It is relentless in it's beating. For player not rated near 1000, it is simply out of our league. Fun, but built (redesigned) for a different skill set. The new fairways are going to need a year or two to grow some nice grass, but all of them were well thought out. Since the Russian Olive removal a handful of years ago, most of the rough on this course is not punishing. You can make mistakes and still be in the hunt for par (if you are 1000 rated). The park has tapped into water on the pavilion side of the parking lot, for watering an area that seems to be for a tent or tournament set up. I really hope they make this a drinking fountain or source of potable water. This course could use it. Terrific morning....my rating is four Motrin.

 

[DFrah]

Just to add a little caveat here, the redesign was there before the storm

Nothing major, just wanted to throw that in there..

Thank you! Had no idea.

 

[DFrah]

As promised the report on hickory I'm on my phone so I'm goin to be brief and have punctuation. Hickory has white 18 and blue 18 available to play. Major jam up with 3-4 groups on one of the holes cuz no one knew where to go. This double layout that overlaps a lot, unfortunately doesn't seem to work. Decent course tho.

Thanks for update! Sounds wild. Still not sure why they just didn't keep the old 24.