Reed Park

This course is actually quite fantastic. It is well maintained, easy to navigate, has a great shot selection. For being on flat ground to add difficulty there is a low ceiling on many of the holes or skinny opening fairways. This course requires good shot selection, power, and accuracy to do well. I almost lost a disc but after a 10 minutes I found it stuck in the tree I had seen it go in. Holes 11 12 and 13 were my favorite. With the land how it is the designer really made a fantastic cou ...
continue reading ›

This course is actually quite fantastic. It is well maintained, easy to navigate, has a great shot selection. For being on flat ground to add difficulty there is a low ceiling on many of the holes or skinny opening fairways. This course requires good shot selection, power, and accuracy to do well. I almost lost a disc but after a 10 minutes I found it stuck in the tree I had seen it go in. Holes 11 12 and 13 were my favorite. With the land how it is the designer really made a fantastic course. The park is great too, well kept and great facilities. I think we have Pete Little to thank for a lot of this. I'm not sure who designed it but he deserves a big thank you as well!
‹ less text

SUMMARY: Beautifully groomed. Bring your mental game. Many birdie cages. More forced than technical. Note: I am not a >900 rated player. I golf to have fun and to enjoy being outside. My reviews reflect only those elements that challenge, frustrate, and/or excite me. YMMV. Also, as this was my first time at “The Vines” I threw multiple drives from every tee pad, experimenting with line optimization. I normally do not do this, but Reed Park proved to be a special case. DETAIL: ...
continue reading ›

SUMMARY:
Beautifully groomed. Bring your mental game. Many birdie cages. More forced than technical.

Note: I am not a >900 rated player. I golf to have fun and to enjoy being outside. My reviews reflect only those elements that challenge, frustrate, and/or excite me. YMMV. Also, as this was my first time at “The Vines” I threw multiple drives from every tee pad, experimenting with line optimization. I normally do not do this, but Reed Park proved to be a special case.

DETAIL:
The Good:
I cannot say enough about how impressed I am with the grooming of this course. I do not know who is responsible for maintaining it, but they are owed due recognition. The fairways were clear of almost all debris, save a few stray twigs. Deadfall was absent throughout the playable course. Most inter-hole pathways were obvious, wide and accommodating. Tees were spaciously buffered. Vegetation was clearly ADDED in some places, not just infinitely cleared as default some courses. There was almost no trash – not even cigarette butts and (beer) bottle caps. The list goes on, but the point should be clear: This course was nearly immaculate! Trash cans at every hole helps, but it is clear that at least one somebody really cares about this course.

Trash removed by me:
Beer can (Bud) - Hole #1 | Beer Can (Coors) - Hole #9 | Pop can (Arizona tea) - Hole #4 | Gatorade bottle (full) - Hole #18 | Shoe (rebok) - Hole #18 | Plastic Coffee cup (McDonald’s) - Hole #18

Hole variety is pretty good. It did not measure up to other reviewer’s evaluations, in my opinion, but more on that later. Above all else, the course designer should be credited with being a placement and perspective genius. What I mean by this is that, more often than not a hole will appear especially narrow or difficult from the tee pad. Frequently, I felt a hole demanded a shot that seemed limiting to distance and/or counterproductive, if only to clear a few sentinel trees. This was mostly due to minimalistic hole diagrams and devious fairway framing. Careful placement, however, was well rewarded and made for an interesting mental game. My tee pad confidence was constantly under attack here. That said, the resultant upshot ease and frequent birdie opportunities provided an opposing balance. It made for hole-by-hole drama that I am unaccustomed to, but thoroughly enjoyed, and will hence seek to find in every course I play in the future.

The (nit-pickey) Bad:
Rough Vegetation:
The rough is, well, rough and that purple, thorny, devil weed is EVERYWHERE. As others have warned, keep it on the fairway if you value your skin. I did not see anything toxic/poisonous, albeit in December.

Muddy Tee Pads:
The tees were a little short for my run up. Normally, that can be managed by backing up a bit. Unfortunately, the earth around the tees was silty in composition. Too often this meant mud – the banana peel slippery, diarrhea gushy kind. Some gravel around the edges would go a long way.

Misleading Navigation:
The obvious path from tee to hole on #18 was lost on me. If it exists, it could be presented better. I decided to walk the pond shoreline, as it seemed somewhat traveled and the most direct route. The bridge from parking lot to hole #1 was so far as to interrupt flow. For what it’s worth, it would be a beautiful addition to provide a raised walkway along the rim of the pond, and far enough off-line to be out of harms way. Similarly, the walkway from hole #15 to hole #16 was a rabbit trail compared to others. It should be widened for continuity sake. Furthermore, the map becomes progressively less accurate over the play of the course. Most certainly, hole #18 is NOT where the map says it should be.

Unseasonably Rigid Chains:
The baskets are in good repair but it looks like the galvanizing is starting to oxidize. This makes for chain links that do not pivot smoothly against each other. The result is a stiffening of the neutral state that resists deformation from impact. Adding to near freezing temperatures, the basket chains are more prone to kick your disc away than swallow it up. Aim low, if you can.

Putting in Prison:
I wasn’t counting but many baskets are protected against aces by anywhere from 10 to 20 small diameter trees. Some people, like me, refer to this as Jail where putting from outside the barrier is like putting through the bars of a detention cell. I don’t mind some of this, but there should be at least one fairway-size window and “the circle” should remain clear. Reed park often crowded and/or heavily encroached upon the hole.

Shot Sculpting:
This is the biggest let down of the course for me. While I praise the course designer for his/her vision, I also recognize that the execution of said vision was pulled off by a narrow margin. Key word: narrow. The first 30’ or so off the tee pad are often choked from two, if not three directions (left, right, ceiling). Basically, I felt forced to hit an early accuracy window. Sometimes, the danger was immediately apparent; a tree or two, right off the tee. Other times it was not clear why until the disc had moved forward a couple hundred feet, where the canopy dropped to smack my disc out of the sky. Too often distance options were stifled by low ceilings. Even where fairways begin wide open, low hanging and expansive canopies negate hyzer spike routes or flex shots. In some cases, the difference might have been a single branch. This made for more “laser” shots than I care for. Notably, I estimate that I had +/-10* of freedom off the hole #12 tee pad. Hole #4 was like chucking plastic down a throat made of boney trunks and toothy branches. The overall effect was a course telling me “my way or the highway.” I prefer holes with options (OTHER than thumb/tomahawk).

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS:
I was challenged by this course. Not because it was particularly challenging, by design, but because options for success are few and those available are tightly restricted. This reduces re-playability for me. Yet, it is so well maintained, both physically with landscaping and mentally through dramatic gameplay, that I am compelled to return as if to tryst with an old girlfriend. This is a twice-a-year course for me, currently ranked #1 on that list.

‹ less text

This course is so smart; so much so, that I can even pardon the few smart-alec features like the "smirking" tree trunks on #18 tee. The Gratiot Co. community and DG friends have made a park that is fit for a Norman Rockwell painting. The longer/tight fareways are bordered by well kept areas where the challenge is to your line-shaping skills not your disc-finding or injury-avoidance skills. After playing this course you will want to find the maintenance crew and give them a hug. June edit: the ro ...
continue reading ›

This course is so smart; so much so, that I can even pardon the few smart-alec features like the "smirking" tree trunks on #18 tee. The Gratiot Co. community and DG friends have made a park that is fit for a Norman Rockwell painting. The longer/tight fareways are bordered by well kept areas where the challenge is to your line-shaping skills not your disc-finding or injury-avoidance skills. After playing this course you will want to find the maintenance crew and give them a hug. June edit: the rough on some holes soon grows "ruuufff".This is no doubt intentional, as the care given to the fairways shows it is a design choice. Your choice will be, long pants, bloody legs, or declare a lost disc. Dismissing the course might be an option if you "cry uncle".
‹ less text

This course has a good variety of holes, and forces you to reach deep into your bag: always keeping it interesting. It is however, still very new, and if you're not in the middle of the fairway, you're almost guaranteed to have a lengthy search on your hands. Hole 12 is insane, and not in any new-age lingo good kind of way. It's 400+ ft. with an offset fairway gilded closely by trees to the left, right and above. A bogey on this hole is a godsend, and it's not unusual to be playing with a gr ...
continue reading ›

This course has a good variety of holes, and forces you to reach deep into your bag: always keeping it interesting. It is however, still very new, and if you're not in the middle of the fairway, you're almost guaranteed to have a lengthy search on your hands.

Hole 12 is insane, and not in any new-age lingo good kind of way. It's 400+ ft. with an offset fairway gilded closely by trees to the left, right and above. A bogey on this hole is a godsend, and it's not unusual to be playing with a group of reasonably experienced players and see the average score at a triple-bogey. It doesn't fit at all with the overall flow of the course (every other hole is designed well and provides a challenge without being frustratingly difficult) and makes for a depressing round-breaker midway through the course. Other than that, however, make sure you use a spotter for any and all blind shots, and you should be up to enjoy a beautiful round of disc golf!
‹ less text

In one of the nicest parks i have been too and so very clean. Course is pretty sick good use of the land lengthy holes make for a challenge good defined lines in the woods with excellent use of surroundings open shots using the bushes and defined trees as obstacles pretty awesome. I love #18 a signature type hole over the water very sweet. Only things i could see better more use of fhe water, elevation (if there was anything), hole #11 i believe says short and long i didnt see a short pin and w ...
continue reading ›

In one of the nicest parks i have been too and so very clean. Course is pretty sick good use of the land lengthy holes make for a challenge good defined lines in the woods with excellent use of surroundings open shots using the bushes and defined trees as obstacles pretty awesome. I love #18 a signature type hole over the water very sweet. Only things i could see better more use of fhe water, elevation (if there was anything), hole #11 i believe says short and long i didnt see a short pin and was slightly confused on my first way through.park is so very clean camping right there by the course would make for an awesome stay with possibility of glow golf. Very kinda scenic i wish it wasnt so far away from where i live but i will definitely return again love the course and the park. Very nice work mr. Keith aten.
‹ less text