Paul Doherty

The Dynamikum course is in a multi-use park. Holes are on the shorter side; I played with a midrange and putter throwing RHBH the whole time. Routing is not the greatest as a lot of holes cross paths and there are occasionally pedestrians in the way. Most holes play along or up/down hills. This creates a lot of uneven footing and risks of roll-aways. Tee pads are brick and quite small, often with drop-offs on the end. There are nice tee signs on every hole with distance in meters and a map. ...
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The Dynamikum course is in a multi-use park. Holes are on the shorter side; I played with a midrange and putter throwing RHBH the whole time. Routing is not the greatest as a lot of holes cross paths and there are occasionally pedestrians in the way. Most holes play along or up/down hills. This creates a lot of uneven footing and risks of roll-aways.

Tee pads are brick and quite small, often with drop-offs on the end. There are nice tee signs on every hole with distance in meters and a map. Baskets are DiscGolfPark 28 chain models and in good shape.

This is a nice little course for scratching that disc golf itch while traveling in Germany. Wear some good hiking boots and be careful of bystanders. Signs said discs are available for rent and purchase in the Dynamikum but I did not check.
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Played summer '14 and left half-way through because of the confusing layout, unfinished holes, tall grass, flooding, broken baskets. Not a fun experience and decided not to return until more work was done. I heard some good things from others and decided to give River Bends another shot. Played 1/3/2016 and was very impressed! Could tell a lot of time had been spent improving the course. Signs at every tee with hole # and distance, navigation signs to point you in the direction of the nex ...
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Played summer '14 and left half-way through because of the confusing layout, unfinished holes, tall grass, flooding, broken baskets. Not a fun experience and decided not to return until more work was done.

I heard some good things from others and decided to give River Bends another shot. Played 1/3/2016 and was very impressed! Could tell a lot of time had been spent improving the course.

Signs at every tee with hole # and distance, navigation signs to point you in the direction of the next hole, garbage cans & seating on some tees. Not sure if it was due to the time of year, but thick underbrush seemed to have been hogged out and fairways cut. Didn't spend more than a minute or two looking for shots off the fairway.

There was still a bit of standing water, but it's probably unavoidable due to the proximity of the Clinton River, come prepared.

Played all 27 from the long tees, good mix of shots of righty backhand and forehand. Some long and open holes that will favor the big arms, technical holes that require a placement drive and accurate approach. Minor use of elevation and the river is in play on a few holes.

With the quality and variety of holes, nice signage, and improved maintenance, River Bends has become a top level course in my opinion. As with all courses though, the success is going to be dependent on continuous care and supporting community.

Stony is still the king in that area, but if it's over-run with casuals/leagues/tourneys, head down the road to Bends.
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Wickes Woods is a relatively new course that was just completed last summer (there are 18 holes now). There is a good variety of wooded and open holes, as well as slight elevation changes. Seemed to be slightly biased towards forehand/lefties on a lot of holes, but that just makes it all the more challenging. While not entirely accurate, signs at every tee give the distance and a basic idea of how the hole is layed out. The designers also did an excellent job directing players to the next hol ...
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Wickes Woods is a relatively new course that was just completed last summer (there are 18 holes now). There is a good variety of wooded and open holes, as well as slight elevation changes. Seemed to be slightly biased towards forehand/lefties on a lot of holes, but that just makes it all the more challenging.

While not entirely accurate, signs at every tee give the distance and a basic idea of how the hole is layed out. The designers also did an excellent job directing players to the next hole. Hadn't noticed much vandalism, but that might be a problem over time, as it is with most courses. There were also benches on nearly every hole.

As I said, this course is relatively new, and as such, there are a lot of overgrown areas and many small trees that make getting to the pin appear neary impossible. I'm not saying cut out all the trees to make is easier, but its frustrating when your drive is 20' from the pin, and have no line to the basket. Over time, though, this will be thinned out by regular play, and should improve.

We played after a few days of steady rain, and this resulted in a fairly soggy and muddy round. There were only a few problem areas/holes, though. Just come prepared with boots and towels when the weather is less than favorable. The parks department has done their part in keeping the course playable in poor conditions with large amounts of wood chips.

A few holes were incredibly challenging. I'm not positive on the exact numbers, but hole 6, 11, 12, & 17 (many of the "new" holes in the back woods) are all memorable for their difficult. 17 is almost laughable. Its approx. 250 feet long through a tunnel about 8 feel tall, and 6 feet wide, with dense trees lining both sides. So if you don't hit your line, you're looking at a 4 at best.

One last issue; there are a lot of people casually strolling, and walking their dogs that apparently have no idea that they're in the middle of a disc golf course. Maybe 3 or 4 times there were people walking down the fairway of a hole (directly towards us) and made no effort to get out of the way or hussle out of the way while we're standing on the pad. I'm sure it's not intential; this will again most likely improve over time as more and more people play here (or until they get hit by a disc)

This is an excellent course with a lot of variety and challenging layout. With some small improvements (I don't recall seeing many grabage cans), Wickes Woods has the potential to become a premire Tri-Cities destination.
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They did a great job of building the course around the natural landscape. Good use of water that makes you think twice about what shot you want to throw. Nice variety of long holes that allow you to air it out, and short holes that challenge your precision. Weather was rough, but that wasn't a surprise considering it was late October in Michigan. Wind made even routine putts and approaches into more difficult shots that you could cost you a stroke. I would like to see this tournament played a ...
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They did a great job of building the course around the natural landscape. Good use of water that makes you think twice about what shot you want to throw. Nice variety of long holes that allow you to air it out, and short holes that challenge your precision.

Weather was rough, but that wasn't a surprise considering it was late October in Michigan. Wind made even routine putts and approaches into more difficult shots that you could cost you a stroke. I would like to see this tournament played a little earlier in the summer when it might be a little warmer and less windy.

My only major gripe would be that this course gobbles up discs. There is a 8 foot fence that runs along much of the first 9 or so that if you throw over (which happened a lot due to the close proximity to holes and the wind) you're going to have a hell of a time retrieving your disc.
It was very overgrown as well. The fairways were mowed and groomed, but if you missed and landed in the tall grass you're going to spend some time looking for your disc.
Water comes into play on what seemed like a majority of the holes, so if you shank a shot or one gets taken by a gust of wind, theres a good chance it could be wet. I probably saw 5-10 discs lost to a combination of the water, wind, fence, and grass.
Since this was only a temporary course, there were no cement teepads. Rubber mats were on the tees, but most players opted for the natural tee next to them.

Players pack consisted of a nice Cryztal tournament stamped disc and a t-shirt.
Beer, food, and live music were all provided for free, with donations to the course encouraged.

I could definitely see myself playing a few rounds a summer here if it was made into a permanent course, and wouldn't even mind playing a few dollars. This would bring some more traffic and activity to the deteriorating Belle Isle. With cement teepads and permanent baskets, this could become a premire Michigan course.
For $20, you really couldn't ask for much more.
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