Garfield Park Disc Golf Course Review: Grand Rapid's First Disc Golf Course

Garfield Park in Grand Rapids is the oldest disc golf course in the area, dating back to 1977. The course was brought to mind again recently when I read an article about baskets finally being installed as well as a possible redesign of the layout. When we played there last summer, we played the original 70s layout. It was a course that we had both been wanting to try out for some time. With short tee to hole distances and wooden pole holes (rather than chain baskets) the place didn't sound like much, but was actually a very well designed and fun to play course.

The shorter than normal tee to hole distances (most being between 160 to 300 feet) made this a perfect course on which to play my favorite kind of disc golf: vintage style, with only a 1970s 141g Whamo frisbee. The disc ended up being a a perfect choice, as I came out ahead of my friend who brought his full bag of modern discs. Though the holes were generally short on distance, they required a variety of technical shots to get around trees and other obstacles to make it to the hole. Hole 2, for example, required a mandatory shot around a public restroom, which was actually quite fun! Each hole had its own shot requirements to end up under par, demonstrating to me that some thought and care went into the design of this course.

A 1970s Wham-o 141g Frisbee, like the one I played Garfield Park with.

The course played around the perimeter of the park and generally avoided getting in the way of other people and other activities. I'm sure this is still the case. The tee signs and poles were maintained, and all but one of the pole holes was easy to find. In that one case, the pole (14 or 15 I believe) had been moved about 30 feet to the left of its original location, but the tee sign did not reflect the change. The only other issue we ran into was that some of the holes require you to tee off from the sidewalk or driveways, which makes things a little ambiguous having no defined tee pad.

If you are in the area looking for a nice place for a quick putter round or a course that is ideal for Superclass and/or vintage style disc golf, try Garfield Park. I doubt the new layout is significantly different from the old one, especially given the limited space, but finally having baskets is a great addition to the course. It does not offer the huge distance holes many disc golfers are addicted to, but the variety of technical shots involved here make this course extremely fun and worth the visit. I know I will be back to try it out with baskets!