A Visit to the Heritage Park Disc Golf Course in Adrian, Michigan

This afternoon, Sheila, Ben, and I drove to Adrian, Michigan (mostly on dirt roads, for fun) and played the Heritage Park disc golf course, which Ben had previously played but I had not. The first image is Ben near one of the pin placements along the Raisin River. Here's a link to the PDGA online course directory information page for this course, which includes Yahoo! and Google Maps linkage.

Actually, Sheila walked the dogs while we played. She discovered a very nice system of walking trails and may take her women's walking group there one of these weekends, since it is only 30 miles away, maybe a 40-minute easy drive. The second image is Sheila and Ben standing near the green for Hole 18. I had crossed a wet area to get an image of that interesting ice collection that is happening just downwind from a leak in some sort of plumbing situation.

The course has significant elevation change, although not much in the course of actually throwing discs. Ben and I played the long tees, even though we knew that meant he would crush me; and he did. He shot a +1 and I threw a +8 - to my credit, I was very, very tired and probably should not have been playing. My drives are really weird lately, too, I am dipping my shoulder and turning everything way over to the right.

The course is looong. It makes good use of the few woods that are available, although many holes are in wide open spaces. Three of the holes throw slightly into the woods at the end and have basket placements that are on the edge of the Raisin River. The image at left is the main course sign. This is, in fact, a nicely challenging course. There are dirt tee pads and the signage is aimed at those throwing the short tees, but it is fun to play and the open holes would be interesting in the wind. It is definitely a course that would be navigable in the absence of locals, since the signage is good enough for that. Whoever designed it did a good job; I hope he or she gets some funding for concrete tee pads.

Note: The park is near lots of gas stations, convenience stores, etc. - actually only a very short drive (less than a mile) off of M-52, just north of Adrian.