Boyne Mountain Disc Golf Course

In the summer of 2021 we visited Boyne Mountain Resort. Boyne Mountain has a disc golf course called Cold Springs right on the resort in the ski hills! We had an opportunity to play the Boyne Mountain disc golf course three times to get a good feel and were even able to talk to the course designer, Dan, in between rounds to understand what went into the course layout. This course has changed significantly over the years as tee pads were installed and ski hill construction forced a few hole redesigns.

Boyne Mountain disc golf course is an enjoyable and scenic destination course with the potential to be great. Read on for our full experience and review!

Boyne Mountain Disc Golf Course Rating

The Puttheads give Boyne Mountain disc golf course a B+ rating.

This rating is up significantly since 2018 due to improvements and redesigns, and we expect it to increase again with planned improvements over the next few seasons.

Where Is Boyne Mountain Disc Golf Course?

The Boyne Mountain disc golf course is located at the top of the ski hills behind Boyne Mountain Resort in the city of Boyne Falls, Michigan. Here is the address:

1 Boyne Mountain Rd, Boyne Falls, MI 49713

The best place to park is in front of the main resort building. Enter the main doors and walk straight through and out the back. You will see a permanent practice basket ahead to your left and you will want to find the Adventure Center building which will be ahead to the right in the cluster of Bavarian style buildings.

The Adventure Center will print you a ticket for the chair lift and give you directions. The chairlift is $5 if you are not staying on site, but free if you are lodging at Boyne Mountain facilities. You will want to take the chairlift. You could hike up the hill for free, but you will be fatigued with a hilly 18 hole course ahead of you! The course itself is free to play. You can rent discs for an additional $5 at the Adventure Center if needed.

After the chairlift, you will continue on the cement path past the chairlift structure and the first teebox of Cold Springs Course will be on the right side a few hundred feet up.

Chair Lift to Boyne Mountain Disc Golf

The chair lift, called the Hemlock Chairlift, is a nice ride up the hill and takes about 5 minutes. You may have difficulty fitting a cart on the chairlift would probably have difficulty maneuvering a cart through the hills on the course, so we recommend a backpack bag. It can be a little awkward carrying your disc golf bag in your lap and the fear of spilling your discs may cross your mind. I never dropped anything, but if you do, you can walk down the hill to recover it. The scenic ride up the hill and through trees sets a peaceful atmosphere before teeing off.

The top of the hill offers great views of the surrounding area.

Boyne Mountain Disc Golf Course Review

Cold Springs disc golf course at Boyne Mountain is a well thought out course that does a great job of working with the elevation changes to create a challenging yet reasonable experience. Naturally, the course is quite hilly as it winds through the top of the ski hills. The area is also heavily wooded but the course utilizes open areas as well as the channels that have been clear cut for paths and paved drives. This results in a great mix of open and tight fairways with wooded boundaries.

Tee pads have been installed on each hole and signage has been added. This gives the course a much more polished feel and allows easy hole identification. This resolved a common complaint in 2019 of no signs. Unfortunately, the tee pads are made of rubber so grippy that it makes rotation difficult. I had trouble flipping my long drives and had a few early releases. Dan the course designer actually agreed with my experience and is trying to make a case to install cement tee pads in the near future. This upgrade alone would bump our rating up from ‘Good’ to ‘Great’. The baskets are Discraft Chainstar.

Boyne Mountain disc golf course hole 11 — Boyne Mountain hole 11

Hole distances vary greatly to provide an well-rounded feel wiith many different shot shapes available. Most holes offer a good risk vs reward tradeoff. There are a couple short holes that disrupt the flow slightly by not offering many options but they are still fun.

Cold Springs used to sport a couple of long holes up a sandy hill. These garned some complaints as it was tough to get any sort of footing or power and it fatigued players in the middle of a round. These holes have been rerouted for a much better experience. Hole 11 in particular offers a beautiful fairway down the paved cart path with tall trees on both sides creating a high ceiling with a good deal of contrast.

Holes 14 through 17 cross back and forth down a ski slope; these feel short and repetitive and more variety would be nice, but they are still scenic and require finess to land your disc safely. Dan explained that the original layout through a group of trees had to be changed due to construction for the skiing experience. Unfortunately this is a reality for courses built on mulit-use land, but he did a good job rearranging with what he had.

Boyne Mountain Disc Golf Hole17 — Boyne Mountain hole 17

Hole 18 is the signature hole with a 610 foot downhill drive, mando to the left of a tree, finishing with a slight uphill to a raised basket sitting in a wooden coozie. If you’re facing a headwind, watch out! This challenging route is a great way to finish a tight course with an open blast. It is one of the few par 4 holes on the course.

Boyne Mountain Disc Golf hole 18 — Boyne Mountain hole 18

It is important to remember that this land is multi-use land for the resort. The course crosses over the scenic paved cart path multiple times and you will need to keep an eye out for golf carts, mountain bikers, and walkers. Everyone I encountered was courteous and cleared my fairware quickly. You should also be aware that the course shares space with the zip lining course throug the woods. This past summer, groups began zip lining right across the first fairway at 10:00am, 1:00pm, and 4:00pm. I happened to tee off at 4:00pm one afternoon and had to be careful not to throw into the group and even waited for the zip liners to pass on a couple occaisions. Again, this group was friendly and courteous, but it can disrupt the flow and the zipping noise could distract a disc golfer so just be aware of your tee-off time.

Overall, we enjoyed this course and look forward to playing again when we are in the area. If cement tee pads are installed then this will be an amazing destination course that should attract disc golfers from a distance. We were thoroughly impressed with the thought put into the design through the hills.

Boyne Mountain Course Map

The lodge at the hilltop after departing the chairlift does not have course maps for Cold Springs, so make sure you have UDisc or print one in advance. Here is an image of the map posted at the first tee pad.