“This is the first true 18-hole family-oriented course of this nature in west Michigan,” wrote Tom Oele, the former chair of the Manistee Parks Commission in an email to the News Advocate.

The course is a citywide collaboration between the Manistee City Council, the Manistee Department of Public Works and parks commission.

Work on the disc golf course at Lighthouse Park began on May 26. The Manistee County Community Foundation awarded $22,500 to the city of Manistee for the course in 2021. The Manistee City Council approved the disc golf course in February 2021.

The department of public works donated in kind, roughly $20,000 in manpower and materials to develop the course.

The course is now open, but an official opening is being planned for spring of 2023.

The course, which Oele designed, is more geared toward kids and families than some of the professional courses he says have cropped up across the country.  

“It’s a safer course that’s designed for younger children and families,” Oele told the News Advocate in a March 2021 interview. “A good way to think of it is with real golf compared to miniature golf. This would be a miniature golf version of disc golf.”

Until recently, Oele said the Manistee area was lacking in opportunities for local disc golfers. 

“There’s great courses in the Traverse City area and there’s great courses in the Ludington area and if you look at a map of disc golf courses within Michigan, the Manistee area has always been this huge desert of really nothing,” he said. 

Around three years ago, Oele and other local disc golfers got together in the hopes of bringing this activity to Manistee, “in the right way,” he said.

That meant doing things a little differently than other places where Oele says disc golf has taken off. 

“(It’s) not a pro course like you see in Ludington or in Traverse City but a true family kids course of a full 18…