Michigan - America’s Best Golf State? By Bob Fagan
You might think that trying to pick America’s best state for golf courses would be really difficult. It is easier for me than you might imagine. For years, I had read the marketing slogan proclaiming Michigan and particularly Northern Michigan as “America’s Summer Golf Capital”. I thought that it was merely a slick marketing slogan. I was wrong! In 1993 I discovered Michigan golf courses for myself and was impressed beyond expectations. Since then I have revisited the golf-rich state several times playing more than seventy terrific courses. Considering the interesting terrain, quality conditioning, and engaging designs, I feel that Michigan offers more quality golf courses, and especially public-access ones, than any other state in America. That’s an impressive statement considering my upbringing on the East Coast and my relocation to California.
Yes, there is the long line of usual suspect outstanding private club courses. Crystal Downs, Oakland Hills, Indianwood, Point O’Woods, Detroit Golf Club, Country Club of Detroit, Franklin Hills, and more recently Kingsley, Dunes Club, and Lost Dunes are just a tiny number of the many quality club courses restricted to members. The real story is the unbelievable number and quality of public courses all around Michigan. These layouts, mostly of modern vintage, are among the best courses in the land, comparable to the private club experiences. Upon every return trip to Michigan, I discover how many more magnificent courses remain to play.
The exciting news about Michigan golf is that it is very affordable with fees often half of what you would expect to pay for in California, Arizona or Nevada. There is so much competition among courses and resorts for play, that their prices are always competitive as is there excellent service. On top of that, the resorts offer some unbelievable “stay and play” packages. That spells a Michigan golf vacation in your future.
It can be misleading to speak in generalities, but the superior private courses are found mostly in the southern half of the state. While all of Michigan features an outstanding array of publicaccess layouts, most of the significant courses in the northern half as well as the Upper Peninsula are open to the public. It is there where the focus of my tour for you will be concentrated. By way of background, I have played each of the following golf courses.
Assuming you arrive in Detroit, you will want to head up to Northern Michigan for this cornucopia of golfing delights. As you drive north, there are two courses that you must visit. Robert Trent Jones, Jr. designed The Orchards Golf Club in Washington. This is quietly one of his best classic designs with loads of interesting architectural features built in. The quality here will be a preview to you that Michigan public golf is more like being a “member for a day” at a prestigious private club with service, course, and amenities a real treat (www.orchards.com). Also nearby in Clarkston is Shepherd’s Hollow Golf Club which features 27 holes built by Arthur Hills. Hills, a native Midwesterner, has done some of his best work in the State and Shepherd’s Hollow’s hilly forested terrain shows off his artistry to its fullest extent. With 160- foot elevation changes, this wilderness layout will prepare you for the courses further north (www.shepherdshollow.com).
Michigan is surrounded by the Great Lakes on three sides. To the east is Lake Huron. There the featured resort is Lakewood Shores Resort, located a few miles inland from Oscoda. An informal resort, it offers three distinctly different course styles. The highly acclaimed Gailes Course features a Scottish motif, but I liked the Blackshire perhaps more with its Pine Valley pinelands theme making for a stout test. The oldest course, Serradella, is a traditional flat meadow course that is a bit less testing, but enjoyable nonetheless. An 18-hole pitch and putt course is adjacent to the lodging and makes for an interesting way to cap off your day! (www.lakewoodshores.com)
The Gaylord area in the northern central part of Michigan really refers to “America’s Summer Golf Capital” and there are more than twenty courses conveniently located in the general vicinity. You can hardly go wrong on picking most any of the courses here. Substandard facilities would not survive due to the competition for play, and the rates will please you. On the south side, be sure to play Tom Weiskopf’s Forest Dunes (www.forestdunesgolf.com). Scheduled to eventually become a private national club, “Michigan Golf” ranked the layout as #2 in the state. Sprinkled with dunes and elaborate bunkering, the course unfolds quite naturally through the rolling pineland and is obviously a treat to experience. A bit north in Onaway, the “US Open Doctor” Rees Jones has crafted Black Lake for the UAW (www.blacklakegolf.com). It is a supremely conditioned artistic layout that opened in 2002 and was named #2 course in America that year by “Golf Digest”. The Otsega Club in Gaylord was one of the early pioneer resorts and offers some terrific golf packages. Its Rick Robbins/Gary Koch-designed Tribute Course is terrific (www.otsegoclub.com). The elevation changes offer some of the most dramatic vistas in the area and it has garned a Top Ten position in Michigan rankings.
When you consider multiple course resorts, Treetops ranks with the best in America. This busy facility includes one of Robert Trent Jones’ and also Tom Fazio’s best layouts (www.treetops.com). Rick Smith’s Signature Course is superlative as is his 9-hole par-three Threetops. Smith, now a part owner, designed a slightly easier, but walkable fifth course, The Tradition as well. Speaking of multiple course resorts, the four Garland Resort regulation courses are excellent and a nice complement to the very comfortable lodge. Each was designed by Ron Otto and are good woodlands tests without being overbearing. They mostly look and play alike so you can pick anyone of them and discover a good time (www.garlandusa.com).
At the top of his game is golf course architect Tom Doak. Completing world-renowned courses such as Pacific Dunes, Old Dunes, Stonewall, Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand, and Barnbougle Dunes in Australia, Gaylord features the very challenging Black Forest Golf Club, one of his early efforts. This is a long demanding woodlands test, with challenging greens and rugged bunkering. In other words, bring your “A-game” (www.blackforestgolf.com). Speaking of Doak, to the west near Traverse City, you can also sample his initial solo design, the Hi-Point Golf Club. Another bargain, this layout features two very different nines, the first a meadow one and the second a mostly tight, hilly forested one. This is one of my favorite courses and golf course architecture buffs will appreciate the many subtleties he featured here. As such, this course was once included on Golf Magazine’s Top 100 Courses in America.
Once you are in the Gaylord area, you might as well continue further north to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. On the western side of the peninsula, you will discover two gems that will make the trip worthwhile. First, the Marquette Golf Club has opened their club up to public play with the opening of the Greywalls Course by Mike DeVries. DeVries worked with Tom Doak before going out on his own and is quickly rising as a star among the up-and-coming golf course architects. DeVries cleared the hilly forest area to reveal some breathtaking views of Lake Superior and provide wide avenues of play that afford all sorts of strategic options. The course has already received accolades from all sorts of golf publications, and I can assure you that they are all deserved. The most unusual features are the dramatic vertical walls of rock that adjoin several holes, hence the name. While there are less than forty bunkers on the course, they are all striking and strategic, and the green site devilishly challenging. This is a Top 100 Course contender (www.marquettegolfclub.com). The Club’s original course is also available for play.
South of Marquette near the Wisconsin border is Timberstone in Iron Mountain. Jerry Matthews is a familiar name in Michigan having designed or remodeled many courses, but Timberstone may be his best. This is a thickly wooded mountainous layout with some interesting elevation changes. The highlights are the 17th and 18th holes that tumble downhill and feature dramatic vistas from the elevated tees. This is a demanding course with lots of trouble for errant tee shots. Add the friendly folks there and this course is also worth the trip! (www.timberstonegolf.com)
Heading back south off the Upper Peninsula down the western shores nearby or on Lake Michigan you find the towns of Petosky, Boyne, and Traverse City extending inland to Grand Rapids and Lansing. There is an absolute embarrassment of great golf that still awaits.
For older style courses, there is no better gem than the semi-private Belvedere Golf Club designed in 1925 by Scot Willie Watson. Simple, unpretentious, and extraordinary, this classic layout has hosted 39 Michigan Amateur Championships and was the summer vacation home of Tom Watson growing up. Watson, now an Honorary Member, usually visits annually as Belvedere is one of his all-time favorite courses in the world! This is the only true classic course featured and you will discover a gleam in the eye of any Michigander you ever mention Belvedere to (www.belvederegolfclub.com). Not far away in Harbor Springs is the Little Traverse Bay Golf Club. Here you will discover a hidden gem of more recent vintage. Complete with a first hole often selected as one of the most beautiful in golf because of its elevated view of Little Traverse Bay, you will find a pleasing layout that makes the most of its hilly site – splendid fun! (www.ltbaygolf.com)
Just down the hill from Little Traverse Bay is the 4-course Boyne Highlands Resort. All are superb. The oldest is the Heather Course, again a generally under-rated Robert Trent Jones design that was once a Top 100 Course and is still listed among the best public ones. Also you will find a rendition of Donald Ross holes that make up the Donald Ross Memorial Course. The Hills Course and Moor Course complete a superb golf quartet complemented by attractive lodging facilities. Again, this is another terrific multi-course resort. (www.boynehighlands.com)
Proceeding south along Lake Michigan, you will encounter the semi-private 27-hole Bay Harbor Golf Club crafted by Arthur Hills. The Links/Quarry combination in particular is certainly one of the most picturesque courses you will ever play as you encounter bluffs above Lake Michigan, play in an old quarry, and well as the prototypical Michigan forest on the Preserve Nine. It is splendid stuff and you will want your camera every step of the way! (www.bayharborgolf.com).
South and inland, more treats await. The Palmer and Weiskopf courses at the Shanty Creek Resort are favorites as is the comfortable lodging (www.shantycreek.com). I have mentioned Tom Doak’s Hi-Point, but a mere 2 miles from there near Traverse City is the 54-hole Grand Traverse Resort. If you want challenging, the Bear Course designed by Nicklaus is one of those “crash and burn” courses that even the great player, himself, stated was too tough for him to want to play regularly. At least, the Wolverine Course designed by Gary Player provides some relief for your ego there (www.grandtraverseresort.com).
Not far is away is the Tullymore Golf Club. It is one of my personal favorites designed by 2003 Architect of the Year, Jim Engh. For challenge, beauty, and thoughtful design, this course is right at the top of my list, it is gorgeous, thrilling, and fun! Nearby is its sister course, St. Ives Golf Club and the Inn at St. Ives. This course is just fine in its own right, but as would most any course, suffers when compared to Tullymore. (All three facilities can be accessed by http://www.canadianlakes.com/tullymoremain.asp.)
Back to the coastline of Lake Michigan, you will encounter Arcadia Bluffs, considered by most as the best public course in Michigan. Rick Smith literally moved mountains of earth in fashioning a links style design not too different from Pete Dye’s Whistling Straits nearly directly across the Lake in Wisconsin. Though there is not quite the frontage of water holes as has Bay Harbor, Lake Michigan is more omnipresent from most of the holes, and the flow of holes is superb to say the least. At a peak rate of $180 including cart and range balls, this will most likely be the highest fee in Michigan, but worth it (www.arcadiabluffs.com).
If you expect to decompress after Arcadia Bluffs as you head south and inland, you are probably right, but splendid golf still awaits. The two courses at Manistee National provide a very demanding tee shot performance with play amongst the wetlands and forest (www.manisteenational.com). The Michigan Section PGA’s home course near East Lansing, Eagle Eye Golf Club, is set upon some pretty uninspiring flat land, but the look and challenge is anything but. Pete Dye protégé, Chris Lutzke, did a magnificent job in fashioning an attractive and sometimes intimidating layout; and the copy of the island green 17th at TPC Sawgrass on the 17th here is as good as I have witnessed (www.hawkhollow.com)..
Finally, our tour finishes in Grand Rapids. Built a mile from downtown, you will find another engaging test designed by Mike DeVries. Built over top an abandoned gypsum quarry, the Mines Golf Club provides generous landing areas and diabolical greens as you traverse moderately hilly terrain. The course is quite walkable and the trees have been thoughtfully managed to create pleasing vistas though you never realize you are in an urban environment. It is both a playable test for the novice, but a challenge for the expert to better par. (www.minesgolfcourse.com)
As complete as this tour has been, I must confess that I continue to be overwhelmed the number and quality of splendid layouts I have not yet played. Names such as Pilgrim’s Run, R&S Sharf Course at Oakland University, Thousand Oaks, Elk Ridge, Red Hawk, Hawkshead, The Majestic, Buck’s Run, True North, Yarrow. Thornapple Pointe, The Grande, The Rock, Hidden River, Timber Trace, Diamond Springs, Ravines, Mistwood, Pine Trace, Mystic Creek, and about thirty more courses calling me back.
Now is not too soon to consider your next summer golf vacation. I hear Michigan calling!
Bob Fagan is a former golf professional and Executive Director for the Northern California PGA from 1991-98. An avid collector of golf experiences, Bob has played more than 2,300 courses in America and can be found at www.golfshigherplane.com He has written “Golf’s Higher Plane” and operates as an Empowerment Coach to Athletes, Business Persons, and general folk.
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