Here’s our list of the top 10 courses in Michigan, also known as The Great Lakes State.
1. CRYSTAL DOWNS, Frankfort
A year after completing Cypress Point, Alister MacKenzie teamed with Perry Maxwell to produce this inland encore of the same character and quality. The par 70 of just 6,600 yards packs its punch in twisting par fours and fiercely sloped greens, all windswept by breezes off nearby Lake Michigan.
2. OAKLAND HILLS (SOUTH), Bloomfield Hills
Donald Ross designed it in 1918, Robert Trent Jones Sr. made it the “monster” slain by Ben Hogan in 1951, and five years ago Gil Hanse brought the Ross character back. Now the site of six U.S. Opens and three PGA Championships has two more Opens and several more USGA events on the docket.
3. THE KINGSLEY CLUB, Kingsley
Tom Doak disciple Mike DeVries grabbed attention in 2001 with this, his first solo design, a dazzling collection of thinking-man’s holes spread across a sand-based landscape that begins in duneland and climbs into steep, tree-lined terrain.
4. FRANKLIN HILLS, Franklin
Located on rolling farmland just north of Detroit, this ultra-private Donald Ross course has seen blessedly little tampering over the years. Ross routed the holes brilliantly on a compact site, with the notorious highlight the Volcano 13th hole, playing 301 yards to a tiny green perched 30 feet above the fairway.
5. THE DUNES, New Buffalo
Arguably the best 9-hole course in the world, the Dunes was founded by Mike Keiser, seven years before he opened Bandon Dunes, and designed by Dick Nugent. Its setting, on 90 acres of pine-covered sand dunes, has earned it the nickname “Pine Valley of the Midwest.”
6. ARCADIA BLUFFS (SOUTH), Arcadia
Presented with a tract of featureless farmland, Dana Fry and Jason Straka reached back a century for inspiration to C.B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor and modeled their course after Chicago Golf Club. Trench-like cross bunkers and expansive false-front greens distinguish a design where strategy and shot planning are paramount.
7. LOST DUNES, Bridgman
When the site is an old sand quarry enclosed by 60-foot dunes, expect some dramatic bunkering, and that’s exactly what Tom Doak produced—vast sandy waste areas, windblown walls, and extravagant ragged-edged pits—but equally striking is what Doak refers to as “the wildest set of greens I’ve ever built.”
8. THE LOOP AT FOREST DUNES (BLACK), Roscommon
A decade ago, Tom Doak convinced the owners of Forest Dunes to grant him a longtime wish: to design a reversible golf course, allowing golfers to play over the same terrain in two different directions. His Black and Red loops are of similar appeal, with Black, played clockwise, offering more strategic options.
9. ARCADIA BLUFFS (BLUFFS), Arcadia
Majestic is the word for this Irish links-style course that drops more than 200 feet from its highest point to the bluff and then runs along 3,000 feet of Lake Michigan shoreline, with views of the water from most holes.
10. GREYWALLS, Marquette
The vista from the first tee of this Mike DeVries course includes Lake Superior, and it sets the tone for an exhilarating journey along a plateau, through woodlands, and past the massive jagged granite outcroppings for which the course is named.
