GolfWeek’s Top 20 Public Courses In Michigan Reviewed

GolfWeek’s Top 20 Public Courses In Michigan Reviewed

GolfWeek has released its annual Top 20 Public Courses in Michigan list. As it turns out, The GolfBlogger has reviewed every single one of them (along with nearly 300 other Michigan courses).

You can see the list below, along with links to my reviews on GolfBlogger:

1. Arcadia Bluffs
2. Greywalls at Marquette GC
3. Forest Dunes Loop
4. Forest Dunes Weiskopf
5. Arcadia Bluffs (South)
6. Belvedere
7. Boyne’s Bay Harbor
8. Eagle Eye
9. Sweetgrass at Island Resort and Casino
10. Stoatin Brae at Gull Lake View Resort
11. Pilgrim’s Run
12. Sage Run
13. Harbor Shores
14. American Dunes
15. University of Michigan GC
16. The Arthur Hills at Boyne Highlands (The Highlands at Harbor Springs)
17. Tullymore at Tullymore Golf Resort
18. Hidden River Golf and Casting
19. Diamond Springs
20. Timberstone at Pine Mountain

I mostly agree with the quality of the courses on GolfWeek’s list, if not with the order. It does, however, seem to me to be tilted toward resort courses that I know regularly host writers on “FAM” trips. There’s also a bias toward what I would call “epic” courses — courses with great views or settings — and modern courses. Only Belvedere and the University of Michigan GC defy those two prejudices.

For my part, I am not sure I would put Harbor Shores in the Top Twenty. It is a great collection of holes, but quite disjointed and does not flow well with its pockets of holes. In its place, I would put Black Lake. I am also not nearly as enamored of Eagle Eye as some seem to be.

I am quite happy to see Diamond Springs on the list, though. That is a course that I have been anxious to return to play.

Everyone knows my own partisanship, though: I would put Washtenaw Golf Club on that list. I also would find a way to squeeze Indian River Golf Club in — perhaps as an honorable mention.