Highland Hills Golf Course Review

Highland Hills Golf Course Review

Highland Hills
Grade: D
Teacher’s Comments: The old school design has potential, but conditions fell too far short

I really wanted to enjoy Highland Hills. It is an old-school course — built in 1925 — whose routing takes advantage of natural topography. As a result, the design boasts some quirky holes, a few ones that are just “fine,” and a couple that are really epic.

The conditions on the day I played, however, largely spoiled the experience.

The front nine at Highland Hills is very much a parklands style course following a sharply downhill first and a second which climbs out of the lowlands. After that, there is some slight movement in the terrain, but nothing that will make a golfer question their usual club choices.

Highland Hills’ back nine, on the other hand, is quite rugged. There are precipitous descents and challenging ascents — sometimes on the same hole.

The sixteenth, shown in the photo above, is a good example. The fairway extends out to the intermediate line, dives down toward a pond on the left, climbs again to a second line, then dives back down again to the green.

The seventeenth has a similar roller coaster feel. The green is tucked behind that second hill. That hole was quite the walk.

From the tips, Highland Hills clocks in at 6, 141 yards. Slope and ratings are as follows:

Tee	Yards	Slope	Rating
Men	6, 141	116	66.5
Women	5, 710	121	71.2

As noted before, conditions on the day I played were not good. Tee boxes were hard and beat up. Large stretches of fairway were bare.

The greens were fine, though.

The front nine was much better than the back nine. Oodles better. The back nine, however, was quite poor.

Perhaps I caught Highland Hills on a bad week. Unfavorable weather and a temporarily broken irrigation system can trash a course in short order. I don’t know that either of those were simultaneously in play, but it is possible.

I would love to hear from people who tell me that Highland Hills generally is in good shape. Such an interesting old school course deserves much better than I found

The Highland Hills Golf Course Review was first published December 28, 2023 from notes and photos taken on a round played in the summer of 2023. For all of GolfBlogger’s Michigan Golf Course Reviews (as well as golf course reviews from other states), follow the link.

A photo tour of Highland Hills follows: