Marysville Golf Course Review

A view of the ninth fairway at Marysville Golf Course. The blue swath is the St. Clair River. The opposite shore is Canada.

Marysville Golf Course Review

Marysville Golf Course
Marysville, Michigan
Grade: C+
Teacher’s Comments: A pleasant muni with a couple of quick glimpses of the St. Clair River and of Canada.

If Marysville Golf Course were my hometown muni, I would happily play it several times a week. It has a friendly vibe, with some interesting holes but didn’t beat me up on a first playing.

The eleventh at Marysville is a 519 yard par 5.

Some of Marysville’s most interesting holes are routed along and across a ravine formed by Cuttle Creek, which flows into the St. Clair River. The third and eleventh — both par fours — begin with tee shots over the ravine. Neither has a particularly long carry, but all of the growth in that ravine intimidates. The two holes run parallel to each other, separated by light woods. Both are doglegs right and a pond to the left of the third green is to the right of the green on eleven.

Seven at Marysville is a 136 yard par 3.

The par three seventh and fifteenth holes also play across the ravine and creek, with tricky shots from one bank to another. The fairways on sixteen and eighteen also are interrupted by the watery ravine.

Holes on the north side of the creek (1, 2, 8, 9 and 10) are relatively open. To the south, Marysville is much more wooded and tight.

The original nine at Marysville opened in 1953 as a Lions Club course. The second nine was designed by Don Childs in the 1970s. For what it’s worth, Childs is the architect of Michaywe Pines, a Gaylord area course I really enjoyed.

Aside from the trips down, and back up the ravine walls, the course is quite walkable. That’s a major bonus in my book. On the other hand, that also means that most of the holes are flat, and thus lacking in some of the interest of a more varied landscape.

A bridge at Marysville made from a box car.

A neat touch to the course was the covered bridge made from a converted box car that crossed the creek for the third and eleventh.

Another neat touch was the scorecard box near the second tee box, which is in the shape of one of the cargo ships that plies the nearby St. Clair river.

Marysville tops out at 6, 542 yards from the tips, where it plays to a 120 slope with a rating of 71.0.

Tee	Yardage	Rating	Slope
Blue	6,559	71.8	128
White	6, 242	70.5	123
Yellow	5, 094	64.8	108

An aerial view of Marysville Golf Course. The blue to the right is the St. Clair River.

Conditions on the day I played were good for a muni. Fairways were well covered, and the greens were in good shape.

Areas immediately off the fairways could have used a good trimming of trees and clearing of underbrush along the fairways. That’s especially true of the par three seventh. My ad-hoc playing partner clipped two trees trying to thread the needle between overhanging branches to the green.

One of the best features of Marysville Golf Course has nothing to do with golf: it’s the excellent BBQ shack that’s located to one side of the clubhouse. I had one of their pulled pork sandwiches at the turn; it was so good I got another to-go when I was finished.

Greens fees at Marysville make the course a really good value. With cart fees, you can play for around $30 in mid season.

Marysville Golf Course is not one you would want to take a special trip to play (although I did), but if you live in the area, it could be a regular visit.

The Marysville Golf Course Review was first published on Golfblogger.Com on November 12, 2021 from notes and photos taken on a round played in the summer of 2021. For all of GolfBlogger’s Michigan Golf Course Reviews follow the link.

A photo tour of Marysville Golf Course follows