Mill Race Golf Course Review

Mill Race Golf Course Review

Mill Race Golf Course
Jonesville, Michigan
Grade: C-
Teacher’s Comments: Great design sullied by poor conditions.

There was a theme running through many of the courses I played in the suåmmer of 2023: interesting layouts laid low by poor conditions. Mill Race is among those.

A 1973 Arthur Hills design, Mill Race is located in Jonesville, in Hillsdale County. It is a nine hole course with a par of 35 that has a lot of really interesting holes.

Mill Race is a woods and parklands course routed across a hilly tract of land. At the risk of repeating a cliche, it has an Up North Michigan vibe, right down to the (perhaps overused, architecturally speaking) sharply downhill par 3.

It also has the mosquitos that often plague Northern Michigan. Those likely come from the stream and mill pond adjacent to the course, but which does not come into play. Indeed, you can only see the stream from a couple of holes.

Arthur Hills’ routing incorporated the landscape’s elevation changes to include both sweeping vistas and blind tee shots. The first, fifth, sixth and ninth have some great downhill tee shots. The third and eighth leave a player largely blind off the tee.

There is a lot of course here packed into a fairly small space. The fairways are fairly wide and give a sense of being larger than they objectively are. While the holes are not isolated as with an Up North course, only two actually run parallel.

My favorite hole was the par five first. It’s a great opening hole, with an epic feel.

Beginning from the top of a hill, the fairways dives down, then up through a double dogleg that ends with a green set in a grove of trees. The twisting, tilting fairway no doubt rewards repeated play, as regulars will learn where to place the ball to ensure that the next shot is neither stymied nor on a sidehill lie.

From the back tees, Mill Race comes in at a more than respectable 3, 367 yards. The course is not a pushover. Because of all the elevation changes and tilting fairways, it will be a challenge on first play.

Tees	Yardage	Slope	Rating
Blue	3, 367 (6, 734)	119	71.1
White	3, 008 (6, 016)	117	68.7
Red	2, 240 (4, 480)	101	64.1

Unfortunately, conditions on the day I played were not good. There were pock- marked fairways, damaged greens and beat up tee boxes. In a few places just off the fairway, I was hitting off hardpan and gravel. I’m no agronomist, but it strikes me that some of those fairways and greens just weren’t getting enough sunlight with all the trees around.

The course deserves better. I hope that someone can comment and tell me that I just encountered it on a bad week and that it usually is in much better shape.

If the conditions were better, this course would get a much better grade.

The Mill Race golf course review was first published February 1, 2024 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 Mill Race follows: