Nine Michigan Courses Make Golf Digest’s Top 100 Public Courses

Nine Michigan Golf Courses Make Golf Digest’s Top 100 Courses

Golf Digest has released it’s biannual list of Top 100 public courses

Golf Digest. The list is below, with links to GolfBlogger’s review of each.

#14 – Arcadia Bluffs

#32 – Forest Dunes (Weiskopf)

#53 – Arcadia Bluffs South

#58 – The Loop Black

#59 – Greywalls

#69 – The Loop Red

#73 – Tullymore

#90 – The Golf Club At Harbor Shores

#98 – Belvedere

I don’t disagree that those are all really good courses, but I will quibble about the order. For example, I’d rank the Forest Dunes Weiskopf higher than Arcadia. I have long thought it is the best public course in Michigan.

I am also surprised that Belvedere 1) had not been ranked in the list before and that 2) it was not much higher on the list.

In perusing the Golf Digest list, I sensed a distinct bias in favor of resort courses. Eyeballing it, two-thirds of the 100 are more or less associated with resorts or resort areas.

It makes me wonder: Why are the clear majority of the “best courses” in resort areas?

One proposition: Resort areas are resort areas precisely because the terrain or the regional collection of courses shine. Resorts with money attract the name architects and best superintendents. One great course begets another and that begets another.

An alternative proposition: those areas have wined and dined Golf Digest voters on “FAM” trips? (FAM trips are “Familiarization Trips” where media members and golf VIPs are invited to complementary stay-and-plays.) I don’t think that FAM trips constitute bribes, but they DO tend to focus the imagination. A golf writer / course rater only has so many days in the year to play and evaluate courses. If FAM trips focus them on certain courses, they have done their job.

In the end, it might be a chicken-or-the-egg sort of question.

I’ll say this though: as a writer who seeks out less well known courses in Michigan, I am convinced that there are a great many courses that are overlooked in every state.

Of the Top 100 Public, I have played twenty two. I should work a little harder to rack up more. A bunch in the top 100 are in Wisconsin, which is just a days’ drive from GolfBlogger World HQ. A couple are also in each of Indiana and Illinois, which I also should be able to get to.

I’ve got to make plans. Here’s my list with reviews and photos at the links:

#2 – Pacific Dunes

#6 – Pinehurst No. 2

#8 – Bandon Dunes

#10 – Erin HIlls

#11 – Bandon Trails

#13 – Old Macdonald

#14 – Arcadia Bluffs

#16 – Blackwolf Run: River

#28 – Pinehurst No. 4

#32 –Forest Dunes (Weiskopf)

#34 – The Greenbrier: Old White

#35 – Torrey Pines South

#45 – Tobacco Road

#53 – Arcadia Bluffs South

#58 – The Loop Black

#59 – Greywalls

#69 – The Loop Red

#90 – Harbor Shores

#93 – The Virtues (Longaberger)

#94 – Atunyote

#98 – Belvedere

#100 – Pinehurst No. 8