October Golf At Boyne’s Arthur Hills and Forest Dunes

October Golf At Boyne’s Arthur Hills and Forest Dunes

I fulfilled a longtime dream of playing October golf in Northern Michigan this past week by visiting Boyne’s Arthur Hills course (pictured above), Forest Dunes’ Weiskopf course and Indian River Golf Club.

Getting away for a week to play golf probably doesn’t sound like a particularly big deal — but as any teacher will tell you, there really aren’t any good times to abandon classes for a week, and October is among the worst.

This year, however, I found myself joining the ranks of retired school teachers and with that the freedom to play golf whenever I like. My first taste of freedom was a trip to Cragun’s Resort in Minnesota on a week when I would have been heading back to school for “professional development” (as a side note, in thirty years of “professional development” only once did I walk away saying “I’m a better teacher now than when I entered that room.”)

The Arthur Hills course at The Highlands at Harbor Springs (Boyne’s rebranded Boyne Highlands) is an exemplar of the “Up North Michigan” golf experience. Cut through hundreds of acres of forest, each hole leaves me feeling as though I’m alone on a deserted island (and sometimes a desert Island, with the massive sand wastes on some of the holes).

And like Robinson Crusoe on his deserted island, every new opening in the woods brings a new challenge. Will it be vast sand wastes, a marsh to traverse, or a hill to climb?

This is probably Arthur Hills’ masterpiece. Every hole looks and feels significantly different. Every hole is challenging and yet somehow playable.

And in Autumn, it is stunningly beautiful. Even in his tropical paradise, Robinson Crusoe didn’t have it this good.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Forest Dunes’ Tom Weiskopf course is the best in the state.

I’ve played some three hundred Michigan courses (and reviewed 276) and I’ve yet to encounter another that leaves me with such longing after a round. Longing for another round; longing for another hole to play (it actually has nineteen and that’s not enough); longing for just one more shot. I want to hang out on the clubhouse’s expansive deck and just watch the sun go down. Or maybe try to work it out of my system on the Bootlegger short course.

What is it that creates that longing? I think it’s the clever par fours. They’re nearly all risk-reward holes, and none are terribly long. But on each one, as I walk away, I think: I could do better. I want to go back to the tee and give it another shot.

Unlike so many Up North Michigan courses, Forest Dunes is an easy walk. It’s flattish, but the shaping of the holes, the cragginess of the bunkering, the vast waste areas and occasional water make it seem anything but flat. You should walk it if you play.

Then go across the street from the clubhouse and play The Loop.

I also paid a visit to an old favorite: Indian River Golf Club.

Indian River is a course that grows on a golfer. I think that you’ll like it the first time you play, but subsequent plays are required to really start to appreciate its subtlety. In a sense, it’s a lot like my favorite course — Washtenaw Golf Club — in that the more I play, the more intriguing it gets.

Like Washtenaw, Indian River Golf Club is old. The original nine — incorporated into the current eighteen — turn 100 years old in 2024. Washtenaw turns 125.

If you play Up North and have missed Indian River, do yourself a favor and schedule a round.