Playing Flint Golf Club and Milham Park

This past week, I added two new courses to my collection of nearly 300 courses played in Michigan: Flint Golf Club and Milham Park.

Flint Golf Club (pictured above) is a Willie Parks, Jr. design dating to 1918. It is a classic parklands design routed in an inner and outer circle. The inner circle is the first nine, with each tee box to the left of the previous green. The “back nine” is the outer ring, with each tee box just to the right of the previous green. It is really quite clever.

Fans of classic golf course design will love Flint Golf Club. Open front greens permit a variety of approach shots, but sloping green sides — usually guarded by bunkers — will punish misses left, right and long. The fairways are welcoming off the tee, but fairway bunkers are strategically placed to pinch the sides.

Conditions were what you would expect from a private country club.

Milham Park is one of Kalamazoo’s municipal courses.

The first nine at Milham Park were built in 1931. The remainder were built as part of the Depression Era Works Progress Administration in 1936.

I haven’t been able to find any information about its architect. The routing is a bit confusing at several points, but takes good advantage of the oft-hilly terrain.

I enjoyed the course design, but the conditions were not great. To be fair, it looks as though they had aerated the fairways in recent weeks, but there were more than a few areas for which that would not be a sufficient excuse. Two entire fairways were basically bereft of grass.

The price was right, though.

Milham Park has one of the best-stocked green grass pro shops I have seen in recent years.

I’ll have complete reviews later.