Riverview Highlands Golf Course Review

Riverview Highlands Golf Course Review

Riverview Highlands Golf Course
Riverview, Michigan
Grade: C-
Teachers’ Comments: A decent muni with spectacular views of a landfill mountain. Bonus smells. Spotty conditions.

Once a golf-and-ski facility, Riverview Highlands currently operates as a 27 hole golf-only property. The practice facilities, and from what I could see, parts of one of the nines are located on the landfill mountain that provided the slopes for the ski area.

On my visit to Riverview Highlands, I played the Red-Blue combination. The Red nine offers a combination of open- and wooded holes. The Blue nine is mostly open, but water comes into play on seven holes. A bogey golfer should score well here, provided he plays from the correct tees. Both the Red and Blue nines are very flat.

My favorite hole on the two nines was the Blue’s par 4 eighth. A dogleg left, it has water running along the left side. The second shot is to a green that wraps left like a question mark, bounded on three sides by a creek and shored up with wood pilings (see photo at top). It is the second shot that makes this hole interesting. Depending upon the tee results, a bold player could fly a high shot into the green and try to hold it. Alternatively, the second could be played safely right, with a hoped-for pitch and putt to make par.

From the back tees, the Red-Blue combination measures 6, 486 yards and plays to a 70.7/125. The third of the four sets of tees come in at 5, 809 yards and play to a 67.5/115. It is not a particularly difficult course from any tee, although wayward balls often will get lost in woods or water.

Conditions on the day I played were what you would expect on a lower-end municipal course. Some holes were in top-notch shape. Others had large dead and rotting areas and untended sand traps.

The trash mountain, known as Mt. Trashmore when it was a ski resort, was always in sight during my round. It was not obtrusive, but it was there. When the wind was right, I also caught a whiff or two of some unpleasant smells. But then again, that may also have been from the marsh and water around the course.

According to the city of Riverview, landfill gasses collected on Mt. Trashmore power 3, 700 homes.

For all that, Riverview Highlands offers a good bargain. The weekday rate is $23 for 18 walking, while weekends are just $26.  Carts are an additional $16. Walk. It is a basically flat course, and tees follow closely on the greens.

The Riverview Highlands Golf Course Review was first published July 19, 2017.

More photos of Riverview Highlands follow.