Sharf Golf Course Review

R&S Sharf Golf Course Review

R&S Sharf Golf Course
Grade: A
Teacher’s Comments: An upscale course with Up North vibes.

R&S Sharf is one of two courses at Oakland University in Rochester Hills, Michigan. The other, which is adjacent, is Katke-Cousins.

The two courses — indeed the entire University — are built on the estate of Matilda Dodge Wilson and her second husband, Alfred Wilson. Matilda Dodge was the widow of auto pioneer John Dodge. Wilson was a timber baron.

But enough of the history lesson.

Rick Smith is listed as Sharf’s “designer,” but Warren Henderson is listed as its architect. The course opened in 2000.

Sharf has a distinct “Up North Michigan” vibe. Indeed, it you picked it up and dropped it into one of the Gaylord or Boyne resorts, Sharf would fit fight in.

I played the course in a shotgun outing , so I did not get a sense of how the course unfolds from the first to the eighteenth, but in general Sharf gets more wooded the further one plays from the clubhouse. Many of the holes have that splendid sense of tree-lined isolation that characterize so many Northern Michigan designs.

Meaningful elevation changes are present on nearly every hole. The first is relatively flat — and somewhat disappointing — but from there, the land rises and falls.

With the routing, there are more downhill than uphill shots. With that, there is just one hole — the ninth — where the tee shot could be considered “blind.”

A couple of the downhill shots, such as the thirteenth, are wild rides.

The good news is that for all the wooded edges, the fairways at Sharf are wide, with plenty of room for slices and other wayward shots. That doesn’t mean that your second shot from the fairway or primary rough will be one you love. It does, however mean that you have a chance.

With a couple of exceptions — the 10th and 16th come to mind — there is no water to threaten your scores. Numerous, often large fairway bunkers, however, will. Ten has one right in the middle of the fairway.

My favorite hole was the short 308 yard par 4 twelfth.

From the tee, the hole presents an intimidating view that suggests a large expanse of marsh must be flown to reach the green.

In actuality, the marsh runs down a portion of the left side, with fairway on the right that’s just an iron shot away. Moreover, what looks like a green behind two bunkers is actually more fairway. The green is slightly below and to the right of the visual crestline.

Finally, while a fairway can be seen on the right, the illusory nature of the design suggests that it is too narrow for a play. It is not.

The fairiway becomes more apparent as one moves up from tee box to tee box, until in the most forward position, the marsh is really out of play.

With all of the visual trickery, the hole still presents a basic choice: How much of the marsh do you dare challenge?

Big hitters can try to fly a ball down the left side, over the left bunker. Struck well, there’s a possibly that ball will end up on the green. The rest of us can aim right at various angles to reach safety.

For sheer fun, though, it is hard to top the par 4 thirteenth (photo above). It has a dizzying downhill shot to a wide fairway. This is a hole to just grip it and rip it.

The sixth isi another of those downhill runs.

From the back tees, Sharf is a par 72 plays to 7, 103 yards, a 74.6 rating and a 144 slope. That’s a tough course. Fortunately, there are a lot of tee options:

Tee	Yardage	Rating	Slope
Rick Smith	7, 103	74.6	144
Grizzlies	6, 683	72.5	141
Bear	6, 328	71.3	135
Champion	6, 059	70.3	130
Cub	5, 518	67.5	123
Competition	5, 163	65.9	118
Bear (Ladies)	6, 328	77.4	141
Champion (Ladies)	6, 059	75.8	136
Cub (Ladies)	5, 518	73.1	130
Competition (Ladies)	5, 163	70.9	125

Conditions on the day I played were excellent. Everything was country club level.

Sharf is a very pretty course and with its wooded setting is a nice place to get away from it all. The “outside” world only intrudes a couple of times throughout the round.

Rates for non students or faculty (it is, after all, a University course) in 2023 were $130 on the weekdays and $135 weekends including cart. That’s well out of my everyday golf budget, but I don’t think is too unreasonable, all things considered.

The Shaft golf course review was first published on GolfBlogger.Com on December 14, 2023 from notes and photos taken on a round played in the spring of 2023. For all of GolfBlogger’s Michigan Golf Course Reviews, follow the link.

A photo tour of the Sharf golf course is below: