The Cardinal Golf Course Review

The Cardinal Golf Course Review

The Cardinal at St. John’s Resort
Grade: A
Teacher’s Comments: Comfort food for the golfer’s soul on the grounds of a former Catholic seminary.

The Cardinal at St. John’s Resort, which opened in 2024, is the first new golf course built southeast Michigan in many, many years.

If the name sounds a bit familiar, that’s because The Cardinal is built on the bones of the three old nines at St. John’s seminary, which were named Matthew, Mark and Luke. St. John’s Provincial Seminary, which became the “Inn at St. John’s” now is “St. John’s Resort” and the course now is “The Cardinal.”

It is worth noting that profits from the facility — which includes a hotel, ballrooms, pavilions, pub, wine bar, short course and putting couse — go to support the Pulte Family Charitable Foundation.

While some of the original playing “corridors” remain, and regulars to those old nines will recognize various landforms, The Cardinal is very much a new design. Architect Ray Hearn blew up the old nines, and then routed a new course across the property’s glacial landforms.

The result is both interesting and unforced. The sense is that Hearn “found” the holes, and in doing so, found the fun.

Thankfully, Hearn rejected the current vogue of treeless links for this course. As with its predecessor nines, it is a parklands course that in places edges to woodlands. As such, it is a bit of Zion in an increasingly busy corner of Metro Detroit.

That said, I’m sure Hearn removed a bunch of trees, for the fairways are wide and the greens approachable. I didn’t lose a single ball to the trees, and for me, that’s saying something.

While The Cardinal is relaxing, it is not easy, for there clearly are better places to be than others. I’ve been fortunate to play it three times since it opened (a media day, a comp’ed round and an outing) and think I am just beginning to figure out where the better places are.

That’s the sign of a very good course, I think. One could play this course on a regular basis, discovering something new every time.

From the tips, The Cardinal maxes out at 7, 200 yards, playing to a 73.3/137.

Tees	Yardage	Slope	Rating
Black	7, 200	137	73.3
Cardinal	6, 528	131	71.9
White	6, 112	128	68.9
Gold Men’s	5, 461	118	65.9
Gold Women’s	5, 461	126	71.5
Green Men’s	4, 758	110	64.2
Green Women’s	4, 758	115	66.3

From the appropriate tees, a bogey golfer should have a fun and relaxing , stress free day at The Cardinal.

My favorite hole was the par five fifth. It begins with a tee shot over a pond, bends right, then left, crosses a small stream and ends on a bit of a peninsular green.

The cleverness of this hole’s design begins with the tee boxes, which wrap around the pond. From the back tees, a player is required to carry a large chunk of pond, which at the very least looks intimidating. As the tees move up, they also slide to the left, each one not only shortening the hole, but also biting off successively smaller portions of the pond.

The middle section of the fairway tilts right to left, with a marsh on the left, and a bunker on the right.

On the second shot, a stream ahead of the green comes into play. While not wide, the stream seems perfectly placed to catch a ball on the roll. On each of my three plays of The Cardinal, at least one of my playing partners ended up in the drink.

Given the stream’s presence, players often will be forced to lay up, or attempt a longer than prudent shot. The danger of a longer shot is that it drifts into a pond right of the green, onto a hillside left, or into a large bunker at the rear. Because the green is raised, a ball is unlikely to land short and roll up.

The bunker at first glance is a good option, but it turns out that the green slopes away and will carry a ball away.

There’s a lot to think about on this hole.

Another hole I really enjoyed was the sixth, which feels a bit like a stadium hole. The left side follows a ridge, while the right is constrained by a dense treeline.

The church pew bunkers on The Cardinal’s ninth hole.

I also appreciated Hean’s nod to Oakmont’s church pew bunkers on the ninth. The hole is a short par four that has a bit of risk-reward. Playing safely left of the bunkers will produce a longer shot; a player can take on the bunkers for a pitch into the green and a chance at a nice birdie.

I like short par fours, and another that I really enjoyed at The Cardinal was the seventeenth. This hole has a line of trees down the right side, and turns that direction as it approaches the green. A bunker threatens the turns right as it approaches the green, with a bunker threatening the left side.

The greens at The Cardinal are all what I think of as resort greens. They tend to be expansive, and they’re not going to beat you up for lack of local knowledge. Players skilled at reading greens should be able to score.

Conditions on the day I played were outstanding — especially considering that The Cardinal was effectively in its first season of grow-in. I’ve played several courses in their first season, and they invariably have areas of sparse growth. Not so the Cardinal. The care throughout bodes well for future play. Their stated intent is to maintain a private club feel.

The Cardinal has a nice halfway house at a juncture between the eighth green and ninth tee and the tenth green and eleventh tee. The grounds around the house include a carved cardinal tree and a meditation garden.

The Cardinal bills itself as an upscale golf property, and charges prices to match. A such, though, players will get the sort of experience normally associated with private clubs and resorts. There were helpful parking lot attendants to load and unload my bag, a dedicated starter who carefully went through a lot of course information and friendly rangers to help out on course.

One of the rangers I encountered actually turned out to be a member of the Pulte family.

After the round, players could perhaps enjoy a wind-down on the Little Cardinal, a fun short course adjacent to the Cardinal; an hour or so on the two acre putting course; or just hang out in the Irish style pub.

If you’re looking for a special round — a special day — in Southeast Michigan, The Cardinal should be a course you consider.

The Cardinal Golf Course review was first published December 26, 2024 from notes and photos taken during rounds played in the 2024 golf season. For more of GolfBlogger’s golf course reviews, follow the link.

A photo tour of The Cardinal Follows: