Wheatfield Valley Golf Course Review

Wheatfield Valley Golf Course Review: The first hole.
The first at Wheatfield Valley is a 467 yard par 5.

Wheatfield Valley Golf Course Review

Wheatfield Valley Golf Course
Grade: C
Teachers’ Comments: Short, flat and open

Wheatfield Valley falls into the category of “pleasant small town courses,” the likes of which you can find in literally hundreds of hamlets across the Mitten State. In this case, the town is Williamston (population 3, 800), located about twenty miles from Lansing.

The course is aptly named, for it was built on former farmers’ fields. In fact, I’ll coin a term here: Along with linksland, parklands, and woodlands courses, there is a distinct species called “farmlands.” There are a lot of those in Michigan. It’s not a derogatory term, though, any more than it is to note that The Old Course was once a sheep pasture.

Wheatfield Valley Golf Course Review The twelfth hole.
Wheatfield Valley’s twelfth is a 414 yard par 4.

As a farmlands course, Wheatfield Valley is mostly open, and mostly flat, with light woods on its perimeter that in its agricultural heyday might have served as windbreaks or boundary lines.

Wheatfield Valley Golf Course Review Aerial view
The “valley” in Wheatfield Valley is in the square block in the upper left corner, separated from the two holes in the center by a tree break.

The “Valley” is a low area on the back left (southeast) end of the property, abutting I-96. Half the course’s holes are routed through those lowlands, with four (two, eight, thirteen and sixteen) taking advantage of the one-to-one-and-a-half club elevation change.

Wheatfield Valley Golf Course Review The eighth hole
The eighth at Wheatfield Valley is a 311 yard par 4.

Wheatfield Valley is a relatively short par 70. From the tips, it measures just 5, 726 yards, with a slope of 117 and a rating of 67. In truth, it’s more like a par 69, because the par 4 eighteenth tips out at just 201 yards. The longest hole is the 506 yard par 5 seventeenth.

Struggling putters will love Wheatfield Valley’s greens, because they are mostly flat. Short hitters will also love this courses. If you’re a long hitter, think of Wheatfield Valley as an opportunity to practice hybrids and irons off the tee.

My favorite hole at Wheatfield Valley was the downhill, dogleg right par 4 thirteenth. Measuring 360 from the back tees, the thirteenth starts from an elevated tee. A good shot is straight out to the left side of the fairway, playing wide of the trees on the right. There’s a bunker out there to threaten a shot that carries too far, so pick your distance carefully. The second shot is into a relatively deep and flat green. Land your shot on the front and let it carry to the hole.

Conditions on the day I played were decent. No one will ever mistake Wheatfield Valley for a country club, but for a neighborhood course it was adequate.

Michiganders are lucky to have so many course operators bringing golf to every corner of the Mitten State.

The Wheatfield Valley golf course review was first published on GolfBlogger.Com from notes and photos taken on a round played July 14, 2020. For more Michigan Golf Course reviews, visit the link.

A photo tour of Wheatfield Valley follows:

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