White Lake Oaks Golf Course Review
White Lake Oaks
White Lake, Michigan
Grade: C+
Teacher’s Comments: A very nice muni, but very tight.
White Lake Oaks is one of five golf courses in the Oakland County Park system. The crown jewel of the system is Lyon Oaks, but there’s lots to like if White Lake Oaks is your local course.
White Lake Oaks is short (it maxes out at 5, 703 yards) and tight. The front nine is relatively open, while the back nine is more wooded. Both sides are generally flat and tees closely follow greens. There is no reason not to walk.
The course is tight enough that some of the holes need to be separated from each other — or from the road — by fencing of the sort you find in the backstops on municipal baseball fields.
White Lake Oaks is a par 70/71. The thirteenth, at 408 yards will be played as either a par 4 or a par 5. As the par implies, White Lakes Oaks is relatively short. From the back tees, White Lake Oaks stretches to 5, 703 and plays to a 67.3/108. The middle tees are in at 5, 454. The longest hole is a 481 yard par 5 (the 15th).
Mid-and-high handicappers should score well at White Lake Oaks.
My favorite hole at White Lake Oaks was the double-dogleg par five eighteenth. It’s a true three shot par five, as there is really no reasonable way to get to the green in two. The tee shot needs to swing wide enough to allow positioning the second shot at the next corner for a straight shot into the green. The trees along the edges are high enough, and close enough to the insides of the bends to prevent attempts to cut the corner.
This is a par five that calls for precision, not power.
Conditions on the day I played were what you would expect from a well-trafficked muni. The greens were in good, but not great condition and the fairways completely grown in, if not always with grass. The only real blemishes were some swampy areas — a few of which were roped off.
I will note that the staff at White Lake Oaks was extraordinarily friendly. I was sent off the back by myself, so I could avoid being caught behind a bunch of early morning foursomes. Then, as I made the turn, the starter noticed that my push cart’s wheels were clogged up with early morning grass clippings. He invited me to the back of the cart shack where I could use an air hose to blow the clippings off. I air-hosed it down again after the round was over.
In all, it was a good experience.
The White Lake Oaks Golf Course Review was first published January 16, 2019 from notes and photos taken on a round on June 26, 2018.
A photo tour of White Lake Oaks follows.
The first at White Lake Oaks is a 339 yard par 4. 
The second at White Lake Oaks is a 384 yard par 4. 
White Lake Oaks’ third is a 280 yard par 4. 
The fourth at White Lake Oaks is a 172 yard par 3. 
The fifth at White Lake Oaks is a 315 yard par 4. The sixth at White Lake Oaks is a 471 yard par 5. 
A view of the sixth green from the fairway. The seventh at White Lake Oaks is a 353 yard par 4. 
White Lake Oaks’ eighth is a 156 yard par 3. 
The ninth at White Lake Oaks is a 386 yard par 4. 
The tenth at White Lake Oaks is a 323 yard par 4. 
Eleven at White Lake Oaks is a 202 yard par 3. 
The twelfth at White Lake Oaks is a 290 yard par 4. 
Thirteen at White Lake Oaks is a 408 yard par 4. 
The fourteenth at White Lake Oaks is a 142 yard par 3. 
The fifteenth at White Lake Oaks is a 481 yard par 5. 
A view from the fairway on White Lake Oaks’ fifteenth 
The sixteenth at White Lake Oaks is a 172 yard par 3. 
White Lake Oaks’ seventeenth is a 392 ypard par 4. The eighteenth at White Lake Oaks is a 437 yard par 5.
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