When the Golfblogger reviews a course, it’s always with an eye to the bargain: a fun design, with playable conditions at a reasonable price. The course I play most frequently is a mere $15 a round. For that, I get greens in great condition, fairways of well-mowed clover and something resembling grass—but no dirt spots—and the necessity of using most of the clubs in my bag. Most importantly, it’s fun. 

A golf course that does all that gets a good grade on my scale.

There are, however, golf courses that fall so far outside those parameters that no review can be offered—only an appreciation.

Forest Dunes is one of those. There’s a reason it’s in GOlf Digest’s list of the top 20 public courses.

Located in Roscommon, Michigan—the middle of nowhere, really—Forest Dunes is an other worldly experience. Cut through sandy pine barrens, I think that it must offer the general public a glimpse of America’s most celebrated of courses, Pine Valley.

There’s not a single bad hole on this Tom Weiskopf design. Every one offers options for angles and club choices. Studying the yardage book is a must.

That’s not to say that Forest Dunes is difficult. There’s no doubt that it can be, but the judicious placement of tee boxes makes it accessable for all skill levels—so long as you play to your actual handicap. As Dirty Harry Callahan once said “A man’s got to know his limitations.”

There are four sets of tees, ranging from 7,141 to 5,032 yards. The course rating is 74.8, with a slope of 142 from the longest tees, and 72.3/137 from the “blues.” (They’re actually labeled as I through IV). At it’s shortest, the course is a 69.8/128. There also apparently is a set of “junior” tees, where the course measures just 3,000 yards.

I played the blues, and thought it challenging, without being overwhelming. I shot a 95, which I think is not bad—maybe even excellent—for a first playing. There are just so many things to think about on this course.

Forest Dunes’ scenery is wonderful. Whether running through a pine forest, through sandy dunes or along a marsh, each hole was both different and memorable. And yet, as carefully crafted as the layout is, there’s still a raw, wild feeling to it. The front nine is cut through a pine forest, while the back nine opens up, with more dunes, marshes and waste areas.

I’d like to describe my favorite hole, but I can’t. Each is worth playing over and again.

And here’s a first for a new “destination” course: it’s eminently walkable—so much so that I wonder why anyone without a mobility handicap would ever consider a cart. I played in long pants, and never broke a sweat.

Course conditions were absolutely immaculate. The fairways are like carpets (another reason to walk—your feet will never light upon such soft grass), the greens perfect, the sand fluffy. Even the waste areas seem to have been weeded and groomed.

The only downside is the price: at $150 a round, I really can’t justify ever playing it again.

But maybe I will. It’s that good.

Visit the gallery for a photo tour of the course.

Historic Rackham Golf Course will remain a publicly owned track, according the the unanimous decision of an appeals court panel.

The city of Detroit had threatened to sell the Donald Ross design to developers, while rejecting a purchase by the adjacent city of Huntington Woods.

A three judge panel said that “Unambiguous language and the clearly stated intent” in the Rackham family deed said that the land could only be used as a public golf course. They also said that Detroit may only sell the property “to another public entity and not to a private entity,” even if the private buyer promises to keep it as a public golf course.

Developers Premium Golf, LLC had offered $6 million for the course in 2006. Huntington Woods had at one time tendered an offer of $5 million, with the intent of keeping Rackham as a publicly owned course.

The course was donated to the city of Detroit in 1926 by Horace and Mary Rackham, who had made a fortune in the early days of the auto industry. Their intent was to offer average citizens facilities similar to those of area private clubs. In addition to the Donald Ross design, the course also features an architecturally significant clubhouse.

Rackham also has historical significance to the African American community, which makes the city’s decision to sell even more mysterious. It was one of the few courses in the area that allowed African Americans to play. Joe Louis was a regular. And the course’s PGA pro, Ben Davis—now 96—was probably the first African American pro in the country.

The course was meant to be a public course in perpetuity. It’s sad that it took an appeals court to make Detroit’s leaders do the right thing.

But then, as we all know, Detroit’s Mayor and City Council have a hard time doing the right thing about anything.

This year’s PGA Championship is at Oakland Hills, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. It’s an exclusive club and the closest most of us will get is with a ticket to an event.

Fortunately, there are several other Donald Ross courses you can play in Southeastern Michigan and the Detroit Area. A major golf publication recently reported that there is just one Donald Ross course open to the public in the Detroit Area. They’re wrong. There are, in fact, four. They include:

Rackham Golf Course I played this one about ten years ago, and it was a lot of fun. Some of the holes run right next to the adjacent Detroit Zoo, and I heard the lions while playing through. It’s probably the best of the bunch (although I haven’t tried Rogell, below).

Rogell Golf Course This course recently was bought and renovated by Greater Grace Temple, making it one of the few African American - owned courses in the country. I play to play before the summer is out.

Warren ValleyI played this a couple of times (before I started GolfBlogger, so there are no photos), and it was never in great condition, but it was a decent course.

Hawthorne Valley Hawthorne Valley is but a shadow of its former self, having been cut up by developers. Only nine holes remain.

So if you’re traveling to see the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills, you can still get a taste of Donald Ross in Michigan.

A side note to major golf publications: If you’re going to write about an area’s golf courses, hire someone with local knowledge, not some stiff who gets his information from a Zagat’s guide. I’m available.

The moronic City Council and Mayor of Detroit intend to sell the city’s Rackham Golf Course to developers. The City of Huntington Woods, which lies adjacent to the course, correctly wants to preserve the historic course.

They’re in court now.

The course was built in 1924 by Horace and Mary Rackham and given to the City of Detroit with the understanding that it remain a golf course. The track was designed by none other than the legendary Donald Ross. The course is historically important—not only for the designer—but because it was one of the few open to African American golfers. Joe Louis, and various Motown stars were regulars here. Rackham Pro Ben Davis was one of the first African American teaching pros in the country. Davis, who is now in his mid-90s, still plays there twice a week when weather permits.

Read this previous GolfBlogger article on Rackam. The photo is from the Flickr collection here.

Chicago Sun Times writer Len Ziehm raves about Michigan golf:

I know it seems hard to believe: Michigan, with a golf season even shorter than Chicago’s, is the golfing hotbed of the Midwest.

And there are some, myself included, who consider Michigan the golfing mecca of the entire United States.

Michigan boasts 1,038 courses, and more than 850 of them are open to the public. By comparison, the Chicago District Golf Association lists about 360 courses, public and private, in its 2008 membership. And some of those are in Indiana, Wisconsin and—you guessed it—Michigan.

Golf Digest magazine, in its annual ranking of America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses, recognized nine Michigan courses: Arcadia Bluffs (ranked 10th), Tullymore (14th), Forest Dunes (20th), Bay Harbor (23rd), Black Lake (35th), Shepherd’s Hollow (37th), Red Hawk (40th), Lakewood Shores (54th) and Eagle Eye (81st).

Only Florida and California have more places to golf than Michigan, and no state has more public or resort courses. Michigan has more golf courses per capita than any other state, and Golf Digest calls Michigan the 12th best golf destination in the world.

My recommendation: Head up to Gaylord, Michigan, where you can’t swing a dead rat without hitting a golf course—and nearly all of them are great courses, at bargain prices.