Tullymore Golf Club
Stanwood, Michigan

A trip to Tullymore is not so much a round of golf as an exploration. Carved from western Michigan pine and hardwood forests, and passing through wide expanses of marshland, it exudes a sense of adventure. And Jim Engh’s design offers so many options—so many approaches—that even those who play there on a regular basis must surely make new discoveries each time out.

Tullymore has drawn rave review from golf writers, and Golf Digest has ranked it as the number 14 public course in the country. My experiene with top 20 golf courses is limited to just one other (#18 Forest Dunes), but I have no trouble imagining that Tullymore deserves its place on the list.

I also have a hard time imagining just how special some of the others must be.

Forest Akers Golf Course Review
Overall Grade: A
Value: A ($40, depending upon time and day of the week)
Walkability: A
Course Conditions: A+
Course Design: A
Practice Facility: ?
Food:?
Teacher’s Comments: A great course.

A graduate of the University of Michigan, I ventured into enemy territory this past summer, traveling to East Lansing to play Michigan State’s renowned Forest Akers East golf course.

It was worth the trip. Forest Akers is a delightful course that meanders through a working arboretum, offering a nice variety of holes, and impeccable grooming.

The Forest Akers course was built in 1958 on land donated to the University by Mr. Forest Akers. In his gift, he specified that in addition to a golf course, the land also should be preserved as an arboretum.

It was a wonderful idea that gives the course a unique character. The variety of trees on the course here simply is stunning (my only complaint might be that there were not plaques on or near the trees telling me what they all were).

The original course design was done by Bruce Matthews. It was rerouted and reworked in 1992 by Michigan State alumnus Arthur Hills.

One of the things I liked most about the course is that it is accessible to players of all skill levels. Afraid that it would prove as difficult as the University of Michigan’s, I played from the whites and shot one of the better scores of my summer.

That doesn’t mean that Forest Akers is easy. Off the tee, the careless player will fall into well placed traps and find himself out of position. Heroic shots sometimes are required. I felt challenged, but never overmatched.

The course is walkable, but you need to be in relatively good shape. Distances from green to the next tee are not long, but there are some elevation changes that may leave you huffing.

My favorite hole was the par 4 fifth. Measuring 340 yards, it’s a downhill dogleg left, with some tall trees on the inside corner. It offers the temptation of cutting the corner to get within a wedge of the green, or playing the safe shot to the outside, leaving a much longer approach.

I, of course, chose the safe option, hit a high fade instead, cleared the trees and miracalously found myself a sand wedge from the green.

Another fun hole is the 422 yard, par 4 eighteenth. Also a dogleg, it has a narrow fairway set on a ridge. The inside is guarded by bunkers, prairie grass and further down, a swamp. From the bend, a player must hit a long high shot ( I used a seven wood), over a gulley to a green perched on a hill. Steep bunkers guard the front of the green.

I could go on. There are another half dozen holes that I clearly remember providing interesting challenges.

Grooming at Forest Akers was impeccable, as befits the home course of a University nationally recognized for its turfgrass and agriculture programs. I saw just one green with a significant blemish, and that was in a spot that—because of the location of the trees—had shade issues.

This is a course that any resident of the state—and any visitors to the area—should seek out. I plan to return next summer.

But this time I’ll remember to wear green.

You can see more photos in a tour of Forest Akers West here.

Arbor Hills Golf Club Review

Overall Grade: A
Value: A+ ($20 with cart)
Walkability: A+
Course Conditions: A
Course Design: B (short, but interesting)
Practice Facility: C
Food: C nothing fancy.
Teacher’s Comments: Fun. I can’t wait to go back.

There is an ethereal feeling of sadness at Arbor Hills Country Club. Once an exclusive retreat in Jackson, Michigan, it has in the last year opened to public play, having apparently fallen victim to the state’s general economic malaise. Where once there was a pool full of laughing children, there now is an empty concrete hole. A fine snack bar/halfway house sits at the far end of the course, unmanned where once it would have provided employment to local teens. I was told that in recent memory Arbor Hills had a strong caddy program. No more.

None of this, however, affects the quality of the golf. Arbor Hills is a well-maintained gem for those who, like me, appreciate a classic parkland golf course. Built in 1925, it was designed by Arthur Hamm, who has been described as a protege of Donald Ross. Arbor Hills certainly has the tricky small greens, the bunkering and the strategy that you might expect of that vintage.

Not surprisingly, Arbor Hills is relatively short (6,239 yards) and tight. There’s no room to pull tee boxes back by thirty yards to accommodate new equipment. But thanks to old growth trees many of the lining the fairways, the course’s tightness makes up for it. If you’re wild off the tee, you will waste a lot of shots trying to get back into position.

Arbor Hills may have fallen on hard times, but management has not cut corners on course maintenance. Tee boxes, fairways, greens and bunkers all were in very good shape on the hot summer day I visited. That the course has had ninety years to mature probably makes it a lot easier to deal with.

My favorite hole at Arbor Hills was the par five 6th. Measuring 477 yards, it’s a double dogleg that begins by angling left from the tee, over a stream. From about three hundred out, it cuts back right, before heading back left again. The green is elevated, huge and cut into a hillside. The size of the green is a real bonus. I was able, with a terrific drive and a monumental wallop with a three wood to get to the green in two. But that three wood was a low screamer; a smaller green, and I would have skipped off the back.

Another hole of note is the devilish little 148 yard par 3 thirteenth. That unlucky number has a blind tee shot. From the box, the shot must carry uphill to the green, which is sits far enough back on the plateau to escape positive identification. You can see the top of the flagstick, but unless you know the course well, that won’t tell you much. I aimed for the stick, was off line left and ended up with a positive result.

An interesting visual touch on the course are a series of low rock walls in the spaces between fairways, constructed, no doubt, from material removed during course construction. The course also has a picaresque series of bridges on holes four, five and six, on which a stream and marsh come into play.

I had the course entirely to myself on a Thursday morning. That’s too bad. Arbor Hills is a wonderful cgolf course, especially for the bogey golfer who hits it straight, but not far. It deserves more players (especially at the price), and I hope it gets enough to maintain the quality grooming. 

Sandy Creek Golf Course
Monroe, Michigan

Overall Grade: B
Value: C+ ($34 with cart!)
Walkability: A+
Course Conditions: B+
Course Design: B
Practice Facility: C
Food: C nothing fancy.
Teacher’s Comments: Fun. I’d go back.

Sandy Creek is a very pleasant course just off the beaten track near Monroe, Michigan. Like so many Southeastern Michigan courses, it offers good conditions, a reasonable challenge and decent prices.

From a design point of view, Sandy Creek has a number of challenging holes. The ninth and tenth, in particular are doglegs that require precise tees shots. Water is present on eleven holes, often in the form of a creek crossing the fairway at a critical juncture. That makes distance control off the tee an important issue. I also liked the fact that it finishes with a strong par 5.  The course has a nice mix of doglegs, straightaways, target and muscle holes.

My favorite hole was the par five third. It’s framed very nicely with trees on both sides, and has just enough of a bend to make the proper placement of the tee shot useful but not critical. I enjoy par 5s because they allow me to play my favorite club—a TaylorMade TP 3 Wood—off the deck, and because they often offer me my best chance at a birdie (or better). I’m good with that three wood.

Course conditions on the day I visited were terrific. The local guy I played with told me that the course originally was a sod farm, and that the owners maintain operations nearby. If so, it shows. Fairways were lush, as were the greens, with none of the typical late summer brown spots. The rough was dry in many places, but that’s to be expected. With all of the water in the area, I was surprised to find very few damp spots on the fairway. The drainage systems must be very good.

Another great feature: this course is exceedingly walkable. Tees follow closely on greens, and it’s absolutely flat. It’s one of the few courses I’ve seen where walkers outnumbered cart riders. Ahead of my group were two foursomes of ladies-of-a-certain-age, all walking, and moving on at a fine clip.

The owners of Sandy Creek also deserve props for running what appears to be a very nice junior program. One of my playing partners actually was waiting for his sons to finish their juniors group lesson, following which the large group of kids went out to play nine holes. 

There’s an awful lot to like about Sandy Creek. Although it’s about 45 minutes from GolfBlogger World Headquarters, it’s a course I intend to visit again soon.

You can see more photos here.

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.