TRAVERSE CITY, MICH.
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Can a course ranked this high be a sleeper? The Bluffs Course at Arcadia Bluffs has been overshadowed by Pacific Dunes ever since it finished second to it in the Best New Upscale Public Course race of 2001. And likewise, it’s been second-fiddle to Crystal Downs, a northern Michigan neighbor that every visitor wants to play, even though it’s private, and Arcadia is public. And even by Whistling Straits, the imitation links on the opposite side of Lake Michigan that Arcadia Bluffs resembles, although the sand dunes at Arcadia are natural, not manmade. More recently, the Bluffs faces competition from within, the newly opened sister layout, the South Course at Arcadia Bluffs, designed by Dana Fry in the style of C.B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor.
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Previous rank: 6
From Golf Digest Architecture Editor emeritus Ron Whitten:
The Tom Weiskopf-designed Forest Dunes in Michigan is a terrific layout on a terrific piece of property, with sand dunes deposited by the nearby Au Sable River and covered with mature pines.
But it’s not a unique piece of property. When I first played it, I was struck by how much Forest Dunes resembles a Texas course designed by Weiskopf’s former partner, Jay Morrish. That course, Pine Dunes in Frankston, Texas, is built on much the same terrain, sand dunes covered in pines. Though they were working at the same time on their respective projects (Forest Dunes was completed in 2000 but didn’t open until 2002; Pine Dunes opened in 2001), I don’t think Weiskopf or Morrish had any idea that they were working on such similar courses, and I don’t think they stole each other’s ideas. But it’s uncanny how they created kissing-cousin courses. Or maybe not. The two worked together for over a decade before splitting up in 1996, and they shared a common philosophy of course design.
Both courses have split personalities, with portions that look like Augusta National—lots of grass, trees, pine needles and gleaming white sand bunkers—and other portions that look like Pine Valley—rugged holes edged by roughs of brownish native sand and scruffy underbrush. Each have one long par 4 (the second at Forest Dunes, the fourth at Pine Dunes) that curves to the left through trees, has no fairway bunkers but has one big bunker at the left front of the green. Both have par-3 16th holes that play over wasteland to an angled green with bunkers right and left. Both courses have very similar drive-and-pitch par 4s.
Explore our complete review here—including bonus photography and ratings from our expert panelists.
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The Red Course is the counterclockwise routing of The Loop, and as the name suggests, both it and the Black Course play out to ninth holes at a far corner of the property, then back in. What’s most impressive in playing the Red (and the Black, for that matter) is that there is never the sensation of playing a hole backward. The topography, bunkering and green entrances are all so compelling that it’s barely noticeable that each serves two purposes. The Loop is part of the Forest Dunes resort, which also contains Forest Dunes (No. 37 on 100 Greatest Public), a fine Tom Weiskopf design.
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One of three grand “new Pebble Beaches” that debuted in the late 1990s, Bay Harbor was ranked third in Golf Digest’s survey of Best New Upscale Public Courses of 1999, behind the twin juggernauts Bandon Dunes and Whistling Straits. Bay Harbor consists of 27 holes, but we rank its Links 9, which plays mostly on a plateau overlooking Lake Michigan, and its Quarry 9, which dips in and out of a lakefront stone quarry.Though there isn’t lodging directly at Bay Harbor, the Inn at Bay Harbor is an upscale option part of the Autograph Collection right down the road. And eight-person cottages with stay-and-play deals are also available at nearby Crooked Tree.
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William Watson, whose career began in Minnesota building courses such as Minikahda and Interlachen before moving on to work in California, designed Belvedere in the mid-1920s. Recently, it’s been under the stewardship of architect Bruce Hepner, who has kept the layout sharp and pure. It’s a graceful example of a design that reacts to the land with fairways that flow over links-like ripples and greens sited on natural landforms and benched into slopes. The putting contours are from another era, full of dimples, knobs, swales and bubbles that enliven short game intrigue—chips and putts demand as much attention and creativity as full shots, the sign of great architecture. Belvedere is a private course that welcomes outside play, and it can be walked in the early season for as little as $62.
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The Arthur Hills course may be the most player-friendly of the four layouts at The Highlands, with forgiving fairways and large greens. That said, there are some demanding shots, including the approaches to several small, elevated greens. There are plenty of elevation changes, including some dramatic downhill tee shots, which offer beautiful vistas of the northern Michigan landscape.
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Treetops Resort’s Signature course was Rick Smith’s first 18-hole design. Prior to laying out the course, Smith took a month-long trip to Ireland and Scotland to study the historic tracks. The resulting Signature course has narrow fairways and challenging greens that are considered the most undulating at Treetops Resort, which has 81 holes in total.
DENVER
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Situated between Denver and Colorado Springs, Bear Dance plays over 753 acres of mountainous terrain. The course has a tranquil setting, with wide fairways lined with tall Ponderosa pines and the occasional creek and ravine. There is some elevation change, including at the signature par-4 16th, which from the tee offers a picturesque view of Pikes Peak in the distance.
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Less than 10 miles east of downtown Denver, CommonGround is a public layout designed by Tom Doak. The course—home to the Colorado Golf Association—plays on relatively flat terrain, and many fairways are framed by tall native grasses, giving the track a links feel. The fairways are generous, but well-placed bunkers pinch the landing areas in at strategic places, making the course playable for the average player yet more challenging for the low handicap.
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From Golf Digest Architecture Editor emeritus Ron Whitten: It was once said, probably first about California’s Monterey Peninsula, that great golf courses breed great golf courses. That’s certainly true of the foothills of the Rockies a half hour south of Denver, where The Ridge at Castle Pines North sits almost immediately next door to Sanctuary Golf Club and just to the north of The Country Club at Castle Pines, which in turn is bordered on its south by famed Castle Pines Golf Club. The Ridge, the only one of the four courses actually located in the town of Castle Pines (the others are in Castle Rock), is the only one of the four open for public play.
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MINNESOTA
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It doesn’t get the press that courses such as Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes, Whistling Straits or Arcadia Bluffs, but The Quarry at Giants Ridge plays very links-like with its collection of fairway speed slots, greenside backboards and backstops and reverse-camber greens. It’s very inventive design also demands some aerial play, too. A standout is its 13th, a drivable par-4 that’s nearly as wide as it is long, with three alternate routes to a 100-yard-wide green. We named it the best 13th hole in America built since 2000.
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Created by Texas-based architect Jeff Brauer, The Legends course at this 36-hole public complex in upper Minnesota has always played second-fiddle in our rankings to the more highly regarded Quarry Course. Located two-and-a-half miles north of its brother, it’s nevertheless an ideal sibling with holes similarly gouged from a wilderness of forest and crackled ground movement. You can get the sense of being lost in time and forest journeying through the vast areas the course traverses.
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In 2005, The Wilderness at Fortune Bay won America’s Best New Upscale Public Course, a year after architect Jeff Brauer won the same award for The Quarry at Giants Ridge, also in northern Minnesota. Where The Quarry uses slopes and ramps, Wilderness rewards aerial play, with some high-low alternate fairways, lake-edged greens and a pair of drop-shot par-3s. As we wrote back in 2005, “its options outnumber its rock outcroppings, and there are outcroppings galore.”
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The Classic is a genuine amateur architect design, although course superintendent Scott Hoffmann consulted with veteran course architect Geoff Cornish as well as others in creating The Classic at Madden’s. It’s beautiful but not for the faint of heart, a hilly course with some narrow, pine-lined fairways and occasional challenging shots over water from sidehill or downhill lies. But, like other multiple-course operations, such as Bethpage and Cog Hill, Madden’s has easier alternate layouts for high-handicappers.
WILLIAMSBURG, VA.
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Back in 1966, Golden Horseshoe was ranked among America’s 200 Toughest Courses by Golf Digest. How times change. In 2012, we ranked The Gold Course as one of America’s 50 Most Fun Public Courses. “Trent Jones in his kinder, gentler persona,” we wrote. “Even the island green seventh hole is a generous target.” The evolved Williamsburg track hosted the 1999 USGA Men’s State Team Championship.
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Pete Dye gained notoriety in the 1960s for his unique, trend-setting take on architecture at courses like The Golf Club, Crooked Stick and Harbour Town. He became a virtual household name in the 1980s after creating sensations like The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, PGA West and Blackwolf Run, and the fame continued throughout the 90s and for the rest of his career—at The Ocean Course, Whistling Straits, The Dye Course at French Lick and numerous others—until his passing in 2020. Less heralded are his courses from the 1970s. But among them, the River Course at Kingsmill Resort continues to stand out and remains a strong expression of Dye’s early design period, more in the mode of Harbour Town than Sawgrass. The course, which hosted the PGA Tour’s Michelob Championship from 1981 through 2002 and now hosts an LPGA event, sits quietly on the land and lets the natural movements of the wooded site—rather than sharp architectural features—define the character. The final three holes circle near the James River, including the par-3 17th that plays on a bluff above the water.
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One year after winning his first Golf Digest Best New Course design for Stonehouse, Strantz hit gold again with Royal New Kent, the 1997 Best New Upscale Public Course. Royal New Kent is just a 20-minute drive west of Stonehouse, but it couldn’t be more different. The general theme is golf in the United Kingdom, with holes like the sporty par-4 first that lays out a visible section of tumbling fairway on one line and hides a different section tucked behind a grassy dune on another. The first nine holes are a treasure, especially four through eight that gallop over a peaceful, heathlands-like sector with gorgeous ground movement. The left-right/right-left par-5 10th is another winner, but from there the real estate gets in the way and the routing becomes broken and boxed in. But it didn’t stop Strantz from pulling, twisting and hiding targets. When the land wasn’t giving him much to work with, he made his own fun. The course re-opened under new ownership in 2020 and is currently ranked 12th in state.
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Strantz won Golf Digest’s Best New Upscale Public Course in 1996 for his design at Stonehouse, 40 miles east of Richmond. Magazine panelists clearly scored it high, but it’s possible they did so because they didn’t know what else to make of it. Of all Strantz’s designs, this one is the least coherent because it’s the least cohesive. The holes make a wandering six-mile circuit around a heavily wooded property with significant ups and downs that feel mountainous in places. Some sections are sleek and slithering, and others are broad and cresting as if imported from another part of the world. Unfavorable economics in the 2000s contributed to the slow deterioration of Stonehouse, and the course closed temporarily in 2017 before new ownership revived it in 2019. What a relief—though a little out-of-sync overall, its eccentric architecture makes it a must-play when in the Richmond-Norfolk area.
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BIRMINGHAM, ALA.
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Centrally located in Birmingham, Highland Park is a quality public course with terrific views of downtown. Unlike some of the nearby wide, “big ballpark” layouts, Highland Park more closely resembles a New England-style course with short, narrow holes that demand precision. If you’re looking to dial in your short irons and wedges, this 5,800-yard par 70 is the spot. The bunkers and greens were renovated in 2019, modernizing this compelling design.
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Situated between Birmingham and Montgomery, FarmLinks is a Michael Hurdzan/Dana Fry layout at Pursell Farms, a Golf Digest Editors’ Choice resort at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The FarmLinks layout continually switches scenes, moving from meadows to woods to rugged foothills and back into the meadows. The course is also an agronomist laboratory with spacious fairways, tees and wavy greens planted with different strains and combinations of Zoysia and Bermudagrass, so visiting turf managers can study how they grow across the site’s different microclimates. But the fun is in the design and the journey through the vast, serene property, highlighted by an eccentric variety of par 3s that include the memorable fifth with one of the steepest drops in the U.S., a picturesque swan dive of almost 175 feet from tee to green.
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Designed by 1976 U.S. Open champion Jerry Pate, this layout just 30 miles north of Birmingham is relatively demanding off the tee with natural creeks and streams, limestone outcroppings and lakes guarding the fairways. There are many elevated tees, which provide beautiful panoramic views of the surrounding ridges and valleys. Limestone Springs was a member of our 100 Greatest Public list from 2003-2006.
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The 54 holes at Oxmoor Valley were built on former mining land owned by U.S. Steel. Nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, the Valley course is a tree-lined layout with rolling fairways and modest elevation changes. The first tee is perched high on a bluff, offering scenic views of the surrounding hills. The course extends two miles down a narrow valley before returning to the clubhouse. Large bunkers and several imposing lakes demand precise shot placement.
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Towering pines and two large lakes frame many holes on this expansive layout just south of Birmingham. Significant elevation changes dictate a layout that plays up and down the banks that surround the two lakes, setting up several exciting cross-water risk-reward drives where players choose how much of the cove they want to cut off. With wide landing areas, large greens and sweeping vistas across the property Ross Bridge is the most majestic of the courses on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. The layout tips out over 8,000 yards, but there are five sets of tees to accommodate all players.
MAINE
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Despite a length of just 5,859 yards, Cape Arundel packs plenty of punch to both challenge and engage golfers of all skill levels. Designed by Walter Travis in 1921, Cape Arundel is at its best around the greens. The green complexes are small, yet undulating, and provide plenty of opportunities to putt off them. Golfers must be precise with their wedges to have an opportunity to get close to the flag. The pin locations dictate the strategy from the tee, as different pins may demand different strategies, meaning the course doesn’t play the same from one day to the next. Low-handicappers who are looking to score are not granted the luxury of hitting driver on every hole, as they must think their way around the golf course. While many courses that were built in the Golden Age of course design have been forced to become bigger and longer to adapt to the modern game, Cape Arundel has stayed true to itself and has remained one of the most unique and enjoyable courses in golf.
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Boothbay Harbor Country Club is a semi-private club on the coast of Maine offering stay-and-play packages at its cottages, villas and oceanside resort. The club underwent a $50 million makeover in 2015 and 2016, funded by philanthropist owner Paul Coulombe, who made his fortune in the flavored vodka business. As part of the makeover, the course was redesigned by Bruce Hepner, and it remains one of the best-conditioned courses in the Pine Tree State, as indicated by our panelists’ scores. The course is aesthetically strong as well, with water features, flower beds and the Maine woods framing many holes. The course has plenty of elevation changes and is best enjoyed in a cart.
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Regarded by some as the “Pebble Beach of the East,” Samoset is located on the Maine coast in Rockport. The course plays along the Penobscot Bay, with views of the Atlantic Ocean on 14 of the 18 holes. The third and fourth holes draw the closest Pebble comparisons. The par-3 third hugs the rocky shoreline, playing uphill to a double green, where a left miss will fall into the Atlantic. The par-5 fourth is Samoset’s version of Pebble’s 18th, hugging the coast as it doglegs to the left. Players choose how much ocean to take on off the tee, and the bold will be able to get home in two. The course turns away from the coast at the turn, before returning to the exposed hillside to close out the round. Though many of the holes are straightforward and lack architectural nuance, Samoset is a scenic opportunity to experience a Pebble-like aesthetic at a fraction of the cost.
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A past member of Golf Digest’s 100 Greatest Public list, Belgrade Lakes is a picturesque Clive Clark design in central Maine. Considered by locals to have the most scenic practice putting green in the Pine Tree State, Belgrade’s clubhouse and first tee sit high above the rest of the property, offering panoramic views of the surrounding lakes and forest. The layout is intriguing with numerous elevation changes, strategic doglegs, serene ponds and omnipresent boulders that often penalize—or reward—wayward shots. The back patio of the clubhouse offers a beautiful view of the property below, including the ninth and 18th holes, which share a massive, undulating double green.
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Established in 1888 with play starting in 1891, Kebo Valley is one of the oldest golf clubs in the country. The course is situated on Mount Desert Island, bordering Acadia National Park and just five minutes from downtown Bar Harbor. Throughout its long history, notable names including Harry Vardon, Walter Hagen and President William Taft have all played the track. In 1911, President Taft played Kebo and carded a 27 on the 17th hole, which is now affectionately known as the “Taft” hole. In 1922, Walter Hagen played Kebo twice, first carding an even-par 70 before firing a three-under 67, which stood as the course record for 50 years. By modern standards, Kebo is a short course, but it is protected by very small, undulating greens that often roll true and fast. With beautiful views of nearby Cadillac and Dorr Mountain, Kebo is an enjoyable walk and pairs well with a visit to Acadia National Park.
