The best golf courses in Michigan for 2024-25

As part of GOLF’s rigorous assessment process for our newcomers Top 100 courses in the USA AND The best 100 courses you can play ranking, our fleet of 100-plus expert panelists identified the best golf courses in each state.

You can check out the links below to browse all of our course rankings, or scroll down to see the best courses in Michigan. And if you’re looking to create your future ride, you’d be wise to let the new GOLF Course finder the tool helps you. Here, you can edit all of our lists – top 100 public, best munis, best short courses, best par-3s and more – or filter by price to create the itinerary perfect for your next trip.

Ranking of other GOLF courses: Top 100 courses in the world | Top 100 courses in the USA | The best 100 courses you can play | The 100 most valuable courses in the USA | America’s Best Municipal Courses | The 100 best short courses in the world

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Best Golf Courses in Michigan (2024/2025)

SYMBOL GUIDE
# = Top 100 courses in the USA
Y = Top 100 you can play in USA
V = The 100 most valuable courses in the USA
P = Public/Resort

Ed. Note: Some subjects were removed from our ranking because they did not receive enough votes.

1. Oakland Hills – South (Bloomfield Hills) (#)

Over the years, Oakland Hills – the famous “monster” that Ben Hogan slayed at the US Open in 1951 – became long, narrow and difficult, which fits the description of other US championship courses. This was never meant to be the fate of the course – this was Donald Ross’s thought-provoking park masterpiece. Fortunately, all of Ross’s glory, and then some, returned in 2020 when Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner and team restored the width and angles of Ross’ game. The greens were enlarged by 35 percent and the bunkers themselves were restored to their former grand scale. The fescue grass blows in the wind and the undulating area, no longer hidden by the trees, optimizes the park’s royal golf offering with some of its greens such as the 1st and 14th capable of taking your breath away.

2. Crystal Downs (Frankfort) (#)

Because of its remote location, Crystal Downs was once overlooked, but that changed when Tom Doak introduced the course to Ben Crenshaw in the 1980s. A combination of strong winds off Lake Michigan, thick fescue rubble, undulating terrain and devilishly contoured greens make this one of the more difficult courses in the Top 100 compared to the 70. Measuring just under 6600 yards, monster length is not required when you have greens this good.

3. Kingsley Club (#)

Mike DeVries moved only 30,000 feet of earth to build this minimalist Michigan masterpiece. From the drive to the fairway, Kingsley offers golfers an inspiring number of choices, forcing them to think their way around the course. With spectacular par-5s, drivable par-4s and a dazzling variety of greens, Kingsley is a serious golfer’s paradise. If all those challenges boggle your mind, don’t worry—there’s a bottle of Jameson hidden near the 18th tee.

4. Forest Dunes-Loop – Red/Black (Present) (Y, P)

5. Bloomfield Hills

6. Orchard Lake (Orchard Lake)

Orchard Lake is perhaps the most intact Charles H. Alison in the US as the road today is almost identical to its original design. This 1926 Alison design began its Keith Foster restoration in 2012. The bold bunker was returned to the surprisingly undulating topography, the trees were removed from the fairways and the greens were expanded to their original purpose. The greens are delicate and sometimes deceptive, and there are particularly strong par-3s. Good design and length variation on par-4s and par-5s. Holes 15-17 may be the best stretch in the Detroit area.

7. Franklin Hills (Franklin)

8. Belvedere (Charlevoix) (P, V, Y)

Thanks to the way Gilded Age architect William Watson incorporated meandering creeks, dramatic canyon walls and magnificent Michigan landforms into his journey here, the golfer wants for nothing. Watson’s greens—both their contours and their placement—are marvels, many of which require no window-dressing bunkers. For example, the surface in 6 contains a false wild front that consumes almost a third of the surface of the layout. Other bunker-free greens include 16 and 17, which Watson sat on hillsides. A faint-hearted approach to the 346-yard 16th finds the golfer a dozen more feet below the putting surface; the same goes for a 179-yard haul on the 17th. Belvedere has attracted a legion of design aficionados over the years, and for good reason.

9. Meadowbrook (Northville)

10. Arcadia Bluffs – South (Arcadia) (P, Y)

11. CC of Detroit

12. American Dunes (P, V, Y)

13. Arcadia Bluffs – Bluffs (Arcadia) (P, Y)

14. Greywalls at Marquette (P, Y)

15. Forest Dunes – Weiskopf (Roscommon) (P, Y)

16. Point O’Woods (Benton Harbor)

17. Indianwood – Old (Lake Orion)

18. Oakland Hills – North (Bloomfield Hills)

19. The Lost Dunes (Bridgman)

20. Barton Hills (Ann Arbor)

21. Detroit GC – North (Detroit)

22. Stoatin Brae (Augusta) (P, V, Y)

Heathland is a vast, open expanse of heath. Replace the heather with native grasses and you have Stoatin Brae in south-central Michigan. The drive up the highway to the club doesn’t give anything away for what you’re about to experience. Much of the front nine traverses a plateau, and then, starting at 10, the ground goes crazy—a turgid six-hole stretch you won’t soon forget. It’s one of the best stretches on this entire list, even though many people don’t know about it. Other notable holes include the short par-4 8th and 17th with a shot to a green tee. The green fee of well under $100 belies what is a first class design and gaming experience.

23. Detroit GC – South (Detroit)

24. Bay Harbor (P)

25. True North

How we rank our courses

For our newly released US Top 100 and Top 100 to Play lists—a process that helped us create the top 50 rankings in the country—each panelist was given a ballot consisting of 609 courses. . Alongside the list of courses were 11 “buckets” or groupings. If our panelists deemed a course to be among the top three in the US, they marked the first column. If they believed the odds were between numbers 4-10, they checked that column, followed by 11-25, 26-50 and so on up to 250+ and even a column for “remove”. Panelists were also free to write in courses they felt should have been included on the ballot.

Points were assigned to each bucket; to arrive at an average score for each course, we divide its overall score by the number of votes. From these point totals, courses are then ranked accordingly. It’s an intentionally simple and straightforward process. Why? Because it has historically produced results that are widely praised. Like the game itself, there’s no need to overcomplicate things or try to fix something that already works so well.

The key to the process is the experience and expertise of our panel. Hailing from 15 nations and all the golfing meccas around the world, each of our 127 hand-picked panelists has a keen eye for architecture, both regionally and globally. Many of our panelists have played more than 1000 courses in over 20 countries, some over 2000. Their handicaps range from +5 to +15.

Because the nature of course evaluation is so intensely subjective, no opinion counts. The only way, then, to build meaningful consensus is to incorporate this diversity of panelists and experiences into a ranking.

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