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Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Best Michigan private golf courses ranked: Alister MacKenzie gem still No. 1
Michigan has dozens of excellent private golf courses and country clubs. Some are among the best in the United States and the world. Golfweek (part of the USA TODAY Network like the Detroit Free Press) has released its highly anticipated 2025 rankings of each state's best private golf courses, including the top 15 in Michigan. Advertisement And the names at the top are among the most celebrated in all of golf. Crystal Downs retains the title as No. 1 golf course in Michigan. Finished in 1933, it is a top-50 golf course in the world, according to According to Crystal Downs, the owners convinced the world's most renowned architect, Alister MacKenzie, to detour his train trip from the West — after finishing work on Cypress Point Golf Club in California — to the East Coast on his way home to England. MacKenzie, traveling with his associate Perry Maxwell, wasn't all that enthused and perhaps more annoyed than anything, but his demeanor changed when he saw the dunesland in Frankfort overlooking Lake Michigan. Dr. Alister MacKenzie, Scottish golf course designer in the sport's Golden Age of architecture. "For roughly 10 days, he worked feverishly with Mr. Maxwell, selecting the course routing, painting green complexes and creating the eighteen-hole design that remains essentially unchanged today," the club's website says. "Mr. Maxwell returned in the spring to supervise the commencement of the course construction, and subsequently returned each summer, living in a farm house aside what is now the 8th fairway, until 1933 when the back nine was finally completed." Advertisement TRENDING: World-class designer bringing talent to metro Detroit for golf course rebrand Crystal Downs remains unaltered from its original design, according to the club. It is one of two MacKenzie course designs in Michigan; the other is at the University of Michigan, ranked in 2022 by the Detroit Free Press as the No. 1 course in metro Detroit. The top five private golf courses in Michigan, according to Golfweek, stayed the same as 2024. The restored Oakland Hills (South) in Bloomfield Township is No. 2, Kingsley Club in Kingsley is third, Dunes Club (nine holes) in New Buffalo fourth and Franklin Hills in Franklin fifth. See the entire top 15 below. Advertisement Golfweek's rankings come from a rating panel of hundreds of everyday golfers, who evaluate courses from 1-10 based across 10 criteria, and file a single, overall rating on each course. Criteria include routing, greens, variety and memorability of par 3s, 4s and 5s, and course conditions. Those overall scores are averaged to produce Golfweek's annual Best Courses lists. If you're looking for Michigan's best public golf course options — from the more than 650 to choose from — we already covered Golfweek's top 20 in Michigan. Find the complete list of Michigan's top 15 private golf courses, as ranked by Golfweek. RANKED: Michigan's best 20 public golf courses for 2025 Michigan best private golf course rankings for 2025 by Golfweek Advertisement T14. Point O'Woods Golf and Country Club, Benton Harbor (14) T14. LochenHeath Golf Club, Williamsburg (N/A) Dropped: Country Club of Detroit, Grosse Pointe Farms (13). Check out Michigan's best 20 public courses, and read more from Golfweek's best private courses. Stay connected and stay informed. Become a Detroit Free Press subscriber. Marlowe Alter is an assistant sports editor at the Detroit Free Press and spraying golf aficionado. You can reach him by email: malter@ This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Best Michigan private golf course rankings for 2025: Top 15
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Michigan's best 20 public golf courses rankings: Arcadia Bluffs remains No. 1
It's our little secret: The state of Michigan continues to have some of the best public golf courses in the United States. Yes, much of the golf world is starting to recognize The Mitten state has lots to offer with a wide variety of resorts, lakeside views, isolated forests, epic rolling terrain and farmland. Advertisement Trying to narrow the more than 650 Michigan public-access golf courses into a top 20 is daunting, but that's just what Golfweek, part of the USA TODAY Network just like the Detroit Free Press, has been doing for many years. Golfweek on Monday, June 2 revealed its full state-by-state rankings for public-access golf courses, and Michigan's top courses were distilled into the 20 best. To no surprise, the top spots remain unchallenged. The original course at Arcadia Bluffs stays No. 1, and the one-of-a-kind Greywalls at Marquette Golf Club in Michigan's Upper Peninsula is firmly No. 2. Forest Dunes' two courses in Roscommon — The Loop and the original Forest Dunes — remain Nos. 3-4, with Arcadia's South Course sticking at No. 5. Advertisement One newcomer to this year's ranking is a familiar name: the Jones Masterpiece at Treetops Resort in Gaylord. How do the rankings come to pass? Golfweek uses hundreds of course raters to analyze 10 different criteria on a scale of 1-10 at each place to produce an average course rating. Those categories include routing, conditioning, greens, and memorability and variety of golf holes. Raters also file a single, overall rating on each course, which are averaged to produce all of Golfweek's Best course rankings. To qualify, a course must allow public play in some fashion. "If there's a will, there's a tee time — no membership required," Golfweek's creative director and travel editor Jason Lusk writes. Here is Golfweek's top 20 ranking for Michigan golf courses as of 2025: Advertisement GET OUT: 5 public golf courses in Michigan I can't wait to play for first time Michigan best public golf course rankings for 2025 by Golfweek *Indicates location in Michigan's Upper Peninsula 1. Arcadia Bluffs (Bluffs Course), Arcadia (last year's rank: 1) 2. *Marquette Golf Club (Greywalls), Marquette (2) WORTH THE HYPE: Greywalls feels like a time warp back to Jurassic era OLD SCHOOL GEM: This might be Michigan's most underrated golf course THE BEST: No. 1 public golf course in metro Detroit brings some of The Masters to Michigan Dropped: Diamond Springs, Hamilton (19) Find the rest of Golfweek's state-by-state rankings, and check back for more rankings in June. Marlowe Alter is an assistant sports editor at the Detroit Free Press and spraying golf aficionado. You can reach him by email: malter@ Advertisement Stay connected and stay informed. Become a Detroit Free Press subscriber. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Best Michigan public golf course rankings for 2025: Top 20
USA Today
9 hours ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Ernie Els watched the game 'pass him by' in his 40s. The PGA Tour Champions changed that
The ever-present, never-ceasing drive to keep improving is one of the pillars of golf. For anyone who loves the sport, it is perhaps the most relatable, constant aspect of why it's all so alluring. The swing is always evolving, on good days getting better and on frustrating days seemingly worse. Performances from round to round often feel fluid, with that next tier of personal improvement just in front of you but difficult to attain. Golf is the sport in which everyone is running on a similar treadmill, chasing that proverbial carrot. That idea is one of the reasons why Ernie Els has been so successful on the PGA Tour Champions circuit, which included a win at the 2024 Kaulig Companies Championship at Firestone Country Club. Els returned this week as the defending champ, shooting a rain-soaked 2-over 72 during June 19's opening round. Ernie Els finding success with PGA Tour Champions leading into Kaulig Companies Championship Els, now 55 and already a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, still has the love to keep grinding. It's part of what keeps him and everyone else on the PGA Tour Champions going. "We still work on the game," Els said this week at Firestone Country Club. "You'll see a lot of guys out there on the range really working on their games because you still want to play at some kind of level within yourself. I think that's what drives us, what drives us all. "I still feel like I want to try and improve in a lot of areas in my game, and that's what we're still battling out." More: Making a difference for autism, Ernie Els is Golfweek's 2024 Father of the Year Of course, playing the game competitively as a player begins to hit certain age milestones requires adjustments, and sometimes admissions that don't want to be made. It hit Els in his late 40s as his body would no longer allow him to do some of the things needed to beat the best up-and-coming players on the PGA Tour. Joining the PGA Tour Champions a few years ago served as a vehicle for rejuvenation. And Els has often been the player to beat. "I think it's just a love for the game still," Els said. "I think in my late 40s, I had a bit of a dry run on the regular tour. You just get a little bit — the game kind of passes you by late in your 40s. It happened with me. "Out here on the Champions Tour, you come out as a rookie when you're 50, you look at guys that you played with and they might be 10 years older than you, so they're kind of phasing out a little bit, so you feel you have a chance to do something again." The admission that he was transitioning into a new phase of his career wasn't easy to accept at first. It's something every golfer can relate to eventually, just at different levels. "You know, it's a sudden slowdown," Els said. "All of a sudden, you just wake up and, man, you know, the youngsters are hitting a 3-wood where you're hitting your driver. You're struggling to get to a par 5 with the youngsters hitting a 4-iron. "The game becomes a lot harder. … You start getting left behind a little bit, so it's not a brilliant feeling." In addition to being reenergized by his newer circumstances, Els has also developed a love for the mentorship side of golf. He used to be the one listening, and now he's the one being asked questions. It's not entirely clear when he fell into that role, but he's certainly there now. "I remember Nick Price, he was my mentor, and Price is almost 15 years ahead of me. Your friends start calling you 'Old man,'" Els said with a smile. "[Years ago] I started hitting my 3-wood the way his driver was, he said, 'You're going to get there one day, see what you feel like.' It happens to all of us. "If you can call it mentorship or just plain old talk about golf, you know, I love it when people's eyes [light up]. You can see when people are listening to you." 2025 Kaulig Companies Championship leaderboard: Soren Kjeldsen, Ricardo Gonzalez lead after Round 1 Soren Kjeldsen and Ricardo Gonzalez both carded 3-under-par 67s to tie for the first round lead of the Kaulig Companies Championship. The first round featured some heavy winds, rain and a one-hour delay, offering far-from-perfect circumstances as players dealt with the conditions as much as the course. Steven Alker, Retief Goosen and Stewart Cink are all one shot back of the lead entering June 20's second round. Last year, Alker shot a 65 in the second round en route to a T-7 finish.
USA Today
11 hours ago
- Sport
- USA Today
USGA announces first 3 selections for 2025 U.S. Walker Cup team, including No. 1 amateur
USGA announces first 3 selections for 2025 U.S. Walker Cup team, including No. 1 amateur The Waker Cup is less than three months away, and on Friday, the U.S. Golf Association announced the first three selections for the United States squad. Jackson Koivun, Ben James and Michael La Sasso will each don the red, white and blue Sept. 6-7 and Cypress Point, site of the 50th Walker Cup. The biennial match between the top amateurs from the United States and those from Great Britain and Ireland takes place Sept. 6-7 at famed Cypress Point in California, which ranks No. 1 in Golfweek's Best Classic Courses. The three earned automatic spots on the Walker Cup team thanks to being the highest-ranked Americans in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. All three players competed in last week's U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania. James, a rising senior at Virginia, is making his second Walker Cup appearance, having competed on the 2023 team that won at St. Andrews, going 1-2-0. He helped the Cavaliers advance to the championship match at NCAAs and is the likely No 1 when the PGA Tour University Class of 2026 rankings are announced this summer. He's ranked second in WAGR. Koivun, the top-ranked amateur in the world, earned his PGA Tour card with a T-4 finish at NCAAs, but his stellar season came as a freshman when he swept the major postseason awards: the Fred Haskins, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Phil Mickelson. He's returning to Auburn for his junior season and will turn pro after NCAAs next May. La Sasso had a standout junior season for Ole Miss, culminating in him winning the NCAA individual title at Omni La Costa. He was a finalist for the Haskins Award, the Heisman Trophy of college golf, and is ranked third in WAGR. The Walker Cup is a two-day event with 18 singles matches and eight foursomes matches. The U.S. leads the overall series, 39-9-1, though its advantage is only 11-7 since 1989.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Adrien Dumont de Chassart records 14th sub-60 round in Korn Ferry Tour history
Thursday was historic for Adrien Dumont de Chassart. He shot 11-under 59 during the opening round of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Wichita Open at Crestview Country Club in Kansas, signing for the 14th sub-60 round in Korn Ferry Tour history. He's the first player to shoot sub-60 since Frankie Capan III shot 58 last year at the Veritex Bank Championship. Advertisement Dumont de Chassart had 12 birdies on the card and one lone bogey, coming on the par-4 15th. He was 10 under with four holes to play, and he came home with one birdie and three pars to earn his spot in the record book. After the morning wave, he leads by four shots. Crestview Country Club was damaged earlier in the week because of storms in the Wichita area, and the course was closed on Tuesday so crews and Tour officials could clean up the course. This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Adrien Dumont de Chassart shoots 59 at Korn Ferry Tour's Wichita Open
