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3 hours ago
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The Orchards is the Free Press' pick for Top Public Golf Course in Macomb County
This is the second in a series looking at the best public golf courses in the six-county metro Detroit area. We're always in such a rush. And that's often true of our experiences at golf courses we play regularly. No need to soak in the ambiance. Drive in, grab your clubs and shoes, slam the trunk, pay the greens fee and get to the first tee with five minutes to spare — and that's on a good day. Advertisement I mean, who wants to waste precious time practicing a little before a round? Hey, that's why the golf gods invented breakfast balls! But the Orchards deserves a second look, and a lingering one at that. While the beautiful, challenging and varied Robert Trent Jones Jr. course in Washington Township could easily stand on its own without any accompaniment, it's all the little touches that truly elevate the experience and make it the Free Press' Top Public Course in Macomb County. RANKING THE PRIVATE COURSES: Alister MacKenzie gem still No. 1 From the attendant who takes your bag and puts it on a cart when you pull into the parking lot to the handsome clubhouse that's exactly just enough (a strong menu, indoor and outdoor seating, a nice locker room, a full and expansive practice area with grass tees) and even the nice touch of having a bag of practice balls ready instead of dealing with a loud dispenser. Advertisement The entire experience feels upscale, even urbane, but without any hint of stuffiness. That's is a hard trick to pull off in the public-golf sphere. The Orchards likes to tout its motto of being 'Your club for the day,' and it has stayed faithful to that principle since it opened in 1993. As for the course, there are prettier ones and nicer settings. But the exceptional layout makes it feel more like a tournament-caliber course than any other public track in metro Detroit. That's probably why it regularly hosts the Monday qualifier for the PGA Tour's Rocket Classic. The 11th hole at The Orchards Golf Club in Washington Township. A round here practically guarantees you'll need every club in your bag. You'll need a draw and a fade if you want to score. You'll be playing uphill and downhill, hitting a few blind shots and enjoying the majestic sweep of the course with views from the 11th and 16th tees. Advertisement One of the most enjoyable parts of the course is that if forces you to think. You can often let it rip off the tee, but how much do you lay up on the seventh hole with a hard dogleg left? Do you go for the green on the sixth hole with a long bisected fairway? How much do you lay up front of the water-guarded 16th green? And how do you avoid disaster on the 18th hole by avoiding a downhill lie to a green guarded by sand and a huge pond? Maybe that's why I've never been frustrated at the Orchards, even after I've played poorly. The course gave me so much to think about and appreciate that I didn't have room in my thoughts to blame anything more than my strategy and execution. The rest of the series WAYNE COUNTY: The Cardinal at St. John's Advertisement MONROE COUNTY: The Legacy OAKLAND COUNTY: Shepherd's Hollow LIVINGSTON COUNTY: Moose Ridge WASHTENAW COUNTY: U-M Golf Course Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@ Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: The Orchards is Free Press' Top Public Golf Course in Macomb County
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3 hours ago
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The Legacy by Arthur Hills is the Free Press' Top Public Golf Course in Monroe County
This is the third in a series looking at the best public golf courses in the six-county metro Detroit area. The best part of The Legacy by Arthur Hills is that it doesn't try to be something it's not. You won't find gimmicky rock walls, out-of-place water features or elevation changes that appear out of nowhere. Advertisement No, the Legacy knows what it is: A farmland course in Ottawa Lake that takes its pastoral cues from surrounding pastures and imbues it with some of that same unadorned, windswept beauty. There's an earthy charm to all of it, but mostly The Legacy earns its spot as the Free Press' Top Public Course in Monroe County by virtue of its challenge, variety of design and playability from five sets of tees that top out at just over 6,800 yards. The 10th hole, a short par-4, at The Legacy By Arthur Hills Golf Club in Ottawa Lake. AROUND THE STATE: Best Michigan private golf courses ranked: Alister MacKenzie gem still No. 1 Credit Hills, the late architect who used to live by the course, for putting a lot of thought into creating a straightforward but fun course with enough challenge to test even the most skilled player. Advertisement OK, I said there weren't any gimmicks but there is one: the island green on the 155-yard eighth hole. It isn't quite the 17th at TPC Sawgrass, but it's a large green that plays into a prevailing stout wind, so make sure you take plenty of club and even more mental fortitude on your way to the tee box. Hills' designs often reflected a straightforward, practical approach to the game. The first hole, with its dogleg right and generous bailout to the left, was an example of this, catering to right-handers who mostly slice the ball but also not penalizing those who draw the ball. Just about everyone can get off the first tee and keep the traffic moving right away. A couple of years after I first played The Legacy, I played the Grasslands Golf and Country Club in Lakeland, Florida — where the Tigers often golf during spring training. After a while, it dawned on me that the typical, flat-land, open-vista course surprisingly reminded me of The Legacy. The openness of both courses was similar, and the five lakes at The Legacy might make you think you're in the Sunshine State for just a moment. But there are also enough trees on the course to never let you forget you're still in the Midwest. Advertisement Also, because the design trend has shifted toward open courses with fewer trees, this nearly 30-year-old course seems as hip right now as a middle-aged dad who knows all the words to 'Pink Pony Club.' Even if that design trend shifts, The Legacy will never go out of style with its mix of challenge, playability and unadorned beauty. The rest of the series MACOMB COUNTY: The Orchards WAYNE COUNTY: The Cardinal at St. John's OAKLAND COUNTY: Shepherd's Hollow LIVINGSTON COUNTY: Moose Ridge WASHTENAW COUNTY: U-M Golf Course Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@ Follow him on X @cmonarrez. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: The Legacy is the Free Press' Top Public Golf Course in Monroe County
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4 days ago
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The Cardinal at St. John's is the Free Press' Top Public Golf Course in Wayne County
This is the first in a series looking at the best public golf courses in the six-county metro Detroit area. It's a rare thing when a high-end course opens, and it's even rarer when that course opens to the acclaim The Cardinal at St. John's earned shortly after its 2024 debut. Advertisement Architect Ray Hearn did a masterful job reworking and pretty much reinventing St. John's uninspiring 27-hole resort course from the 1980s and transforming it into an upscale track in Plymouth that's both challenging, pretty and playable. The carts are some of the most comfortable I've ever been in and the touchscreen GPS system tracks players ahead of you in order to avoid hitting into them. Because it's attached to a beautiful red-brick resort, playing the Cardinal feels like an entire luxury experience. The course is immaculate and feels like a nice throwback – you know, like way back in the 1990s – with a fairly straightforward design that doesn't try to trick you into thinking you're in Scotland. Hearn resisted the urge of most his peers who show up and immediately proclaim: 'We've got to get rid of 30,000 trees!' The par-5 fourth hole is reachable in two swings, and the first of back-to-back par-5s at The Cardinal at St. John's Resort in Plymouth Township, July 17, 2024. It's American parkland golf at its bucolic best: big greens that are subtle without being devious, boulder-lined ponds, perfect sand in manageable bunkers that are outlined by normal rough. No pot bunkers or fescue and native grasses that catch, trap and steal your ball, if not your chance of saving par or bogey. Advertisement The Cardinal is, after all, a resort course, which means level of difficulty shouldn't be daunting for a guest who might be playing it for the first and only time of their lives. Hearn obviously learned the lesson Jack Nicklaus never did when he constructed brutal test after brutal test during the height of his design career. MORE ON THE CARDINAL: I just shot my best golf round ever at St. John's The Cardinal. Maybe you can, too. But being playable doesn't mean the Cardinal is a pushover. Even though there are few forced carries, if you miss the fairway you'll find some of the thickest rough among any public course in metro Detroit. The rough around the green is a different story. Hearn put thought into the options he wanted to give his golfers when they missed their approach shot. Instead of just putting a bunch of thick rough around the greens – U.S. Open-style – and forcing a chop out, he put shorter grass in some areas to give players the choice of chipping, lobbing or even putting a ball. Advertisement Ther course has plenty of variety but two of the standout holes are the par-4 ninth hole that features an Oakmont-style church-pew fairway bunker, and the Redan green on the par-3 third hole. If you haven't played the Cardinal, you'll get a chance to see it on television or in person when the LIV Golf tour shows up in late August. You might want to book a tee time well before that because it isn't often you get the chance to play a course you see tour stars playing on TV. Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@ Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez. Check out for the rest. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: The Cardinal is the Free Press' Top Public Golf Course in Wayne County
