My goal this golf season is the same as last season: Play five 18-hole Michigan public golf courses for the first time.
It was a blast last year, so why not bring it back for 2026?
The choices here are endless.
Michigan is a golf mecca with 748 publicly accessible courses – the most in America, according to the National Golf Foundation, and more than 45 other states’ totals.
The variety, the style, the landscape, the terrain – we have so many quality options to choose from with unparalleled value.
It makes for great conversation on and off the course – hearing about a hidden gem for the first time or a must-try course someone else experienced and urges you to seek out.
In 2025, new adventures took me to The Orchards, Forest Dunes, Tullymore, Timber Trace and Northville Hills, and I recommend checking out any of the five.
So let’s keep the momentum going this year. Here are five public golf courses in Michigan I hope to play for the first time in 2026 (in no particular order). Check back in the fall for my report.
1. Eagle Eye Golf Club, Bath Township
I had Eagle Eye on my initial list last year but didn’t make it there.
The course is home to one of the coolest holes in the state. The par-3 17th is an island green replica of the short 17th at TPC Sawgrass, Golf Hall of Fame architect Pete Dye’s masterpiece used annually for The Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
I’ve enjoyed a few rounds at Eagle Eye’s nearby sister course, Hawk Hollow, and Eagle Eye is even more highly regarded. It’s near Lansing, and yet is the closest to Detroit of Golfweek’s top-10 ranked Michigan public-access courses.
2. Greystone Golf Club, Washington Township
Greystone, built in the early 1990s, is best known for having one of Michigan’s best finishing three-hole stretches, wrapping around a 35-acre lake at an old quarry in Macomb County.
“It’s as tough a finish as you’ll find, but also gorgeous, which makes the holes equally fetching, fearsome and frustrating,” Freep golf expert Carlos Monarrez wrote in 2022.
[ The Cardinal golf course at St. John’s gave me a memory for a lifetime ]
3. WestWynd Golf Course, Oakland Township
WestWynd has long been heralded as one of the best courses in southeast Michigan, and made our list of top 10 publics in the metro Detroit area in 2022.
The pristine layout with brick-paver cart paths has a unique finish: The 16th and 18th are nearly mirror opposite par-4s, playing over a large pond from opposite sides to a double green.
[ Brick paths, ‘2’ closing holes part of WestWynd’s charm ]
4. The Grande Golf Club, Jackson
I’ve heard good things about The Grande for years, and so it’s finally time to get out and see it for myself. The Grande, opened in 2001, is carved through wetlands and forest, and has one of the state’s toughest holes – the marathon, strategically challenging 497-yard par-4 16th.
Designed by prolific Holland-based architect Ray Hearn, the course’s beauty, expansive “Grande” fairways and greens and rugged bunkering is appealing.
5. Sugarbush Golf Club, Davison
Built in 1995 by Michigan Golf Hall of Famer Larry Mancour, this mid-Michigan course is about 15 minutes east of Flint off I-69.
Sugarbush is cut through woods featuring mature trees along fairways with some tighter chutes, according to the club’s website. Water hazards can be a factor at points in the round. Sugarbush is home to a 646-yard par-5 13th, another one of the most challenging holes in Michigan.
Marlowe Alter is an Assistant Sports Editor at the Detroit Free Press. Email him at: malter@freepress.com.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 5 golf courses in Michigan I can’t wait to play for first time in 2026
Reporting by Marlowe Alter, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Marlowe Alter, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
