Michigan Golf Journal January 2021

Michigan golfers are spoiled. Ask if they played XYZ course in ABC state, and there is a likelihood the answer will be: “No… but I have heard it is very nice.” They are inundated with an abundance of excellent golf, so they find it hard to justify leaving their state. The completion of the Riley Johns and Keith Rhebb-designed short course at Forest Dunes is sure to compound the Michigan golfer’s chronic ‘homerism’. The short course adds another compelling option to the Forest Dunes menu. The resort started with the original Forest Dunes, a parkland course set in the sand barren and dunes, designed by Tom Weiskopf. In 2016, it added a fascinating reversible course, the Loop, conceived and designed by Tom Doak. From a timing perspective, you are playing the equivalent of two courses, but it is unequivocally a single 36-hole course and should be played as such over two days. The Rhebb and Riley ten- hole short course plays up into a treed dune, meanders back down a hill through a gully, then crosses an adjacent dune, on the perpendicular. The fescue is firmly planted on the packed sand and the course invites the requisite creativity and wagering. Michiganders Spoiled by Great Golf Architecture By Vaughn Halyard Short Course Michigan Golf Journal Golf Architecture