Michigan Golf Journal October 2021

Michigan Golf Journal Top V lue Courses Springs . Bu t if they’re anything remotely close to as good as the five others on the list, there’s no question they deserve this accolade. Belvedere has been on my bucket list for a while and I promise to play it before the end of next summer, if my boss approves my time off. And my wife says it’s OK. And my kids aren’t too busy. And we can find a dog sitter. And we aren’t up to the Omega variant by then. So, by the end of 2023 for sure! The top course on the list is … go ahead and take a guess. If you picked Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York, you get a cookie! It runs $39- $150, depending on your residency status. My guess would have been Torrey Pines’ South Course, but I’ll bet it didn’t make the cut because it tops out at $252 for non- San Diego residents. Ouch! (Pro tip: I’ve been to Torrey. At that price, skip it. I’d rather sell a couple kidneys and pay $575 to play Pebble Beach). Golf.com didn’t mention courses that just missed out on the ranking. But I’m sure the price cutoff kept revered Michigan courses like Arcadia Bluffs, Forest Dunes, Bay Harbor and Greywalls off the list. The ranking only provided comments for the top 20 courses, so here’s a sampling of what the editors thought of Belvedere and Stoatin Brae. Belvedere: “Thanks to how Golden Age architect William Watson incorporated meandering creeks, dramatic valley walls and gorgeous Michigan rolling landforms into his routing here, the golfer wants for nothing.” Eagle Eye