Michigan has an illustrious history of private golf clubs, with countless spread out across this great golf haven.
Most golfers don’t subscribe to this luxury, and with more than 650 public golf course options to choose from, there are plenty of fantastic daily fee places to traverse.
But, if you have ever wondered about some of the most famously exclusive golf courses in The Mitten, well Golfweek has released its 2023 rankings of each state’s most highly rated private golf experiences.
The rankings are culled from Golfweek’s more than 800-member vetted rating panel of everyday golfers. They evaluate courses from 1-10 based across 10 different criteria, and file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall scores are averaged to produce Golfweek’s annual Best Courses rankings.
Let’s take a look at Michigan’s top 15 private courses, based solely on golf, which includes one newcomer.
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15 best private golf courses in Michigan for 2023
1. Crystal Downs, Frankfort
2. Oakland Hills (South), Bloomfield Hills
3. Kingsley Club, Kingsley
4. The Dunes Club, New Buffalo
5. Franklin Hills, Franklin
T6. Lost Dunes, Bridgman
T6. Meadowbrook, Northville
T6. Indianwood (Old), Lake Orion
9. Wuskowhan Player’s Club, West Olive
10. Barton Hills, Ann Arbor
11. Orchard Lake Country Club, Orchard Lake
12. Bloomfield Hills Country Club, Bloomfield Hills
13. Point O’Woods, Benton Harbor
14. Country Club of Detroit, Grosse Pointe Farms
15. True North, Harbor Springs
True North did not make Golfweek’s 2022 rankings, but slid into the final spot and booted Oakland Hills’ North Course this year. The top five remained the same.
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Crystal Downs is an acclaimed Alister MacKenzie/Perry Maxwell design, one of just a handful from MacKenzie in the Midwest. (He also created what the Free Press ranked in 2022 as the No. 1 public course in metro Detroit.) Crystal Downs is easily regarded as one of the top 50 courses in the country.
Oakland Hills, a Donald Ross original, is surely the most famous on this list, with its illustrious major championship history. The South Course was reopened in 2021 after a restoration from Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, and despite the tragic burning of its iconic clubhouse in February 2022, will host eight USGA championships from 2024 to 2051, most notably the 2034 men’s US Open.
Kingsley Club is a special from architect Mike DeVries, who also claims numerous standout public courses in Michigan, including the incomparable Greywalls in Marquette, No. 2 on Golfweek’s best public-access courses in the state.
The Dunes Club, tucked in the southwest corner of the state on Lake Michigan, is a nine-hole gem that started it all for owner and developer Mike Keiser. He then built upon the success and strategy here to set up the acclaimed Bandon Dunes golf hub on Oregon’s coast.
Franklin Hills is another Donald Ross masterpiece and has stood the test of time, intact since its opening in 1927.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Best private golf courses in Michigan: Top 15 for 2023