I’ve become a pretty big fan of Michigan golf the last few years. I used today as an excuse to add another Michigan course to my list. After playing Hawkshead (in South Haven) last weekend I wanted to check out Beeches Golf Club today. Beeches is about 10 minutes from Hawkshead and caught my eye because of the sandy vibe I saw from some pictures. 

Unfortunately, what I didn’t notice is that W. Bruce Matthews III designed Beeches. I played another one of his designs – Angels Crossing – a couple weeks ago and found that one to be very difficult. After playing Beeches, I thought it had many similarities to Angels Crossing. I suspect most golfers will have similar feelings about the two courses.

Matthews used many of the same design elements here at Beeches. I played the blue tees which are 71.8/133/6631. There are many semi-blind landing areas. There many deep bunkers. The greens are elevated and repel iron shots that miss the mark. The greens are large and have a lot going on. Everything is borderline too much and I thought the playability suffered. Needless to say, Beeches was a course that just didn’t fit my eye.

But, if someone doesn’t mind the difficulty then I can see how they could like the course. It is a good value. It was in very nice shape. The course sits on a nice piece of land without any homes around. The proshop was friendly.

The front nine at Beeches has a links look to it. There are a number of sandy waste areas that add some contrast. The back nine has water in play on a number of holes and mixes in a few wooded holes. Overall, Beeches has a good look.

The signature holes are probably the par-3’s. The 9th is a long par-3 with a steep, two-tiered green. The tee shot needs to carry a bunker and then you’ll have to hope it stays on that back ledge. The 17th – at 138 yards – is a shorter version of the 9th and requires a perfect short iron to hold the small back tier. 

As I mentioned, the conditions were very good. I paid $65 to ride on a weekend and the green fee gets you a lot here. All the turf was lush and lies were excellent. The greens were smooth and rolled at a medium pace. The sand in the bunkers was soft.

Personally, Beeches isn’t for me as it doesn’t have the playability that I like to see in a course. But, if you are in the area, try it for yourself and see what you think.

Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):