I travel quite a bit for work these days and am spending some time near South Bend, IN. I played the Warren Golf Course a couple years ago and am on the hunt for some other courses within an hour drive. Angels Crossing Golf Club, not far over the border into Michigan, was one of the courses on my list.

Angels Crossing, designed by W. Bruce Matthews III, presents itself as a course that draws inspiration from the game’s Golden Age designers. Think of designers like Donald Ross, Alister MacKenzie, A.W. Tillinghast, etc. Not super important to me personally, but kind of a cool design take.

I booked a 1:00 PM tee time on what turned out to be a nice spring day – plenty of sunshine and about 65 degrees. Things weren’t busy so I was able to tee off early and played quickly. I trailed a couple twosomes and finished 18 holes in about three and a half hours.

If I’m honest, I can see why there were so many open tee times. Angels Crossing has a good look to it and it has very few homes nearby. Unfortunately, I found it to be a very difficult, unforgiving course to play – especially the first time around.

I played the blue tees which are 72.3/136/6688. Normally I try to be objective in my reviews, but it is hard to take a positive approach when it felt like average shots are unnecessarily penalized. The fairways at Angels Crossing are small ribbons that angle and slope, so they are tough to find. Each hole has many large bunkers with steep faces – think five plus bunkers on many holes. The greens are perched up and balls that hit the edges kick sharply away from the greens. The greens have odd spines, bowls, and false fronts. There are plenty of semi blind shots.

If someone can get past the poor playability, there are some cool template holes at Angels Crossing. The 6th is a 195 yard par-3 with a biarritz green. For those that may not know, a biarritz green has a big swale in the middle. The green here is about fifty yards long. The 12th – a 224 yard par-3 – is a redan green that slopes front to back and angles from front right to back left.

I paid about $75 to ride and that is borderline too much this early in the season IMO. Overall the conditions were solid. The turf was full and the ball sat well. The greens have mostly recovered from aeration and rolled fine – just slow. The sand in the bunkers had many rocks. Nasty.

Depending on your tastes, Angels Crossing is probably worth a visit if you are between South Bend and Grand Rapids. The course sits on a nice piece of land with rolling hills, wetlands, and woods. Personally, I would have enjoyed the course quite a bit more if the greens weren’t so gimmicky.

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