A friend and I took a golf trip to Michigan and we played a lot of golf – eight rounds on eight different courses. So, plenty of reviews to come after a quiet spring for me. While the trip was centered around Arcadia Bluffs, we mixed in other quality courses along the way. It was nice to finally spend a good chunk of time in Michigan golfing!
We flew into Chicago and after a late night of travel on Saturday, got started at The Golf Club at Harbor Shores on Sunday. Our route to Northern Michigan was through Grand Rapids and the west-central part of the state. Harbor Shores was convenient – it is located in Benton Harbor – and looked to be a top-notch course. It can appear among the top public courses in Michigan and is a multiple-time host of the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship. I was excited to check it out.
Harbor Shores is a Jack Nicklaus Signature design that opened in 2010. I’ll say that my first impression after playing here is that Jack went crazy designing the green complexes. And I don’t really mean that in a good way. Generally speaking, the greens have a huge amount of contour and there aren’t any “easy” putts or pin locations. There are small tiers, narrow tongues, greens that angle away from the fairways and it felt like too many putts were double breakers. The course was tough enough from the tees to the greens that the greens didn’t need to be so tricky – just my opinion though.
The other issue I had with the course was its price. The green fee was $165, which is borderline outrageous compared to the other courses we played on the trip. In comparison, Arcadia Bluffs cost us $230 to play both courses. Grand Traverse was $155 for two courses while Pilgrim’s Run and the Warren Course were about $75 each. I enjoyed these other courses far more than Harbor Shores.
If you can get past the wacky green complexes and not let the price bother you, then Harbor Shores is a visually stunning course. I thought the aesthetics were the course’s best feature. The landscape is interesting and changes every few holes. The course starts out in a wooded area and then plays through the wetlands out to the dunes. Then it is a mix of woodlands and wetlands on the back nine. The wooded holes here, especially the 10th through the 12th, reminded me a lot of Potomac Shores Golf Club – another Nicklaus design – in Northern Virginia.
The signature hole at Harbor Shores is the par-4 7th. It is 396 yards, doglegs right and plays uphill on the approach shot. The drive is tough because there is water to the right and bunkers to the left. However, the approach is even more difficult because it is mostly blind. At best you can see the top of the flag. At worst it is completely blind because the small green is set on top of the dunes. However, once you get to the green you can see Lake Michigan and the beach nearby.
We played the black/gold tees and as I alluded to earlier in the review, Harbor Shores is tough. The black/gold tees are 72.2/142/6469 (par-71). The layout has a number of forced layups and forced carries – it felt like plenty of target golf. The fairways are pretty generous, but all the bunkers make it difficult to recover after a wild drive.
As you’d expect, the conditions were excellent. The fairways were full and the ball sat up. The greens were smooth and very fast. I definitely had to putt defensively. The rough was thick but playable.
Harbor Shores was a course I wanted to try and in hindsight, I think I set my expectations too high. With views of Lake Michigan from only one hole, I hoped for more “wow” from the routing. That, combined with the testing layout – which just wore me out – has me thinking the course isn’t a “must play” like I thought prior to the round. You may value money differently, but my $0.02 is that for the price and playability there are many better choices in Michigan.
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):