Best golf courses near Canton, MI

Franklin Hills’ eminent neighbors Oakland Hills, Bloomfield Hills, and Birmingham Country Club loom large, yet the course rises to their level. Opened in 1927, this is a very private club, and the Albert Kahn clubhouse adds a touch of elegance. Donald Ross’s greens rank with some of his best with plenty of slope and undulation, and the design is refreshingly pure for not having been tampered with through the decades. The par threes are striking in their variety of length, green setting and shot requirements, and the memorable 301-yard “Volcano” hole at 13 requires just a short iron or wedge to a 3000 square foot green sitting 30 above the fairway, but it is the scariest 75 yards in Detroit.

Meadowbrook's first six holes were designed by Willie Park, Jr. in 1916. Harry Collis and Jack Daray expanded the course to 18 holes in the 1920s, and Donald Ross later remodeled it. In 2017, architect Andy Staples re-envisioned the holes as pure Willie Park expressions, using Park's Huntercomb Golf Club in the U.K. as inspiration. The result is a brash interprettion of early 19th century architecture with square greens, geometric green contour and steep-faced bunkers on a rolling meadow property spotted here and there with stands of trees.

Barton Hills Country Club in Ann Arbor is ranked as one of the best golf courses in Michigan. Discover our experts reviews and tee time information

The Alister MacKenzie-designed course at the University of Michigan is ranked in the top five of Golf Digest’s top collegiate courses in America, and the university also owns Radrick Farms, a Pete and Alice Dye design, also a member of our Greatest College Courses list. Radrick Farms is Dye in his gentlest form. The course is one of Dye’s earliest designs and lacks many of the penal features that he used in his most famous layouts. Some bunkers have the steep faces Dye would use more in his later designs but many are quite forgiving. The course is built on a former gravel mine, giving the terrain significant elevation change of up to 100 feet across the property. Like the university’s MacKenzie design, Radrick Farms is semi-private and open to those with an affiliation to the university.

Alister MacKenzie’s University of Michigan Golf Course was one of just a handful of college courses when it opened in the early 1930s, and it has remained one of the country’s best at any university. A restoration by Michigan native Arthur Hills in the 1990s restored some bunker and green complexes to MacKenzie’s original intent. The scene at the Blue, as it’s often referred to, is also one of the best of any collegiate venue as it sits atop hilly terrain in the shadows of the Big House, the Wolverines’ famous football stadium.

Architect Drew Rogers wasn’t familiar with Plum Hollow’s history in 2018 when interviewing to develop a masterplan for the club, and was surprised to learn the 1921 course was designed by C. H. Alison, designer of American classics like Milwaukee Country Club, the first nine holes at Sea Island, Knollwood and Burning Tree. After completing several years of work, Rogers has modified the locations and large scale of the bunkers to reflect Alison's prevailing style (his bunkers were often compared to giant clamshells), removed non-native trees and reoriented fairways and grass lines around the greens.