Best golf courses near Livonia, MI

Donald Ross felt his 1918 design was out-of-date for the 1951 U.S. Open and was prepared to remodel it. Sadly, he died in 1948, so Robert Trent Jones got the job. His rebunkering was overshadowed by ankle-deep rough, and after Ben Hogan closed with a 67, one of only two rounds under par 70 all week, to win his second consecutive Open, he complained that Jones had created a Frankenstein. Sixty-plus years later, Oakland Hills is even longer, but its bite wasn’t severe when it hosted the 2016 U.S. Amateur. In 2019, the South course closed as Gil Hanse and his team significantly renovated the course with the intention of removing the Jones influences and restoring its Ross feel. They did that by expanding greens to recapture what are some of Ross's best contours, removed trees to show off the rolling landscape and shifted bunkers back to where Ross, not RTJ, placed them. The course re-opened in Spring 2021, and though a crippling fire destroyed the club's iconic clubhouse, the USGA delivered some kind news to the club, bringing the 2034 and 2051 U.S. Opens to Oakland Hills—as well as a number of upcoming USGA championships.

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.

Donald Ross designed two 18-hole courses at Detroit Golf Club on a tight plot of land in the middle of the city. An extensive renovation project was completed by Bruce Hepner in 2015 to restore the greens and bunkers. Most holes are framed by trees and are mostly up and back on flat land, though subtle rumbles in the land provide enough movement to offer strategic value and demanding shotmaking into these Ross greens, which average 5,150 square feet.

Birmingham Country Club in the suburbs of northeast Detroit sits at the center of one of the country's great collections of historic courses. It's neighbors, all within blocks of the club, include the Donald Ross-designed Okland Hills, ranked 20th on America's 100 Greatest Courses, Bloomfield Hills, a 1913 Harry S. Colt design, Ross's Franklin Hills, and Charles Alison's (Colt's design partner) Tam O' Shanter. Detroit Golf Club, another Ross club with 36 holes, is just down the road. Birmingham's pedigree is impressive too: designed in 1916 by Tom Bendelow, the club hosted the 1953 PGA Championship, and in 2022 completed a multiyear renovation by Bruce Hepner that cleared trees, expanded greens and accentuated Bendelow's early 20th century architecture.

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.