Arcadia Bluffs Bluffs Course

Michigan has more public golf courses than any other state in America, and the quality at the top end rivals the best resort golf anywhere in the country. The combination of Great Lakes shoreline, northern hardwood forests, and sand-based soil - a legacy of glacial deposits - gives Michigan course architects raw material that most states simply don’t have. The result is a collection of public courses that regularly place eight or more entries on Golf Digest’s national top 100 public list. The concentrated quality in northern Michigan’s “Golf Coast” - the stretch from Traverse City to Petoskey along the Lake Michigan shore - has made the region a destination that draws golfers from across the Midwest and beyond. Northwest Michigan - The Golf Coast The Lake Michigan shoreline between Traverse City and Petoskey is home to the state’s most celebrated courses. Arcadia Bluffs Bluffs Course sits 150 feet above Lake Michigan in the small town of Arcadia. The 7,298-yard par-72 layout designed by Warren Henderson and Rick Smith runs along coastal bluffs with panoramic lake views from nearly every hole. It is the No. 1 ranked course in Michigan according to multiple publications, including consistent placement in Golf Digest’s...

The United States has more than 14,000 golf courses open to the public, spread across deserts, coastlines, mountains, prairies, and everything in between. Choosing just one standout public course per state is a difficult exercise, but it forces a useful question: if you had a single round to play in each state, where would you go? The 50 courses below are all accessible without a private membership. Some are resort courses with green fees north of $200, while others are municipal gems where a round costs less than dinner. All of them reward the trip. Northeast The northeastern states pack a lot of golf history and terrain variety into a small geographic footprint. Coastal links, mountain resort courses, and classic parkland layouts built by Donald Ross and A.W. Tillinghast are all within a few hours’ drive of each other. Connecticut: Keney Park Golf Course – This 1927 Jack Ross design in Hartford has been called one of the best municipal courses in New England. The layout runs through mature hardwoods with firm, undulating greens that reward careful approach play. Green fees stay affordable, making it a genuine public treasure. Delaware: Baywood Greens – An 18-hole championship course in Long Neck...