Walking Nine: The Loop at Forest Dunes Golf Resort

I’ve never been much of a “bucket list” golf course guy. That isn’t to say I haven’t played some great courses. Troon North’s Pinnacle Course, Quintero Golf Course, and Tullymore Golf Course are a few I’ve been lucky enough to experience. And I enjoyed each of them immensely. But I typically have ranked my rounds of golf by those that have joined me for 18 holes. My dad, my brothers, close friends, or strangers that became temporary golf brethren as we shared stories and golf shot compliments.

But lately, through a curated Twitter following of golf course and architect aficionados, I’ve come to realize there are some relatively lesser known (at least to the greater golf population) courses and resorts, many not too far from my Chicago “headquarters” that require my attention.

Enter Forest Dunes Golf Resort in the small town of Roscommon, Michigan. Tucked into northern Michigan and a roughly five and a half hour drive from Chicago, the resort is host to three top 50 public golf courses in the country according to Golf Digest’s most recent ranking. The resort is only one of four resorts in the country that can boast such an accomplishment. The other three? Pebble Beach, Bandon Dunes, Streamsong, and Sand Valley. Talk about some exclusive and impressive company.

Admittedly, I had no idea that Forest Dunes even existed prior to my trip to the Chicago Golf Show in February of this year. Walking the aisles and aisles of booths at the show, Forest Dunes caught my eye because of the very unique course description of The Loop.

The Loop, designed by course architect Tom Doak, a Michigan native who has designed a total of four top 100 golf courses in the world, is a reversible 18-hole golf course. One day the course is called The Loop – Red, and the next it’s The Loop – Black. And I can tell you from experience, while you may be shooting at the same 18 greens, the two courses are entirely different. But equally amazing.

Doak is a minimalist course designer, focusing on the design of golf holes and routing based on the natural features of the land. And his most successful and famous courses have been built on sand dunes, allowing him to take advantage of the drainage and reuse of native elements of the surrounding area. The Loop is certainly all of those things. It is minimalism to a near extreme degree. With only small flags to mark tee boxes and zero signage to tell you which hole you are playing.

That’s the true brilliance of The Loop. Tom Doak has not only designed two incredible golf courses using just 18 greens, but he has also provided the most logical (and walkable) course routing I have ever seen. To the point that signage is literally unnecessary. The routing of the two courses just makes sense.

And I haven’t even gotten to the way the courses play. The wide-open, links-style design allows players of nearly any skill-level to appreciate the courses and enjoy themselves. The Loop is far more strategic in its design than penal. Yes, you can lose a ball here and there with a wayward shot into the native fescue, but overall, Tom Doak allows you to miss without having to go back into the bag for another ball. Granted, your angle into the green won’t be as good if you would have hit your spot, but that’s the trade-off you make on courses like these.

Outside of the design itself, the Red and Black also allow you to be creative with your shot selection far more than your traditional “American”-style golf courses. You can putt from nearly anywhere off the greens, wedges around the greens may not always be a good idea, 6-irons or 8-irons from your traditional wedge locations off the greens are a far better option, and the roll you get out of your tee shots forces you to do way more thinking on the tee box that one usually would. I learned quickly that pulling driver just because a hole is 400 yards long isn’t always the best idea.

In short, it’s so fun.

In my new series called “Walking Nine”, I take a walk and play a few holes with Guest Experience Manager, Tyler Tabor. We talk The Loop, when he became obsessed with the game, and a few other things.

This is Walking Nine: Forest Dunes Golf Resort, Part 1.

Walking Nine: Forest Dunes Golf Resort, Part 1: The Loop

Roughly five and half hours from Chicago and an hour and a half from any “big” city (Traverse City), Forest Dunes Golf Resort, in Northern Michigan, is home to three of the top 50 public golf courses in the country, according to Golf Digest.