Blackheath Golf Course - A wee bit of Scotland near Detroit

[Bag Chatter]

By R Hetzel

 

If you are an addicted golfer, the time to play golf is right now. Sure gas is more expensive and times are tougher, but golf can be found on the cheap if you look around a bit. No, I am not speaking of your local, run down, out of shape and forlorn municipal golf course. In Michigan, bargains can be had all over. Case and point; Sunday morning I played Blackheath Golf Course north of Detroit in Rochester for a paltry $34 with cart on a Sunday morning. To be quite honest, I had read a poor review of Blackheath a while ago, but paid it no mind and made my tee time a week in advance.

Blackheath golf course was designed by Kevin Aldrich; a largely unheralded golf course architect. In fact, his only claim to fame is designing the Gailes Course at Lakewood Shores Resort in Oscoda, Michigan. The Gailes course is ranked in the Top 100 public golf courses. I will be playing there in a three weeks, so I cannot compare the two courses yet. However, I was pleasantly surprised with Blackheath.

It is an excellent golf course located in the middle of a ton of fine public golf courses struggling for golf dollars. I am a huge fan of links and heathland style golf courses and Blackheath certainly fits the bill. More heathland than links, but I use the word links loosely. I was really surprised with how much golf course Aldrich packed into a fairly tight piece of property. The course was built on a fairly scant 128 acres 10 years ago. Interestingly enough, I never really felt crowded while playing nearby the adjoining holes. The fairways are very forgiving at Blackheath, the heather grass appeared to be well under control for the most part. The greens were nicely contoured, not too severe, but did not give up a ton of birdies even though they were quite receptive to incoming golf balls.

As with most heathland style layouts, the bunkering is not really severe here, with the exception of one deep pot bunker that sports a long ladder to get down to your ball. This particular pot bunker is not really in play though, but errant shots that find it will be punished with nothing short of sheer torture. Had Aldrich wanted to, he could have deepened a great many bunkers or even made them of the hated, stacked sod variety.

You’ll score well on this par 71 beauty with some honed shot selection and local knowledge, what I mean is, leave your greed for reward in the parking lot. There are many risk-reward opportunities at Blackheath, more golf courses should have these in my opinion. After my round I was perplexed why this place isn’t packed day in and day out.

There are no stupid golf holes here; just pure heathland and links style (minus the ocean) golf and a ton of fun to be had for a great price in these tough economic times. The clubhouse is spartanly designed, but it serves its’ purpose. I don’t play golf for the clubhouses; I go for the course. Don’t believe what you may have previously read about Blackheath golf course, but believe you this, it is well worth $34 to play here.

The biggest complaint that i could think of was that there are only three sets of tees at Blackheath. The championship tees are pushing 6800 (73/137) yards and the next set only tips out at approximately 6100 (69.3/119) yards. They really could use a second set somehwere inbetween those two sets. Other than that small gripe, I was very satisfied here.

For more information on Blackheath Golf Course, go here.

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[ramylson]

Nice lookin' set-up. Thanks for the review!

[JNewsted]

but did not give up a ton of birdies

 

sez who?!?!?!

 

:drinks:

[JHR]

BlackHeath is a nice course, a lot of fun to play, thanks for the review and pics.

[BEND OF THE RIVER GC]

but did not give up a ton of birdies

 

sez who?!?!?!

 

:clapping:

 

Well "I" missed all my birdie putts!

[itw419]

I liked Blackheath but I really felt like some of the holes were to close together. A guy in my group felt so crowded that he actually had to wait for a group to clear a green before he teed off.

[FairwayFred]

I really like Blackheath. I used to play there alot back when I lived in the area. Definitely worth a trip especially at that price!

[larrybud]

I live 10 min from Blackheath and play there on a Tuesday league. I'm super familiar with the course.

 

First, the good things:

It's cheap, and in generally really good shape. The greens are by far the hardest thing about Blackheath. They are firm and of medium speed. There's a good mix of holes here, with the back 9 being a lot more interesting than the front, IMO. In fact, the final 3 holes are excellent. It's a good course to play after some severe weather because it drains so well.

 

They have a grass range (albeit usually a little too sandy and beat up from the amount of use), but they also have a practice bunker (no green next to it,however), but you can bang out full irons to practice fairway bunker shots.

 

The bad:

First, they have completely changed the way this course was intended to be played by cutting down almost all the heather. When the course first opened, if you missed the fairway by 10 or 15 yards, you'd be in the deep stuff. Unfortunately, this resulted in 6 hour rounds.

 

So after they cut it down, a few of the holes don't play as they were intended to be played. Example, #11, a long par 5 dog leg right... well, long if you hit it in the fairway. But now, you aim nearly into the fairway on #8 to cut off a good 100 yards of the dog leg as there is no trouble anymore, just regular rough, which isn't penal at all. Several players can get home on this in two with an iron to the green.

 

Because of changes like this, there are unintended consequences to speed of play because #11 backs WAAYYYY up during busy times. You have players waiting for #8 to clear, and for the players waiting for the green to clear.

 

Second, this main problem with this course is pace of play, for a couple of reasons.

 

1) Design of the first few holes. #3 which is about a 170 yard par 3 with junk up the entire left side always has a backup on the tee box. Sometimes 2 or 3 groups. The reason for this is the hole is preceded by two short par 4s. So a tough par 3 which can be very penal takes a while for some groups to play, but you breeze through the first two holes.

 

#8 which is a par 5 but very reachable has similar problems to #11. It's a dogleg left with an elevated tee. Hit towards the 150 yard marker with about a 250 yard drive, and you'll have maybe 175 in from the rough. Again, it backs up on this tee box.

 

I've gone over the issue with #11, but after that it opene up decently as you have some longer par 4s on the back and that spreads things out.

 

The MAIN problem with the speed of play here is the 7 minute tee times. They just pack too many people on the course at one time.

[LEFTYPRO]

Love that course, it really helps your game on harder courses because your used to hitting in tight spots on the fairway. There really isn't a rough its more like a desert. $25 on a weekday with a cart for 18 you can't beat that. BTW I always try to drive the green on the second hole, 293 away I have come close but never got it on.

[Go_Blue!]

Yeah i love this course, i probably play there once a week. I agree with the comment made about the heather and not playing like it should. I remember when it first opened up, i beleive there was a publinks qualifier there or some sort of usga qualifier there when the heather was trouble. Now you can get away with alot but the hard part is that a lot of holes seem open but if you go through the fairway say like on hole ten you are scrooed b/c you are probably in the heather on the other side of the cart path. Smae goes for number 11 if you cut alot off and go for in two, if you dont hit the green you are looking for your ball because of how tight it is with all the hard pan and heather surrounding not just the green there but the whole area. All in all this is one of my faves to play b/c of the price and challenge....

[Under99]

Great pics and review!

 

I really have to get out there.