Harbor Point Golf Club (Harbor Springs, MI)

Overlooking Little Traverse Bay, Harbor Point is an old school club that turns private in the heart of summer when it’s members return for their annual retreat. It’s a Scottish style layout that focuses on shots and interesting holes as opposed to length. Thus, at 5881 yards, players are surprised by the challenge they encounter on a “short course”. A closer look at the routing reveals its secret as there are nine par fours, four par fives, and five par threes. 

Harbor Point was designed by David Foulis in 1896 (126 yrs old wow!) and most of the course sits on the main property but each nine has three holes that cross the street. These six holes climb up the hill and have the best views of the water. The back nine in particular has the most unusual routing with its 5,3,5,3,5,3,4,3,4 schematic. Note how one doesn’t play the same par twice in a row. Also note there are four par threes on the back. If that isn’t enough to whet your appetite for quirky, then maybe you’ll get more of a shock when you learn that one must hit their drive on eighteen before playing the downhill par three seventeenth! How cool is that?! I love it! 

(The 336 yard par four second is the epitome of threading the needle. It’s a very narrow gap for the tee shot…
…once in the fairway, the player is looking at an approach to a green atop a little knob. It’s only a short iron yet the spin can take the ball clear off the green and down the slope.) 

(The 187 yard par three fourth has an inviting green that funnels balls to the middle. This pic taken from the walk to eight tee shows the front pitching forward before rising in the rear.) 

(The 349 yard par four fifth doglegs left to a green that sits on a spiny ridge. Shots missed left and right will go down the slope. This is also a severely pitched green so being above the hole will be difficult to keep on the putting surface. The gentleman in pic had his ball go ten feet off the front.) 

(The 338 yard par four ninth is a definite birdie opportunity. The bunker in foreground is in the middle of the fairway and the player must choose his line off the tee carefully…
…the green is tipped in the front with multiple slopes throughout. Watching a putt come from the opposite direction could fool you into playing a break that’s not true. As you’re leaving the green, the short grass extends thirty yards to the right where the clubhouse sits. It’s a cool look.) 

Like many short courses, the par threes tend to be stout, and at Harbor Point, four of them are over 180 yards. This quintet of one shotters regularly dishes out bogeys which puts a lot of pressure on taking advantage of the par fives. There’s also a handful of short par fours which could yield a birdie or two too. This collage of difficulty and opportunity makes Harbor Point a fun and exciting course. It should be noted that not many people broke their handicap during our matchplay tournament. 

(The 466 yard par five tenth is fraught with trouble. A narrow entrance and bunkers all around make any long iron second shot a perilous one. Note the false front. Today’s front pin is not easy to find.) 

(The 458 yard uphill fourteenth is another reachable par five but this time there’s plenty of room between the traps to run the ball on. Even the short hitter should just have a pitch for his third.) 

(As the player walks from sixteen to seventeen tee, the tee box to eighteen comes first. It’s a downhill shot to a dogleg right with bunkers guarding the inside. Players will hit their drive before proceeding to the par three seventeenth hole. During matchplay and even medal tournaments, this creates all sorts of mental and emotional dilemmas. A good drive might free one up to attack the par three while a bad one might really put the pressure on…

…the 183 yard par three seventeenth is downhill to a wide expansive green. The right side is guarded more than the open left. After putting out, the player walks off the back and over to the fairway to play his approach into eighteen. Yes there could be eight balls in the fairway, or one might have to wait as the group behind hits their drives…
…the approach into eighteen green is quite open but only the front half. The back of the green extends behind the right trap. A spine crossing the middle separates the two halves…

…looking back, one can see just how deep the green goes. A back pin is easily a couple clubs longer. The dichotomy between the final two holes is something I’ve never seen. During my match, I hit a a fantastic drive with my opponent in the bunker. Knowing he needed to hit a good one on seventeen, he stuffed one in to close me out 2&1. He may not have been that aggressive if our fates were not already written for the final hole.) 

Michigan continues to impress me and the top of the mitt is hands down one of the finest summer destinations you’ll find in the Midwest. There’s great golf up here, and Harbor Point can add playability along with a three hour pace of play. And that is the true beauty of a sub 6000 yard course. I give Harbor Point a 5 (good)(worth driving an hour to play). 

[Being 126 years old, some of the greens have enough pitch in them that uphill putts are slow while downhill putts are fast. This was a skill golfers needed to possess and in today’s game we are not always ready to deal with that. I struggled with the putter and got off to a poor start. A chip in on nine got me to decent front but I continued to yo-yo on the back nine. It wasn’t a pretty round but somehow I broke 80. It wasn’t good enough for my match]

David Foulis is one of the early pioneers of golf architecture but more importantly he helped design both the modern day 7 iron and the golf flag support. The support or cup is something we probably take for granted today but it is an important piece of equipment.