Arcadia Bluffs Gc

Arcadia Bluffs opened in 1999 on a stretch of high ground above Lake Michigan near Arcadia, in Michigan's northwest lower peninsula. Designed by Warren Henderson and Rick Smith on former orchard and woodland, the Bluffs Course was conceived as an American answer to the great seaside links of the British Isles, all rumpled fairways, deep bunkering, tall fescue, and wide-open exposure to the wind off the water. The site is the course's signature: the land tumbles more than 200 feet from its highest points down toward bluffs that themselves stand well above lake level, and the layout runs along thousands of feet of shoreline with the Great Lake as a near-constant backdrop. Construction began in 1997, and the course opened to limited play over the 1999 Labor Day weekend before quickly earning a national reputation. Firm, windswept, and visually stunning at sunset, the Bluffs remains one of the most celebrated public-access courses in the Midwest.