LOCATION: 30 minutes north of Manistee on M-22 ADDRESS: 14710 Northwood Highway YARDAGE: 5,529/7,404; three sets of tees ARCHITECT: Warren Henderson/Rick Smith YEAR OPENED: 2000 PHONE: (800) 494-8666 WEB SITE: www.arcadiabluffs.com

THE OCEAN-LIKE VIEWS, 3,100 FEET OF LAKE MICHIGAN SHORELINE, 160-FOOT COASTAL BLUFFS, THE DUNES, THE 50 SOD-WALLED
bunkers, the classic wood rakes and flagsticks: they all lead players to believe they’re teeing it up in Scotland or Ireland, not Michigan.

There might not be a more scenic spot in Michigan, where the windswept landscape collides with the ice-blue waters of a Great Lake. Some would pay admission just to sit on the veranda and watch the sun set, golf withstanding.

“ It’s the best view in the world,” Arcadia Bluffs general manager William Shriver said. “I don’t care where you go. I challenge you to find a better setting than dusk on the porch and the sun going down. When the sailboats are out and the clouds and sun are pink, it is just breathtaking. It’s so peaceful. People come from all over the world just to see it.”

Golf Digest ranks Arcadia Bluffs the tenth best public course in America for 2008, remarking that it is “golf at its absolute best.”

Arcadia Bluffs’ commitment to a unique playing experience is evident in its amenities. The course has instituted a caddie program, one of the few public courses in the Midwest with one. If you’re not up to walking, the carts are fitted with one of the best Global Positioning System yardage computers.

While the view may captivate you, the 7,300-yard course demands your full attention. Designers Rick Smith and Warren Henderson crafted wide fairways, but danger lies in tough greens and dangerous bunkers. Some of the more than 120 bunkers are sod-walled bunkers. Long fescue grasses are scenic, flapping in the wind, but also penal. “The golf course’s defense is 50 yards and in,” Shriver said.

No. 10, a 481-yard par-4, and No. 11, a 633-yard monster par-5, might be the two best back-to-back holes in the state, displaying the course’s beautiful natural dunes, which tower over either side of the fairway.

Once the golf is over, linger longer at the Nantucket-style clubhouse perched on the apex of the 245-acre property. The best part of your day might be eating dinner at The Sunset Grille inside the pro shop, where golfers soak up the expansive views of Lake Michigan.

“ The secret or the mystique of Arcadia Bluffs is it all looks so natural,” Shriver said. “When you look at it, it looks like it has been here forever. The land and the property lent itself to looking like a great links course.”