Arcadia Bluffs vs. Forest Dunes

[Richard Hetzel]

Here are a few pictures of Forest Dunes for you Ben….after going back and looking through my pictures I feel like the sand bunkers look out of place on the holes that have the more natural looking waste areas. They seem to contradict each other visually. Not that it matters all that much to me, but Forest Dunes was the most manicured course out of all 408 that I have played .

[Nigel Islam]

Wow, Richard the pics look awesome.

[Andy Shulman]

I played both courses for the first time about a year ago.  I thoroughly enjoyed them both, but Arcadia is on a far more dramatic piece of property, with or without the lake.  And, probably as a result, I recall more holes from Arcadia than from Forest Dunes.  Finally, Forest Dunes, while a cut above most courses of its type, does have a lot of similarities to many courses I've played in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic.  For all of those reasons - and taking $$$ and walkability out of the equation - I'd play AB again before FD.

[Andy Shulman]

P.S. - Kudos to Bob for playing both in the same day.  For those that haven't visited that part of Michigan, that's about 2 1/2 hour of driving between courses!

[Nigel Islam]

P.S. - Kudos to Bob for playing both in the same day.  For those that haven't visited that part of Michigan, that's about 2 1/2 hour of driving between courses!

I was wondering about that when I saw his post.

[Roger Wolfe]

We were up there in 2010 and a fire prevented us from playing Forest Dunes... the kind folks at Crystal Downs let us play there instead.  Sad to miss FD... but Crystal was really special.  Thank you God.

[Matthew Lloyd]

I also feel the conditioning at FD is unique and to date is the best conditioned course I have ever played.

I feel the exact same way.  In fact, the one time I played Forest Dunes the course was being aerated and I STILL feel that way. That's how great the conditioning was.