South Course ☆ Follow

The South Course at Arcadia Bluffs is a par-72 layout with five tees ranging from 5,281 to 7,412 yards. Designed by architects Dana Fry and Jason Straka, the course opened in 2018 and draws inspiration from Chicago Golf Club and the architecture of C.B. Macdonald and Seth Raynor, featuring a throwback design with intersecting bunkers, centerline hazards, alternate routes of play and geometric shaping that interprets the strategic spirit of Raynor and Chicago Golf Club without replicating specific holes.

The course is situated on a 311-acre parcel located one mile south of the original Arcadia Bluffs course. The South Course contains just two trees within the perimeter of over 300 acres, and golfers will notice the distinct lack of trees, making the ever present wind a consideration and affording long range views across the property. The fairways are massive, measuring 50-70 yards wide, while greens are large in area, averaging over 9,400 square feet, and are often squared off in shape with pinnable areas separated into different sections using swales, ridges, slopes and isolated bumps.

Where the Bluffs Course is a feast for the eye, the South Course is a treat for the intellect. The course is notably windy, reportedly even more so than the Bluffs Course which sits right on Lake Michigan. The signature hole is the 13th, a 447-yard par 4 dogleg with a large fairway bunker on the outside of the bend, and the approach shot requires carrying cross bunkers to reach a punchbowl green.