Michigan Man’s Quest to Play Every Golf Hole in the State
So far, at 1,032 courses played, he is just three short of the goal
By Tom Lang
Fred Miller, PhD. is a golfing warrior – or a golf nut – or maybe a little of both.
The retired Grosse Pointe Farms resident, Wayne State University professor and cancer researcher at the Karmanos Institute, claims to have played every golf hole in the state of Michigan except for a total of 36 holes remaining at three golf courses – Bloomfield Hills Country Club (18), The Dunes Club near Benton Harbor (9) and Epworth Heights (9) near Muskegon.
All three locations are private clubs that he has tried to get on, but failed to so far.
As of December 2021, Miller says he has played 1,032 golf courses (combined current and now closed) in Michigan in his lifetime. He counts a 9 or 18-hole course as one course. If the location has 27 or 36 holes, he counts that as two courses. He also requires of himself to score lower than 100 for 18 holes and lower than 50 for nine; if he doesn’t, he must play it again to make the list.
There wasn’t time for me to leaf through and count every single scorecard Miller has stored in a large wooden filing cabinet to show his score and presence at each course, but I did see the nearly 1,000 pencils from each that he’s collected. He has several hundred logoed balls, and an excel spreadsheet – what else would we expect from a cancer researcher? – detailing all the locations, the green fees paid, the date played and his score.
“I read a book that reviewed most of the golf courses in southeast Michigan and I thought that would be fun to try them,” Miller said regarding the decision to begin the mission in 1998. “Then the Detroit Free Press had an annual list of courses, so I cut that out and followed it.
“Initially I said I’d play nine holes at each course, but that turned out to be a mistake, because later on I decided I would play all the holes. So, I had to go back and play those again. That’s what got me going on this.”
You could say Miller has seen it all in golf in Michigan.
He’s played every course that is on an island – such as Belle Isle, Grosse Ile, Coldwater Lake, Drummond Island, Mackinaw Island, etc. He even flew over to Beaver Island with three buddies. At the time it was his final public course to check off the list.
He played the few holes that are plopped down inside Wild Cherry RV Park at Lake Leelanau.
He played a short par 4 dogleg that has a tree in the green; yes, the large trunk was completely surrounded by putting surface at White Dear Country Club (not private).
Then there is Valley High Country Club in Northport. Miller says two brothers built a par 3 nine-hole course for their friends and family. “It’s not open to the public, except if you know about it, it’s open to you,” he said.
Another course in the U.P. had a dogleg par 3 !
On the list of his favorite courses is the Links/Quarry at Boyne’s Bay Harbor, the Hills Course at The Highlands, and Arcadia Bluffs.
“I really like Arcadia Bluffs; for some reason I play really well there,” he said. “There’s so many great courses in Michigan.”
As soon as a new Michigan course opens, he gets there as soon as possible. Those recently include Arcadia’s South Course, Stoatin Brae, Sage Run, The Loop Red and Black, and the short course Bootlegger at Forest Dunes. The last two public courses played were American Dunes and the new Silver 9 at Saskatoon.
To be as thorough as possible at getting every hole in Michigan, Miller used Google Earth to scan the Michigan state line and found three golf courses to play that have club houses in another state, but with multiple holes in Michigan:
Gateway in Land O’ Lakes, WS
Knollwood CC in Granger, IN
Tameron CC (also known as Sunningdale) in Toledo, OH
To get access to private courses, Miller had had to get creative. He goes to GAM Days that are hosted at mostly private clubs. He joined GAM’s rater team for a few years to get on others. He has played in charity events at courses he hadn’t played yet. Most other opportunities come from tapping into his friends’ network to find a friend-of-a-friend member of the club.
Going outside of Michigan, Miller says he has played a total of 1,412 golf courses, including 30 in Ontario, one in British Columbia, two in the Virgin Islands and five in Hawaii. He’s also gone to 124 golf courses rated in the top 100 at least one year by GOLF or Golf Digest – 27 of which were in Michigan at least one time.
In 2012 the family took a vacation out west. He got a head start in the car and played golf for a week, then picked up his wife and kids at the airport and had family vacation time together. They then flew home while he drove home to hit more courses along the way.
That same year he spent $4,595.50 on greens fees in and outside of Michigan.
About that same time, he did a major tour of the U.P. the summer after retiring. From July 4th through the 12th (9 days) he tracked 33 courses at a cost of $987. Eighteen courses were 18 holes, and 15 were 9 holes, at an average of 51 holes per day.
“I had a sleeping bag in car and stayed at various state parks with shower facilities. I played sun-up to sundown, driving between courses.”
The most Michigan courses he played for the first time in one season was 127, in 2006.
If any reader thinks they can help Miller play the final three golf courses on his list, contact me at: michigangolfjournal@gmail.com
