Sweetgrass Golf Club | Harris, MI | Par 72

Sweetgrass Golf Club is resort style course with big, wide fairways and large undulating greens. There’s a nice mixture of shorter holes and longer holes, including the drivable first hole. As indicated by the name, long fescue grass is a prominent feature, as well a lot of water. A total of nine holes have water, including an island green par-3 (hole 15). The course offers large landing areas from the tee, but strategy comes into play, especially when finding the best place to attack the green. As you roll through the beautiful fairways, you will notice some features that tie the course together. With all the water around, there are a number of bridges that stand out prominently. The design of the many bunkers and the wooden beams they incorporate is a nice visual touch, but be careful to not get in too close to them. The course has a standard hole setup, with two par-3s and two par-5s on each side. The course offers five sets of tees, allowing for a wide range of skill levels. A small thing that I always like is that the holes are named, and many have names in the native Potowatomi language. The names are a fine tribute to the Potowatomi culture.

It’s pretty simple – Sweetgrass Golf Club is in remarkable condition. The fairways are pristine. The greens are wonderful and consistent. It’s a really, really well conditioned golf course. I even like the sand here, as there’s not too much sand, but it’s still got some density to it. I don’t even recall having an issue with any of the tee boxes.

The practice areas at Sweetgrass offer everything you need in one area, though that area is across the road away from the pro shop and the parking lot. There’s a large range that allows you to spread out, with a number of targets to utilize. There’s a chipping and bunker area at the end of the range if you want to focus on that part of your game. A medium-sized putting green is available close to the 10th tee box and the snack shop. It’s likely smaller than many of the green on the course, and while it offers some good slope, it won’t match some of the wild undulation you’ll find during your round.

This is kind of an interesting category, because the pro shop is inside the building that houses the casino of the Island Resort. I tried to keep the golf part separate from the casino part, because being able to place a few bets right before you check in deserves a higher rating in my book. There’s a large banquet room across the hall from a rather small pro shop. You’ll find what you need there, but if there are other people in the shop at the same time, it gets cramped quickly. If you walk down the hall past the pro shop, you will see a beautiful showcase of the course, hole by hole.

The carts at Sweetgrass were solid, but what I feel like is the bare minimum for a course like this. The GPS on the cart is the small tablet style in the corner of the driver’s side, which makes it a little tougher for bother golfers to see it. It’s also not a point and measure setup, so you are reliant on the points of interest the software has pre-measured out for you. The carts have club and ball cleaners on them, which is nice, but no cooler. My cart ran perfectly well, so no concerns there. Be aware, though, if you get too close to the long grass, the cart will start to beep, and you may need to drive in reverse to get back.

The staff at Sweetgrass and the entire Island Resort are very friendly and laid back. The event I played in at Sweetgrass was remarkably well organized, so you know they have things under control. Due to the event, to keep up pace of play, there was no beverage cart on the course, but we got great service from the staff in the snack shops.

For 2024, this course will cost between $75 and $85 for 18 holes with a cart (including range balls). When you look at the design and the amazing condition it’s in, this is a wonderful value. I would easily pay over $100 to play here.

Sweetgrass is a pretty wide-open course, with large fairways and large greens, so keeping the ball in play and posting a reasonable score is well within reach of a regular player. The greens and around the greens is where you can get yourself in trouble if you leave your ball in a bad spot or you misjudge the speed or break. There are some long holes to contend with, and a good amount of water – it’s on half the holes – that can certainly bite you. However, with how wide open the course is, you should be able to give yourself a safe buffer on a lot of the wet stuff. You don’t have to be overly precise off the tee to be able to get it around Sweetgrass reasonably well.

I love the look of Sweetgrass Golf Club, and like the saying ‘you eat with your eyes’ for food, the look of a course is a big factor in how much fun I have. It feels inviting and allows for you to be caught up in your surroundings instead of worrying about your golf swing the whole time. I really like that the first hole is a drivable par-4. It helps set the tone if you want to be aggressive, and hopefully get your round off to a good start. The craziness of some of the greens, while difficult, is also fun. One of my most memorable shots came on a chip shot from behind the 2nd green, where I executed my shot to perfection. When I remember the shot I pulled off, it pumps me up.

Who doesn’t love a good island hole? Hole 15, “Turtle”, or “Mshike”, is a true island par-3. Depending on the tees you play, it shouldn’t play more than a low-iron into a massive green. That’s a nice feeling, because the target is fairly large, and one of the tamer surfaces on the course. Then there’s the big bridge you drive on right over to the green. It’s a really cool hole that is setup for you to hit a memorable shot on.

Hole 13, called “Eagle”, or “Ke No”, is a monster of a hole. The dogleg par-4 pushes near 500 yards from the tips and feels every bit as long even from the closer tees. Finding the fairway isn’t too difficult, but you’ll want to be down the left as much as possible to help shorten the hole. Like so many of the holes at the courses affiliated with the Island Resort, a long hole doesn’t mean the green is going to take it easy on you. Eagle is the same, as there’s a divide on the left center of the green, so if the flag in the back, it makes it very difficult to get to. If you’re not a long hitter, play this one as a par-5 and hope to make par that way.

There are always courses where I struggle to come up with a “worst” hole, and that is the case at Sweetgrass. I am picking hole 12, a medium par-3 called “Maple Sugar” or “Zi Za Ba Kwet” because the green is over the top. Now, I am going to sound even more contradictory, because it’s fun to see how one can handle a crazy green like that. I said to one of my playing partners that I would like to try a bunch of shots from off the green to see how the ball reacts on the severely undulating green. If every worst hole was this much fun…

I played in the Island Resort’s two-day scramble event over Memorial Day weekend and had a blast. 72 four-person scramble groups spread out between Sage Run and Sweetgrass, and things couldn’t have gone more smoothly. We played Sweetgrass on day two, so we knew it was the better scoring course, but we just couldn’t bring everything together, despite birdieing two of our first three holes. While day one had warmer temps and a bright blue sky, we couldn’t ask for much more on day two, especially considering rain was forecasted for much of the week leading into the event. Temps were down (still in the low- to mid-60s, but the winds were calm, and most importantly it stayed dry. I would have liked to had played a little better, but it was a great event.