Best Michigan private golf courses ranked: Alister MacKenzie gem still No. 1

Michigan has dozens of excellent private golf courses and country clubs.
Some are among the best in the United States and the world.
Golfweek, part of the USA TODAY Network like the Detroit Free Press, has released its highly anticipated 2025 rankings of each state’s best private golf courses, including the top 15 in Michigan.
And the names at the top are among the most celebrated in all of golf.
Crystal Downs retains the title as No. 1 golf course in Michigan. Finished in 1933, it is a top 50 golf course in the world, according to Golf.com.
According to Crystal Downs, the owners convinced the world’s most renowned architect, Alister MacKenzie, to detour his train trip from the west — after finishing work on Cypress Point Golf Club in California — to east coast on his way home to England. MacKenzie, traveling with his associate Perry Maxwell, wasn’t all that enthused and perhaps more annoyed than anything, but his demeanor changed when he saw the dunesland in Frankfort overlooking Lake Michigan.