Oakland Hills South Course

The verdict

Oakland Hills South is a championship venue in the truest sense, a course built to identify the best player in a major field and to punish anything less than precise. Donald Ross routed it across rolling Michigan farmland in 1918, Robert Trent Jones toughened it dramatically for the 1951 US Open, and the Gil Hanse restoration that reopened in 2021 stripped away decades of accretion to recover the strategy and the playing angles Ross intended. The result is long, fair and relentless, with deep bunkers guarding every line and greens that ask for a confident, committed approach.

For the traveling golfer this is a bucket list round rather than a casual one, because the club is strictly private and the course plays at a scale most amateurs rarely face. From the back tees it stretches to about 7,500 yards, and even from sensible tees the demand on driving and iron play is constant. It is the kind of place where playing well feels like an achievement, and where the history in the clubhouse, six US Opens and a Ryder Cup, sits behind every shot you hit.

The holes worth the trip

The South Course front nine sets a stern tone, climbing and falling across the property with bunkers placed exactly where a good player wants to drive it. The challenge is honest from the first tee: find the fairway, control your distance into firm greens, and accept that par is a strong score on the hardest holes.

The closing stretch is where major championships have been decided. The par 4 16th bends around water to a green angled against the line, the hole where Gary Player hit his famous 9 iron over the trees in the 1972 PGA Championship and where countless contenders have made their move or lost the lead. The 18th then climbs back toward the grand clubhouse, a long two shotter framed by deep bunkering, a finishing hole that has crowned US Open champions and demands two of your best swings under pressure.

Throughout, the Hanse restoration shows in the recovered short grass around the greens and the restored bunker shapes, which reward a thoughtful player who picks the right angle off the tee. This is not a course of tricks; it is a course of relentless quality, where the strategy is visible and the penalty for missing is real.

Where to stay nearby

Oakland Hills sits in the affluent northern suburbs of Detroit, so the natural bases are the hotels of Birmingham and Bloomfield, a short drive from the club, where boutique stays sit among good restaurants and easy access to the freeways. Downtown Detroit and its riverfront hotels are roughly half an hour away if you want a city base with more to do off the course.

For a fuller Michigan golf trip, many traveling golfers pair a private round here with the public marquee courses farther north, basing part of the trip near Detroit and part in the resort country around Gaylord and Lake Michigan. We can build the lodging and the logistics around whichever rounds you secure.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts around metro Detroit.