William Blaul

Marketed as the oldest links course in Michigan, the Les Cheneaux golf course falls short of living up to that legacy. Yesterday's round of nine holes was $35 with a newish, though uncleaned gas-powered cart. Les Cheneaux's 18 holes are a wraparound nine with different tee locations, some of which are confusing. The layout is very tight with three greens virtually on top of one another. A few short sections of cart path wind through lovely cedar forests. The greens were exceptionally slow, spongy, uneven, and pockmarked with weeds and bare spots. The concrete-like bunkers, seemingly few at Les Cheneaux for a links course, looked and felt like soaked and hardened kitty litter. The overall course conditions at Les Cheneaux seem to result from neglect rather than thoughtful care. Numerous above-grade sprinkler valve boxes constructed of rotting plywood strangely dot the course. In other spots, irrigation boxes are covered with a slab of decayed plywood. Mind your step. Thoughtful placement of well-tended native plants are oddly absent from the experience. Weedy fairways, poor greens, and links features seem cobbled together, overgrown, or just ill-tended. The course has no particularly interesting vistas or views and, as a value, ranks at the bottom of other nearby courses. When we arrived, the green at hole 9/18 was being manually watered with a hose and sprinkler - during active play. Who snakes a hose and activates a sprinkler on a green during play? The links charm of Les Cheneaux is a stretch. Many who have played Les Cheneaux hundreds of times will adore its character. But for first-timers, that character is just time and money that would have been better spent elsewhere.