Forest Dunes Golf Club
Roscommon, Crawford County, Michigan · Northern Michigan Resort Corridor golf market
- Access
- mixed
- Holes
- 36
- Architect(s)
- Tom Weiskopf, Tom Doak
- Gated
- No
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Forest Dunes Golf Club opened in 2002 in a remote, wooded stretch of Crawford County (town-addressed as Roscommon) as a single Tom Weiskopf-designed course. It transformed into a genuine national golf destination in 2016 with the opening of The Loop, architect Tom Doak's celebrated reversible course — playable clockwise ("Black") one day and counterclockwise ("Red") the next over the same 36 holes of ground, an unprecedented modern design achievement that won Golf Digest's Best New Public Course and GOLF Magazine's Best New U.S. Course You Can Play honors simultaneously. Both Loop routings have since ranked among Golf Digest's America's 100 Greatest Public Courses (reported at roughly No. 45 and No. 47 nationally), and trade coverage places Forest Dunes among just a handful of American resort properties — alongside Pebble Beach, Streamsong, Bandon Dunes, and Kohler — with three courses distinguished in the nation's public-access Top 50.
Alongside the golf, Forest Dunes has built a genuine residential layer: individually-owned cottages (some directly on the 7th fairway of the original Forest Dunes course, others on nearby Lake AuSable) that are rental-managed when not in use by their owners, plus an active custom-homesite program with buildable lots along several holes. In January 2025, Forest Dunes announced a fourth course, SkyFall (Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, over 300 acres), described as "heavily membership oriented" with roughly 100 founding members and 150 additional members reported, though pricing and terms are not yet finalized as of this research date and the course itself will not open until 2028. This growing membership layer is a real, live shift worth watching, but it does not change the current picture for the existing courses: access to Forest Dunes and The Loop remains public/resort-guest based, not membership-gated, and this session's research directly found that current homesite/lot real estate is marketed as available to both members and non-members — directly contradicting a marketing claim (found repeated across several real-estate-aggregator sources) that homesite ownership 'guarantees' club membership. That specific claim should be treated as unverified secondary-source marketing language, not a confirmed fact.
Golf & Course
Tom Weiskopf's original Forest Dunes course opened in 2002. Tom Doak's The Loop (2016) is architecturally unique in modern golf: a single 36-hole routing played in one direction ('Black') or reversed ('Red') on alternating days, submitted by Doak as one combined entry for Golf Digest's 2016 Best New competition and winning outright. Both routings are separately ranked on Golf Digest's America's 100 Greatest Public Courses list. A new fourth course, SkyFall (Gil Hanse/Jim Wagner), was announced in January 2025 on over 300 adjacent acres; it is planned as a largely private, membership-based course with some resort-guest tee time access, targeting a 2028 opening.
Membership & Access
Does buying a home here include club membership?
The existing Forest Dunes and Loop courses operate on a standard public daily-fee model (green fees reported at $95-$185) with no membership or ownership requirement to play; resort guests staying in on-site cottages get access to additional tee times, including limited access to The Loop that is otherwise more restricted for day visitors. Real estate (cottages and custom homesites) is sold and rental-managed separately from golf access. This session found a direct, real estate-page-sourced statement that lots are available for purchase to "members (or non-members)," which conflicts with a separately-sourced, repeated marketing phrase (traced to a real-estate-aggregator listing description, golfhomes.com) claiming that buying a homesite "guarantees" club membership. Per this build's fabrication-risk discipline, the aggregator phrase is flagged as unverified rather than accepted, given a same-session, differently-worded search produced a directly conflicting first-party-adjacent statement. The new SkyFall course, once open, will introduce a genuinely private, paid-membership tier distinct from the existing public-access model.
Living in Forest Dunes Golf Club
Cottages sit directly on the golf course (along the 7th fairway of the Forest Dunes course) and along Lake AuSable, individually owned and enrolled in a rental-management program when not occupied by their owners. Custom homesites (reported as roughly half-acre-plus parcels with 120+ feet of course frontage on some lots) are available for buyers wanting to build.
Lifestyle & Amenities
The property is a genuine golf-and-outdoors destination in a remote part of north-central Michigan (Huron National Forest area) rather than a full-service resort town — golf, on-site cottage lodging, and Lake AuSable are the core draws, without the marina/Village/spa-district lifestyle infrastructure found at Bay Harbor.
Location & Surrounding Area
Located in Crawford County, town-addressed as Roscommon, roughly an hour south of Gaylord in north-central Michigan.
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What Buyers Should Verify
- Attempt to reach forestdunesgolf.com/live directly again in a future research pass — blocked by network egress on repeated attempts this session, exactly as it was in the pre-brief pass.
- Confirm current homesite/lot pricing and whether any club privileges attach to a specific lot or cottage purchase directly with Forest Dunes — conflicting secondary-source claims were found and neither is confirmed.
- Confirm current SkyFall membership pricing, terms, and opening timeline directly, since public reporting places this as still evolving as of the research date.
- Do not conflate this Michigan course with the unrelated 'Forest Dunes' residential neighborhood in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, which shares only the name — a real name-collision risk this session specifically identified and excluded from this record.
Notable
- Forest Dunes is one of only a handful of U.S. resort properties (alongside Pebble Beach, Streamsong, Bandon Dunes, and Kohler) with three courses ranked among Golf Digest's national public-access Top 50.
- Tom Doak's Loop (2016) is a single reversible 36-hole routing playable clockwise or counterclockwise on alternating days — an unprecedented modern design that won Golf Digest's Best New Public Course honors as one combined entry.
- A new private fourth course, SkyFall (Gil Hanse/Jim Wagner), was announced in January 2025, targeting a 2028 opening on 300+ adjacent acres — a real, in-progress shift toward a partially private membership model that did not exist as of this research date.
- This session found and flagged a conflict between a real-estate-aggregator marketing claim that homesite purchase 'guarantees' membership and a directly conflicting statement that lots are available to members and non-members alike — neither could be confirmed against Forest Dunes' own primary site (blocked by network egress).
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US Golf Living provides independent real-estate research and can connect consumers with real-estate professionals. Golf membership, availability, fees and approval are determined independently by the applicable club.