The Loop at Forest Dunes

The Loop at Forest Dunes is Tom Doak's reversible course, 18 greens and 18 fairways that play clockwise (the Black) one day and counterclockwise (the Red) the next, as two separate 18-hole routings. The concept had been sitting in Doak's head since he read the appendix in Tom Simpson and Roger Wethered's 1929 'The Architectural Side of Golf', he'd been waiting for the right sandy site to build it. Forest Dunes' owner gave him the canvas in 2016. Play the Black one morning and the Red the next afternoon and the courses feel distinct, not mirrored. Each has its own tees, fairway angles, and green-entry strategy. Topography, bunkering, and green approaches were shaped to serve both directions without either feeling like you're playing a hole backwards, a much harder design problem than it reads. When it opened, Golf Digest named The Loop Best New Public Course and Golf Magazine named it Best New U.S. Course You Can Play. It remains on national lists, Golf Magazine has it #30 on Best You Can Play (2024), Golfweek has it #t-47 on Best Courses You Can Play and #3 in Michigan. Book both routings when you come; skipping one is malpractice.