Blackwolf Run--Meadow Valleys Course

The reason that I went to Blackwolf Run in June 2020 is that my traveling golf buddy Bob needed to check the Meadow Valleys course off his list and he suggested that we add it. He didn’t insist (because I was the one making the plans), but I thought about it for awhile and realized that I wouldn’t mind also seeing the River Course. And if you read my review of that course, you’ll see that I’m glad that I went along with his suggestion.

But we were there to play the Meadow Valleys course. And while I didn’t like it as much as the River, it’s a very good course. It probably never had a chance to be as good as the River Course. While the original 18 holes at Blackwolf Run (the front nine of the River and the back nine of Meadow Valleys) follow the river, all of the new holes that make up the River Course are along the river while none of the new holes on the Meadow Valleys are. The new holes here put the Meadow in Meadow Valleys. They’re in what looks to be an old farm field but Pete Dye did plenty of shaping to try and make them interesting and for the most part, he succeeded.

Some people prefer the original 18 at Blackwolf Run to either of the current courses. They suggest that the back nine on the Meadow Valleys are the strongest holes at Blackwolf Run. I disagree. While there are a few holes (fourteen and eighteen) that take great advantage of the river, the others aren’t as interesting as most of the holes on the River Course, especially its newer nine holes, nos. 5-13. But it’s all still very interesting and like the River Course, there are several quirks…several of which involve trees.


But that won’t be an issue for awhile as the front nine are entirely out in the meadow. The first is a bit of an intimidating drive with a pond right, but plenty of room left. The second is a very wide fairway and you’ll want to hit a long one as the green is elevated over two tiered bunkers and requires at least one club extra.

Between mounds on the left and a pond on the right, the first is a typical looking drive for a Dye course.

The approach over tiered bunkers to the plateau second green is a bit more interesting. The pile of garbage to the left is from construction on the new par 3 course.

The medium-long par 3 third is a very Pete Dye-looking hole with its diagonal front left to back right green built up about 10 feet from the bunker on the right. The fourth is an interesting split fairway par 5, where a drive up the right leaves you a shorter, but blind approach. Unless you hit a very long drive, you’re probably best playing out to the left of the green as the green is shallow from the right and a miss short on its line will leave you in rough on the side of a hill.

The par 3 third.

Two choices of fairway off the tee on the par 5 fourth.

While the green is over the peak of the hill just in the rough on the right, the approach is best played up the fairway to the left...

...which leaves a better angle.

The medium-long par 4 fifth is an interesting hole. While the fairway is wide, the green is narrow and unless you’re online with it, you’ll have an awkward angle. If you miss far right or left, the trees that frame the green will come into play. Unfortunately, with the exception of the tree closest to the green, they’re all ash trees and will be lost to the emerald ash borer if they’re not treated every few years (although with the green fees that they charge here, they should be able to afford that…).

The approach to the fifth green, about to be the subject of some unnatural, invasive species-induced tree removal unless they spend some of your lucrative green fees on chemicals and pressure injectors.

The sixth is a tough, but very good long par 4. The main task here is to hit it as far as you can, but keep it near the bunkers on the left because the green is more open from the left side. I didn’t get a picture of the approach to the green, but I found the shaping around the green to be very appealing.

The approach to the long par 4 sixth from the left side of the fairway.

The next three holes play around a large pond and feel like typical Pete Dye holes. They’re interesting and challenging holes, but I think that you could find three similar holes on several Pete Dye courses in Myrtle Beach or in Florida.

The par 3 eighth is interesting because the rise short and right of the green obscures its front right portion.

The back nine starts with a very odd dogleg right short par 4 cut through a mature forest. This hole feels like it belongs on a good (but not very good) course in northern Michigan but there’s one interesting thing to note about it: the green is/was also the green for the first hole of the original course. The drive for that hole plays south over the Sheboygan River from near the third tee on the River Course to a fairway which sits in the river’s floodplain. The second shot from there is dramatically up hill. I suspect that that’s a better way of reaching this green than the tenth hole on the Meadow Valleys course.

The drive on ten is out of place on this course.

The approach to the tenth green. If you look down the hill to its left toward the Sheboygan River, you'll see the first fairway on the championship course, which plays up to it.

From the par 5 eleventh to the eighteenth green, we’re playing the front nine of the original (and current championship) Blackwolf Run course. The view from the tee has changed a bit over time as they’re now adding a par 3 course on the right between this fairway and that of the second (got to keep with the times). It’s a bit of a Dye standard, with the big waste-like bunker on the left, where the bold drive that carries or skirts it has the shortest approach to the green and with the best angle. It’s a good hole, but I could do without some of the shaping around the green.

Hug the left fairway bunker on eleven to shorten the approach.

The shaping around the green is a bit fussy.

After the medium-long par 4 twelfth, we come to an awkward but interesting short par 4 at the thirteenth. The hole doglegs uphill to the left and there are two bunkers on the corner. It’s important to challenge the corner here because the green is so small and elevated that you’ll want to have a short approach. If there’s a decent wind, the green really isn’t large enough for any yardage to be safe.

The left edge of the fairway is the perfect line from the thirteenth tee.

The approach to the green almost looks like you're playing up to a tee box. And it's not much bigger than it looks up there.

Fourteen is a signature hole on the Meadow Valleys course because the approach features in much promotional material for the course. The drive is fairly open, but you can run out of room on the left. The approach is the attraction here, downhill to a bend in a tributary to the Sheboygan River. It’s interesting to think about how much shaping must have gone into this green site—the right side of the green is built up on bulkheads probably 10 feet about the tributary. The green site appears to be completely built up and everything else around the tributary appears completely shaped. The result creates for dramatic and interesting golf but when I look at parts of the river bank that weren’t shaped for a hole hole, I think that Dye could have done something less intrusive and still produced great golf.

The drive on fourteen isn't too dramatic, although the view of the river to the right is nice.

But the downhill approach to the green, set in the bend of a tributary to the river, is very dramatic. And if there's any wind, very difficult.

As others have noticed, the par 3 fifteenth is excellent. The green is built up on a ridge overlooking the tributary and it’s difficult to see from the tee how deep it is. It looks like there’s no room to play left of center, but this is deceptive. The green is both quite deep and contains some of the most interesting contours on the course.

Don't miss the fifteenth green short or left.

From behind the green, you can see that if you played to the right side of the green (left in this frame), you could use a slope to feed the ball into the center.

I really like the par 5 sixteenth. The concept is similar to number 11, but the drive is uphill and blind. I love a good uphill, blind shot and this is one because the movement gives you a cue about what’s going on—the further right you go, the further you have to go to carry over the hill. Oh, and this being a Dye course, there’s a big bunker there. The lay up is simple, but you should play it to the left because the small green angles from front left to back right along a quasi-waste bunker.

The further you carry the ridge up the hill on the sixteenth, the shorter your approach will be.

Lay up to the left for a simple approach to this small green.

The par 3 seventeenth isn’t very good. A bit like the thirteenth on the River Course, a tree blocks the shot to the green but unlike that hole, you don’t have the interesting shot over the bend of the river. This hole is essentially the same as number fifteen, but there’s a big sugar maple tree blocking your shot. And if you assume that the tree grew in a symmetrical way, the right side has been completely deformed by golf balls over the last 30 years. I understand why they kept it because without it, it’d be the same hole as number fifteen. But for the sake of the dignity of both the golfers and the tree, they should remove it and maybe rethink the green.

I'm a bit less forgiving of this tree par 3 than the one on the River Course (#13) because it doesn't have the interesting setting in the bend of the Sheboygan River.

On the other hand, the eighteenth is a great, heroic hole. We can see that the Sheboygan River comes into play on the right the further you hit it. It’s critical to hit a long drive and get it as close to the river as you can here because the approach is a long carry over the river to the green. Apparently the carry is too long for many because they’ve built an alternative green on this side of the river. But you should at least give one shot at the right green no matter your skill level—it’s one of the most proper, heroic shots that I’ve seen on a golf course, a bit like the second on the great par 5 eleventh on the River Course. It’d be a great finishing hole for almost any course.

If you hit a long drive on eighteen, the Sheboygan River can come into play on the right.

The approach over the river is one of the best on the property. For those who can't make the carry (about 100 yards of river), there's a green on this side to the left (red flag).

The Meadow Valleys is a very good course, but it just can’t match the greatness of the riverside holes in the middle of the River Course. I think that even the back nine here, which are the front nine of the original course, fall quite a bit short of those holes. And some of these holes, like number thirteen and number seventeen are awkward and without sufficient redeeming features. The first nine is very good, but wouldn’t go further than that in my praise—several holes are no better that what you’d find on any other Dye course that isn’t held in such high regard. There are a few flashes of brilliance on the Meadow Valleys course, but I feel that the River Course definitely got most of the better holes. And while I didn’t play it, I also strongly doubt that I’d prefer the original course to the River Course.