Arcadia Bluffs - South Course

Dana Fry and Jason Straka designed the South Course at Arcadia Bluffs in 2018 on a piece of Arcadia, Michigan Lake Michigan bluff land adjacent to the original Arcadia Bluffs Course. The South Course is a heath-style routing that plays inland from the bluff — a deliberate architectural contrast with the original Bluffs course, which plays along the cliff edge with significant Lake Michigan exposure. Fry and Straka routed the eighteen holes through second-growth Michigan forest with fescue rough and a minimalist construction approach that emphasizes the natural property contours.

The course plays around 7,400 yards par 72 from the back markers, with bent fairways and fescue rough, and a slope in the upper 140s. The fairways play firm given the sandy Michigan subsoil; the bounces run twenty yards on dry days. The fifteenth hole is a 543-yard par-5 with a fairway that bends right around a stand of jack pine; the seventeenth, a 220-yard par-3 across a natural depression, is the routing's most-discussed one-shotter. The heath-style routing gives visitors who play both Arcadia Bluffs courses a genuine two-course property experience rather than just two-course quantity.

The South Course is open to resort guests and members at premium daily-fee rates that match the original Bluffs Course pricing. The Arcadia Bluffs Resort hospitality model bundles tee times across both courses, and visitors typically play both in a 36-hole day. Caddies are available; walking is encouraged but the routing is long enough that most rounds use carts.

Northwest Lower Michigan climate compresses the South Course's playing season into late April through October, with the firmest conditions in late August and September. The Lake Michigan moderation gives the property a slightly longer season than the inland Michigan courses. Frost delays push tee times into late morning through May and again in October. The course closes through Michigan winter and reopens when the soil thaws.