Harbor Shores: Gracing Lake Michigan Shoreline
By Tom Lang
Every time I visit Harbor Shores Golf Club in Benton Harbor, the place just keeps getting better and better. A recent visit in June proved it once again.
The only time that tops all other visits was one with a very emotional connection – when I was one of the media who covered the 2010 grand opening as designer Jack Nicklaus played an exhibition with Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Johnny Miller.
What an amazing foursome – one for the ages.
Most people recall the special event by the viral video of Nicklaus showing Miller ‘how it’s done’ nailing that massively long putt from the lower tier on 10 green to the upper green cup, measured at over 100 feet.
It was one of Arnold’s last times ever playing golf in public. At the 17th hole, a par 3, the crowd was somewhat subdued. Maybe by that time it was a long day for most fans. Yet the lackluster buzz for the situation we were all watching on full display as four of the greatest golfers ever were entertaining us clearly bothered one of the ladies in the crowd. When anyone least expected it, she broke the semi-silence by barking out, “C’mon people, it’s freakin’ Arnold Palmer.”
I recounted that story to my playing partner on my latest visit to the Michigan Golf Course of the Year of 2024. We shared a knowing smile as our time was close to wrapping up for the morning.
During our round it jumped out at me how wonderful Harbor Shores looks these days. It’s matured. It’s pristine. It’s one with nature – which is a sharp contrast and hard to believe for people who know that large portions of the 500-acre property were once an industrial dumping ground two decades ago.
And that fact is as much of the success story of Harbor Shores as the awards and accolades – all for a golf property that has literally led the revolutionary rebirth of the Benton Harbor area.
The development of Harbor Shores Golf Club leading up to its opening for play 16 years ago made national news by reclaiming abandoned industrial and polluted land as part of a non-profit effort. It helped to revitalize the area and provide economic growth and continuing development. Harbor Shores is a not-for-profit facility, and a portion of fees collected help maintain the area’s trail systems and beach at adjacent Jean Klock Park.
The course was honored in several best new course rankings in 2010 and has been honored as environmental leaders by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. In 2023 it was named to Golf Digest’s biennial list of America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses.
“Harbor Shores has been committed to the community since 2010 and before when the vision first started, and it has been served with a great golf course the revitalized part of the community, been a big part of Whirlpool’s charitable efforts, created a First Tee program that serves so many kids on-site, and more,” said Jason Doxtator, the GM since 2019.
The award-winning Nicklaus course is part of a beach, golf and residential waterfront community, and the design features golf holes on four diverse terrains – parkland, sand dunes on the lake, woodlands and wetlands along the Paw Paw River and Ox Creek. I tell people that it truly feels like four golf courses within one 18-hole experience. Holes 1-6 are like playing in a parkland area with a handful of homes. Then holes 7-9 go out to Lake Michigan and back. Cross the street to holes 10-13 and you feel like it’s northern Michigan, followed by holes 14-18 playing in a river basin.
A Truly Professional Major Experience:
Harbor Shores hosted the Sr. PGA Championship six times – every other year beginning in 2012. The Scotsman Colin Montgomery earned his first professional stroke play win on American soil here in Benter Harbor.
“The first time I came here was 2014,” Montgomery told me, about his first visit to Harbor Shores, where he out-paced Tom Watson by four strokes. “And I really hadn’t heard yet about what the transformation of this area was, and I fell in love with it.
“To get Jack (Nicklaus) was huge,” he added. “To get him out of his seat in Florida and come up here and design this fantastic, iconic golf course it’s become. Six senior majors played here. That’s something very special for this area. And so, I was very happy to get my first stroke play win in America, right here, against some the absolute best players who I looked up to for many years.”
Montgomery repeated the win the following year at French Lick.
You too can play where most of the top senior golfers in the game competed. The layout today remains in championship condition, that will not only test your game but will treat the eyes.
The Sr. major added to the economic growth of the region, helping build upon the re-birth of the region. An ongoing development as well is a residential section called Harbor Village – just one more piece of the timeline that has shown that Benton Harbor and St. Joseph city leaders could come together and forge the environmental improvement and economic resurgence of the region that’s good for both cities.
“The overall impact of this community has been immeasurable,” said Darwin Watson, who lived in Benton Harbor most of his life and became city manager. “Having grown up here and knowing what this was, from my earliest memories and to see what it’s transformed into now, gives the sense that we’re moving in the right direction and it aligns us with other communities that are moving forward and trying to develop a sense of place.
Latest Addition: Wee Course
This is the first full year of the new Wee short course at Harbor Shores Resort. Montgomery returned in early July for the official ribbon cutting, but locals have been playing the course for months, including the PGA Junior League and the First Tee program that’s headquartered on site.
No hole is longer than 60 yards and touches all the key components of short game development, created in a layout that is playable for kids and first-timers, while made for multi-generational family fun and neighborhood enrichment.
Montgomery designed the layout while emulating nine holes from the partner 18-hole championship layout next door. Youth programming is a priority.
“I think the two key words here are affordable, and opportunity,” Montgomerie told me on a 2025 visit. “And this Wee Course as we’re calling it in true Scottish fashion, is going to be a very busy little course. It will help the community in huge ways. I think the children, the parents and the grandparents will come out here … for nine championship-quality par threes. For this community, that’s just great.
“It will be another great asset to the community and bring a beautiful landscape along the roadway for the community to enjoy. It will also be a great complement to Harbor Shores, which, hole-by-hole, is one of the greatest courses in America.”
My favorite areas at Harbor Shores Golf Club are Holes 6-8, plus 10-11. You can throw in No. 15 as well.
No. 6 is a par four that requires a perfect driving distance to go far enough to get your approach shot in a good spot but stay short enough that it doesn’t fall off the natural drop off ledge. I have never scored better than a bogey there, but that doesn’t diminish how great the hole is.
No. 7 is the most famous hole at Harbor Shores (and is this month’s cover shot) as it stretches out to the Lake Michigan shoreline. The green complex is located high above the fairway, on top of the beach dune. Getting there in two is a struggle for most but I’ve seen it done many times. Awaiting all golfers at the top is the best view on property. If not for the curve of the earth you could see Chicago across the massive lake.
No. 8 is a dogleg right par 4 that starts on top of the dune and settles into the valley behind the dune. Simply gorgeous design and shaping.
“It’s a huge honor for us to have won Golf Course of the Year,” Doxtator said. “We attribute a lot of that to the community here and what it represents and why it was built. We maintain that commitment through First Tee and PGA Junior League, and the Whirlpool Charity Golf Event that raises $3 million each year. It not only funds First Tee, but three high school robotics programs at Benton Harbor, St. Joseph and Lakeshore.
“The award goes beyond just a great golf course and great facilities, it’s also about great people and we have some of the best in the business. I think everyone who steps on site remembers their experience and I think a huge part of that is our people creating that great experience.”
More information can be found at: https://www.harborshoresresort.com/golf/
