Golf

Red Run is known as a golfer's golf course -- hailed for combining challenge, playability and upkeep that allows even longtime members to find new and rewarding experiences with each round.

The course was designed over a century ago by renowned Scottish architects Tom Bendelow and Willie Park, Jr., who believed in tough, but fair, layouts that are free of gimmicks and unseen hazards. Park favored straight-forward holes and believed a proper match should be decided on the putting green.

The genius of Red Run is its complex subtleties that create unique challenges not just hole to hole, but shot to shot. The slightest change of positioning on an approach can dramatically alter the strategy of a hole. A different position on the green can bring unexpected demands. Holes are not unduly hard… until a mistake is made. All skills will be tested during a round that often demands the use of every club in the bag.

All of it occurs on a course that is maintained to PGA Tour-levels, with greens, bunkers and fairways cared for by a skilled groundskeeping crew. It's ideal for making everyone from the most skillful player to a beginner return to the game day after day.

This is an old golf club, yet one perfect for the busy, modern world, where time is a most precious asset. A premium is placed on pace of play. Rounds, even those walked thanks to the Club's robust caddie program, are meant to be completed in four hours, or less. Yet thanks to the course's tight layout, it is accomplished without the sense of rushing.

It's grounds are gorgeous, a scenic sanctuary that belies its location in the heart of such a vibrant city. It is Royal Oak at its finest, an ideal marriage of old and new, a place of both ambition and fun that takes the game, but not itself, seriously. It has been achieved with a never-ending focus on minor adjustments that keep the course in line with Park's initial ethos.

The Club offers a full golf experience -- perfect for competition, business or games with fellow members, family or friends. League play, tournaments, one-day events and even social golf dot the calendar. There is a driving range, putting green and short game area for pre-round tune-ups, hardcore game-building or relaxing, after-work, drop ins. A Golf Shop with a team of PGA teaching professionals available to assist all levels of player. A classically-designed and professionally-attended Locker Room which serves members and guest. There is also year round bag storage and an app that allows simple, and immediate, tee time reservations.

Named after the Red Run river that cut through the grounds (it was buried underground in the 1960s), the Club has, for generations, seen many of the area's finest players on its membership rolls. It is host to the second oldest Invitational in Michigan and hosted PGA Tour events back in the 1950s. It still serves as a home to part of the rotation for major amateur events, including the Michigan Amateur and the WGA Western Junior Championship, featuring the best junior players in America.

Now into its second century, Red Run takes enormous pride in its reputation for honoring golf's time-honored traditions and fulfilling competitive instincts to both build and maintain a passion for this great sport.