Black River Country Club golf course review

Black River CC
Port Huron, MI
Grade: C
Teacher’s comment: A classic course that just needs a little more TLC.

Black River Country Club, in Port Huron, is a classic parkland design dating from 1926. The original nine was designed by Fred Riggin, with Wilfrid Reid and William Connellan contributing the second nine. Later revisions were done by William Diddel.

The course is like many other Michigan courses of that era, with a route that runs from elevations overlooking a small river valley, down to the lower floodplains. Western is run like this. This also applies to Rouge Park. And Atlas Valley. And Blythefield. And Flushing Valley. And more.

Apart from the threat of flooding, such landforms serve well as golf courses. The valley – however shallow – shows height differences; bends carved by the river on both high and low plains can be used for interesting lines of play; and occasionally (although not at Black River) the river offers interesting crossings.

Black River is located on the right side of the river. Part of the adjacent Elks Lodge course can be seen below left.

I quite enjoyed the layout at Black River. While many fairways are simply straight shots, there are some wonderfully quirky holes that make them worth playing. A couple follows the bend of the river. Others either start in the plain to climb to the ridge, or vice versa. A few more traverse the ridge laterally.

One of those quirky holes is the tenth, with a tee shot over a service road before veering left to the hole. Another is the par 3 downhill eleventh, which has a series of grass verges and bunkers protecting the approach. I can’t remember anything similar.

A view from the fairway at Black River’s par three eleventh.

From a design perspective, I could play Black River quite a lot without getting bored. There were several holes there that I would like to have another crack at.

Wilfrid Reid’s designs are becoming my favorites. The original nine at Indian River, my home course in Up North, are Reid’s original work. I also enjoyed his designs at Indianwood, Brae Burn, Flushing Valley and Bald Mountain (even if the course conditions sometimes let Reid down).

Eighteen at Black River is a par 5 of 537 yards.

My favorite hole was the par five eighteenth. It starts with a straight tee shot through a tight row of trees. I didn’t like that; the trees really need to be pruned back. But from the second shot it opens up and the fun begins.

A view from the channel on the eighteenth of Black River

The first two-thirds of the hole is at the lower level of the river valley, with a crossing over a small creek area. The road then makes a sidestep to the right and ends on top of the ridge.

It’s unexpected and fun.

From the back tees, Black River comes in at 6,501 yards. All in all there are three tees.

T-piece	Distance	Slope	Judgement
Black	6, 501	129	71.6
White	6, 254	127	70.5
Vegetable	5, 510	127	72.7

The conditions on the day I played were just adequate. The fairways were mostly covered in green, much of which was not grass. There were also bald spots. I lost a ball in a swamp in the middle of a fairway with what I assume was a broken irrigation pipe. I saw the ball in the middle, but when I put my foot near the edge of the wet area, it sank to the edges of my shoes. It also smelled terrible. I didn’t have a ball retriever, so I left it three-quarters embedded.

As with many courses I’ve played lately, I think a lot can be done with the judicious use of a chainsaw. Branches and trees that are affected should be removed, not only for play, but also to allow some light into the parts of the course where it is difficult for grass to grow.

During my round, several otherwise brilliant shots were denied by rude branches that had nothing to do with where they were.

I’m not exactly a fan of the treeless, plain look – especially in areas where forests are the predominant biome (like most of Michigan). That said, the Black River Country Club could use some woodwork.

Still, I really enjoyed my round at Black River Country Club. I would have loved to have played it when it was in its heyday, but it was still worth a visit.

The Black River Country Club Golf Course Review was first published on December 4, 2025 from notes and photographs taken during a round played in the summer of 2025.

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A photo tour follows: