The Chief Golf Course Review

The main golf course
Bellaire, Mich
Grade: C+
Teacher Comments: Not a fan of the design; too many forced carries, tight shots and obnoxious lies.

The Chief is a forest trail that runs over rugged terrain near Bellaire, Michigan. It was built in 1996 to a design by John Robinson, whose work is perhaps better known in Canada.

My lasting impression of The Chief is of an endless series of forced carries. If the forced carry was not on the tee shot, it was on the approach. Add to that some tight courses and it plays even harder than the slope of 145 (from the back tees) would suggest.

Mind you, that’s a 145 on a par 71 with a top of 6,482 yards.

It’s hard. And not in a good way.

The first two holes set the tone. The Chief opens with a tee shot to a landing zone that probably requires little more than a hybrid for most players. From there the fairway curves to the right for a few yards and then disappears down a steep slope adorned with wild grasses before rising back up to the green. Everyone, get on with that second shot.

The second requires a long tee shot over a swamp, and then – to double up – a long landing over a ravine. My partner lost three balls on this hole: one on the tee shot; the second when he pulled his ball to the left on the second shot, and the third on the approach into the ravine. When I saw him lose a ball on the approach, I grabbed three extra clubs and hit my ball against the hill behind the green to make sure I didn’t come up short.

The next three holes were a breather, but then The Chief doubled down with a vengeance.

I just didn’t like it.

From a design perspective, I think every hole with a forced carry should have a spot to pop out, with a theoretical half- or full-shot penalty. Let a player decide whether to ‘go for it’ or choose a less advantageous, but still safe, position.

My favorite holes at The Chief were the third and fourth, which had an open, graceful design, with looming bunkers and interesting elevation changes. Ditto the ninth.

However, these were not characteristic of the course. The eighteenth offered the best of the rest for me.

The tee shot at eighteen goes downhill, with only a little depression to cover up. It is relatively open and the landing zone is generous. From there the hole turns left and uphill.

From the top of the hill it is a straight shot to a relatively flat green.

On this hole, a weak or offline tee shot can add an extra stroke to the scorecard. Ditto a bad second. But there are no forced carries or advancing areas that would result in a lost ball.

The Chief is a par 71 that plays a seemingly reachable 6,482 yards from the back tees. Don’t let the distance fool you, though. As previously noted, the slope from those tees is 145. Even the gold tees, which come in at 5,363, play at a slope of 129 with some difficulty.

Play The Chief ahead.

The conditions on the day I played were good. From tee to green, it was about what I would expect from a resort course. But like many courses I’ve played over the years, it could use a healthy dose of chainsaw. Too many of the forced bearers were made unnecessarily complicated by overhanging branches.

While I enjoy golf in Northern Michigan in general, I don’t think I would return to The Chief. There are too many nicer courses with the same hilly, wooded landscapes.

The Chief Golf Course review was first published on GolfBlogger.Com on December 6, 2025 from notes and photos taken during a round played in the summer of 2025. Follow the link for a list of all of GolfBlogger’s Michigan Golf Course reviews.

A photo tour of The Chief follows.

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