Northeast Michigan Golf Trip: The Sunrise Side Value Circuit

If your group wants a great Michigan golf trip without paying marquee money, the Sunrise Side is the answer almost nobody gives you. That's the Lake Huron coast, the stretch around Tawas, Oscoda, Au Gres and West Branch, and it holds a run of legitimate courses at a fraction of the west-coast price, in a low-key summer beach-town setting. That's the verdict. Here's the honest read on what's out there and who it suits.

The reputation

This corner of the state gets called Northern Michigan's best-kept secret, and the people who play it tend to guard it. The headline is value. Real golf, short drives, and towns with an unhurried up-north summer feel instead of resort polish and resort prices.

The courses that carry the circuit are easy to name. Lakewood Shores in Oscoda is the resort anchor, three full courses plus lodging on one property, and its Scottish links-style course, The Gailes (a Kevin Aldridge design), is the round that put the area on golfers' radar. Its sister course Blackshire (Aldridge, opened 2001) and the original Serradella (a Bruce Matthews design) round out the resort. Red Hawk in East Tawas is an Arthur Hills design from 1999 built in a classic 1920s style. Huron Breeze in Au Gres is a William Newcomb course that's been a local favorite since the late 1980s. And The Dream and The Nightmare in West Branch sit right off I-75 as the natural value pair, which I cover in the West Branch Dream and Nightmare guide.

The reality

The reputation is value, but value only matters if the golf and the trip hold up. Here's where my firsthand read carries the page.

The Gailes delivers. It's a true links replica, pot bunkers and all, and Golf Digest named it the #1 Best New Resort Course in the US in 1993, the first Michigan course to earn it. The story behind it is even better. It was the first course Kevin Aldridge ever designed, taken on after his dad bought the resort. It's my favorite course out there, and some of my friends can't stand it, because it's a challenge no matter which tees you play. You have to bring your A game. Worth knowing: they're in the middle of a pot bunker renovation right now.

Blackshire might be the sneaky best course in the area, and that's my take, so feel free to disagree with it. It's a true up-north course cut through the woods, with big waste areas you don't see much of up north, a cool feature even if nobody enjoys hitting out of them, and hole after hole that makes you choose instead of just swing. It's a very short drive down the road from the main property, and one practical note from someone who's played it plenty: bring bug spray. Serradella is the easier of the three and a great opener, the round where everyone loosens up. And the Wee Links pitch-and-putt next to the lodging is where a group settles the day's match with a closest-to-the-pin chip-off at dusk.

On lodging, groups have options up here. I usually base mine in Oscoda, which keeps the evenings walkable and turns the resort into 54 holes of easy drive-in golf.

I played Red Hawk in July 2026 and it earns its place without an argument. The front nine is one of the most underrated stretches of golf in the area. The opener eases you in, a drivable par 4 arrives early, the signature par 3 is the hole everyone remembers, and the stretch peaks at the par 5 7th, my favorite hole on the property. The back nine settles into a deeper up-north character, and I like it every bit as much. The par 5s are a strength across the whole routing. The 7th is the best of them, and the 16th shows what the group does well, asking for a real decision, a long second shot over a wetland or a layup that leaves a delicate uphill wedge. Red Hawk keeps asking questions like that all day. Golf Digest ranked it among its 100 Greatest Public courses in the 2000s.

Red Hawk is also playable for everyone. Beginners can get around it, the holes are carved from mature woods so trees shape nearly every shot, and from the tips it has real teeth. Conditions were excellent when I played, and the greens rolled true. The details are handled too. The carts carry GPS and storage for every player, drink service makes the rounds, and the clubhouse deck overlooking the course is the right place to settle up after the round. At just over $90 for 18 with a cart, it plays like a $125 to $150 course downstate.

Huron Breeze plays a different role. It sits right on US 23 between Tawas and Au Gres, across the road from Lake Huron, which makes it the natural arrival round on the drive up. These courses do different jobs in a Northeast trip, so I won't rank them head-to-head.

White Pine National in Spruce is the one I'd drive for, 35 to 40 minutes northwest of an Oscoda base and worth every mile. It's very fun, super well maintained, and it always plays great. Challenging from the tips but manageable enough for everyone to get around, it punishes reckless driver-every-hole golf and rewards smart course management. A couple of holes even put the namesake pines right in the middle of the fairway, forcing a real decision off the tee, strange and cool, and 3 and 9 are the two holes I'd tell you to look forward to. Get there 45 minutes early, because the warm-up complex is the best I've seen anywhere, a full driving range plus a country-club-grade short-game area with tiered putting greens, real greenside bunkers, and varied rough styles to practice from, the kind of setup you expect at a nice resort and a shock to find in Northeast Michigan. They serve beer on the course in glass bottles, six-packs included.

Oscoda is where I'd base for the evenings, on the main strip by the beach with everything walkable. Edelweiss Tavern (aka The E) is the bar stop, and Hilltop Bar and Grill has the best bar food in town, it's my group's standard. The destination meal is Desi's, Mexican about 10 to 15 minutes west down River Road; it's always packed, so make a reservation. Red Fork in Greenbush, a converted old diner that serves alcohol, is the boozy pre-round brunch pick, and Parkside Dairy is the traditional scoop shop I'd send you to after the round.

The circuit's real edge is short drives and honest golf, the kind of trip where the group plays a lot and nobody's stretching the budget to do it.

Who plays it, who skips it, and when to go

Play it if you're a value-minded group, a crew with a mix of budgets that needs everyone to say yes, or a buddies trip where playing a lot of relaxed golf beats chasing trophy courses. It's also a smart first Michigan trip for a group that wants to test the waters before spending on the marquee circuit.

Skip it if your group is here for bucket-list, nationally-known rounds and the photos that come with them. This side of the state trades drama for value, and that's the wrong trade for a pure bucket-list trip.

June and September are prime, and late June or early September is the sweet spot, seventies to low eighties. July and August are usually fine up here; seventies days happen all summer, with the occasional hot humid stretch that comes with midsummer anywhere. It's nothing like downstate heat, where a July round can run a 100+ heat index and be miserable; the Sunrise Side is the escape from that. The one timing note that matters is that the true inland woods courses like Red Hawk amplify a hot day, since no lake air reaches them, so I put midsummer rounds there in the morning slot. Overall, late May through most of September works.

Where it fits

The whole Sunrise Side circuit runs along the Lake Huron coast and the I-75 corridor, which keeps the driving short and makes it a clean stand-alone trip rather than an add-on to the west side. The region and the reasoning are shareable; the actual order you'd play it, and what anchors where, depends on your group, so that's the part I build rather than print. If you're weighing this against a west-coast trip, the Northern Michigan golf trip guide lays out how the regions differ, and the do you need a Michigan golf trip planner page is an honest read on when it's worth handing the build to someone else.