By Tom Lang

Special to Detroit Free Press

Stepping on to The Loop feels like taking a step back in time – when golf was simpler, pure and more connected with the natural terrain.

Tom Doak’s risky but genius 18-hole fully-reversible design opened to the public last week and is sure to be a hit for golfers seeking a unique challenge.

The Loop has 18 greens and 36 teeing areas. It plays clockwise (Black Course) one day and counter-clockwise (Red Course) the next, offering two distinct courses on one piece of land. Only the ninth and 18th greens stay the same, yet they play just as differently as the other 16 holes. The Loop is the new sister course to Forest Dunes Golf Club in Roscommon.

The home of golf, the Old Course at St. Andrews, was built to allow a reversible path as well, but has only been played that way on rare occasions since 1914.

“I’m really pleased with it,” Doak said last fall after a tour at the property under development. “Whichever way you’re playing, it never feels like you are going the wrong way.”

While Doak was prognosticating at the time, turns out he was right on point.

What makes The Loop layout brilliant is that approaching a green one day a golfer could be playing a par 4 to the deep, skinny green with no visible bunkers in play, and the next day the approach is from 90 degrees coming into a wide and shallow par 3 green surrounded by plenty of exposed sand – and most golfers will have no idea it’s the same piece of ground.

The Loop appears to work in perfect harmony with the land Doak was dealt. There is no water on the property of sand base and scattered Jack Pines. The land has a rough, raw feel to it with about 50 non-manicured bunkers and even more naturally-exposed sand waste areas for golfers to avoid. Tall fescue grass adds seasonal color and areas to work the ball around. The bent grass hybrid greens were in good shape for its early opening and will become flawless with more time for all the grass on property to mature.

The Loop is deemed a walking-only course – with caddies or push carts available – that further highlights both the natural design flow and the fundamentals of golf. A few holes have deep valleys but otherwise the land has a gentle elevation flow and is a pleasant, non-strenuous 4-hour walk. Another "roots of the game" element is the absence of formal, elevated tee boxes.

“We wanted something that would wow the golfer, something that would make them want to stay for a number of nights ... and a third main thing, wanted a course that was different than Forest Dunes to give the golfer a new experience,” said director of operations Don Helinski. “It’s a different style of play that you have to get used to, and the new course is a niche. It has its own definitive style.”

Good for all skill levels

Most fairways are expansive but feel even wider playing the Black, clockwise direction. Three sets of marked tees total 6,700 yards from the back, with middle at under 6,100 and the forward at about 5,000. The tees and fairways are fescue grass, which allows for more roll out yardage on drives and the overall bump-and-run style of play around green complexes. For all these reasons, the course is very playable for everyone.

Doak picked fescue, in one regard to provide a firm and fast surface. Doak indicated he wanted players to get more “bounce and roll off your tee shots,” which adds to the challenge of landing short of the hole and working the swales and contours of the land to score well. This style is much more conducive to the foundations of golf compared to the "lush and receptive" style of playing surface many courses aim for this 21st century.

A personal example of helpful firm and fast came when playing the 430-yard, par four, No. 14 Black. This 16 handicapper rarely drives the ball over 200 yards, and requires perfect contact with a 3-hybrid to go another 180, so any par four hole over 380 yards requires a solid pitch shot for even a remote shot at par. But at The Loop, the added run-out allowed for a successful birdie putt from pin high. Other examples were plentiful both days, even some into a stiff wind.

Fans of Doak will floak to course

Forest Dunes ownership and staff never hide the fact their motivation is to add golfers to the tee sheet and keep them on site in the new overnight accommodations. Over time, Forest Dunes has become less and less the place golfers stop for an extra round on the way to other resorts Up North – and has transitioned to more of a regional and national destination golfers seek out first.

Doak’s reversible design has been central to that plan.

“With Tom Doak being considered a minimalistic designer, the building of, and the maintenance of The Loop is very economical and sustainable for business reasons,” Helinski said, adding that to keep the pristine and lush style of Forest Dunes’ 18 holes, it utilizes more than triple the number of sprinklers than does The Loop.

“A lot of that has to do with the fescue grass as it doesn’t require as much water or chemicals and it’s more drought resistant,” Helinski said of The Loop. “It was a risk for (owner) Lew Thompson to do something like this, but when you have a designer with the pedigree of Tom Doak it makes that decision easy. But we also have in Forest Dunes a top-rated course on site drawing people in on its own merit. So The Loop accents that as well. We also expect to see a lot of Doak fans that like to play all his designs.”

Those who do try it won’t see Doak’s most visually-appealing design; there is no Pacific Ocean in Roscommon last we checked.

Yet the overriding goal and purpose was well accomplished. From Day 1, the objective was to create a golf course like no other – one that could offer two completely different layouts on the same tract of land, using the same 18 greens and a little ingenuity in routing and minimal shaping – all while utilizing incredible imagination and the historical traditions of golf as a guide.

Mission accomplished.