A-Ga-Ming Golf Resort - Sundance Course

The Sundance Course at A-Ga-Ming Golf Resort is an 18-hole Jerry Matthews design that opened in June 2005 on glacier-carved bluffs between Torch Lake and Grand Traverse Bay in northern Michigan. Named the 2023 Michigan Golf Course of the Year by the Michigan Golf Course Association, Sundance features 110 bunkers, heather-clad mounding, wide fairways, and views across two bodies of water.

A-Ga-Ming Golf Resort traces its origins to the mid-1970s, when the original Torch Course was built on the bluffs of Antrim County in northern Michigan's Torch Lake corridor. The resort grew around this first layout, which was eventually redesigned by Chick Harbert—the 1954 PGA Champion and Michigan Golf Hall of Fame member—establishing A-Ga-Ming as a serious northern Michigan golf destination. As the resort's reputation grew, ownership commissioned a second championship course to complement the Torch. Golf course architect Jerry Matthews, ASGCA, was selected for the project. Matthews is a Michigan-based architect with deep roots in the state's golf landscape and a catalog of well-regarded regional courses.

He designed the Sundance Course to take full advantage of the property's dramatic topography—the glacier-carved bluffs that separate Torch Lake to the east from Grand Traverse Bay and Lake Michigan to the west. The Sundance Course opened in June 2005 to immediate recognition, earning a ranking as the third-best new public course in the country upon its debut. The design integrates two distinct characters: a links-influenced portion that rolls across open, windswept terrain with heather mounding and wide waste areas, and a woodland section cut through Northern Michigan hardwoods adjacent to the existing Torch Course. Key design elements include 110 sand bunkers, broad natural waste bunkers, wetland hazards, elevated green complexes, and mounding that frames fairways and creates strategic definition. The course plays to 6,935 yards from the Black tees (rating 72.8, slope 132) and offers four additional tee options down to the Red tees at 5,172 yards, with women's ratings available from the Red tees.

The Michigan Golf Course Superintendents Association named Sundance the 2023 Michigan Golf Course of the Year, recognizing the course's maintenance standards and playability. The course hosts the Michigan Junior State Amateur and other Golf Association of Michigan events, cementing its position among the state's top competitive venues. The broader A-Ga-Ming property includes the renovated Torch Course and resort lodging facilities in the heart of northern Michigan's golf region. Sundance Golf Course at A-Ga-Ming Golf Resort plays approximately 6,400 yards from the championship tees on a layout in Kewadin, Michigan that provides a complementary experience to the resort's other courses within the northwestern Lower Peninsula's destination golf corridor. The Kewadin location, near Elk Rapids on the eastern shore of Grand Traverse Bay, positions the Sundance course within the resort complex that A-Ga-Ming has developed over decades into one of northern Michigan's most comprehensive multi-course destinations.

The Michigan Golf Association includes A-Ga-Ming among its member facilities, and the resort has hosted regional competitive events consistent with its standing as a quality northern Michigan golf destination. The resort's multi-course format — with distinct layouts offering different lengths, terrain, and strategic challenges — gives visiting golfers a varied experience that rewards extended stays rather than single-round visits. A-Ga-Ming's commitment to maintaining multiple courses to competitive standards has made the resort a consistent destination for Great Lakes region golfers who seek the combination of northern Michigan's natural beauty, cooler summer temperatures, and quality championship golf that the area's best properties provide. The Sundance Course complements the Antrim Dells and Torch layouts in offering resort guests a complete multi-round experience on the grounds of one of northern Michigan's most established golf resorts.