Bootlegger at Forest Dunes

Bootlegger is a 9-hole par-3 short course at Forest Dunes designed by Keith Rhebb, featuring holes inspired by the property's Prohibition-era history when bootleggers allegedly ran whiskey through the northern Michigan forest. Each hole is named after a Prohibition-related theme, and the sandy, minimalist design fits naturally into the landscape between the Weiskopf course and The Loop.

Bootlegger is a 10-hole, par-3 short course at Forest Dunes Golf Club in Roscommon, Michigan — an intimate, fun-focused layout designed by Keith Rhebb and Riley Johns that opened in 2020 as the third golf course at a destination resort that had grown from a single private club into one of northern Michigan's most compelling golf destinations. The name draws directly from the property's own history: during Prohibition, the South Branch Ranch that occupied this land was operated by the Purple Gang, a Detroit-area organized crime family that ran alcohol from Canada through the Michigan interior. The bootlegger connection, far from being a marketing invention, is an authentic piece of the property's past. Forest Dunes Golf Club began in the early 2000s as a private 18-hole facility designed by Tom Weiskopf, one of the leading course architects of his generation whose playing career included the 1973 Open Championship. The Weiskopf course established Forest Dunes as a serious destination in northern Michigan golf.

The decisive transformation came in 2016, when Tom Doak opened The Loop — a reversible 18-hole course that plays clockwise on one day (the Black routing) and counterclockwise the next (the Red routing), using the same 18 greens but presenting completely different golf experiences. Doak had nursed the concept of a reversible course for 30 years, inspired by early British links that had been designed reversibly to distribute wear, and Forest Dunes provided the right terrain and the right client to realize it. The Loop's opening immediately elevated Forest Dunes to the front rank of American public golf destinations, earning national ranking recognition and establishing the property as a must-play destination for serious golf travelers. The Bootlegger completes the Forest Dunes experience as a twilight and social course — a deliberate counterpoint to the championship demands of the Weiskopf course and The Loop. Rhebb and Johns designed the 1,100-yard layout with a sensibility that prioritizes enjoyment over competition, creating an 18-hole scoring experience on 10 holes where golfers can carry a beverage, play barefoot if they choose, and engage in the friendly competition of settling old scores without the weight of stroke play.

The design references the rough-and-tumble character of the property's Prohibition-era past — unpretentious, a little unconventional, and fundamentally entertaining. The three Forest Dunes courses together — Weiskopf's championship layout, Doak's reversible masterwork, and Rhebb and Johns's playful short course — create a golf resort whose identity is built around the full spectrum of the game's pleasures, from championship competition to social fun. The Bootlegger at Forest Dunes plays as a walking-only, caddie-optional par-3 short course at Forest Dunes Golf Club in Roscommon, Michigan whose Roscommon County setting in the northern Lower Peninsula provides a complementary short course experience alongside the main Forest Dunes championship layout and The Loop reversible course. The Roscommon location in the northern Michigan lake country positions the Bootlegger within the Forest Dunes campus — the northern Michigan golf destination whose combination of the original Forest Dunes championship course, The Loop reversible design by Tom Doak, and the Bootlegger short course creates among the architecturally diverse multi-course golf destinations in the United States. The short course format of the Bootlegger — designed for walking with caddies, creating the intimate golf experience that par-3 courses at the finest golf destinations worldwide have traditionally provided — reflects the Forest Dunes commitment to providing a complete golf campus experience whose variety satisfies golfers seeking both championship tests and the more relaxed enjoyment of shorter holes.

The northern Michigan setting of the Bootlegger connects the short course to the natural lake country landscape whose combination of jack pine forests, inland lakes, and the natural Michigan terrain creates the destination golf environment that draws golfers from across the Midwest to the Roscommon County region. For Forest Dunes members and resort guests, the Bootlegger provides the par-3 short course experience that completes the Forest Dunes golf campus — a complement to The Loop's architectural innovation and the original Forest Dunes championship layout whose combination of natural Michigan terrain and design quality creates the most architecturally complete golf destination in the northern Michigan lake district.