Briarwood Country Club

The Briarwood Country Club in Billings features an 18-hole semi-private layout opened in 1984 that has twice been ranked the top course in Montana by Golf Digest. The 7,010-yard course plays through rolling hills, creek bottoms, and open rangeland with a signature par-3 16th hole dropping over 120 feet from tee to green.

Briarwood Country Club in Billings, Montana, was designed by the team of Brad Benz and Mike Poellot and opened in 1984, establishing itself quickly as one of the state's strongest private golf facilities. Benz and Poellot, a Minneapolis-based design partnership that produced several recognized courses across the upper Midwest and Mountain West during the 1980s, brought a sophisticated understanding of strategic design to the Billings site — and the result earned Golf Digest recognition as Montana's number one course on multiple occasions, with additional rankings of second and third place in other survey years. The course plays 7,004 yards to a par of 72 from the championship tees, with a course rating of 73.6 and a slope of 138 — figures that position Briarwood among the most demanding private layouts in the state.

Benz and Poellot routed the course through a diverse terrain of rolling hills, creek bottoms, and open rangelands, creating a layout whose front nine is relatively flat while the back nine incorporates significant elevation changes. The signature hole on the back nine is the par-3 sixteenth, which plays from an elevated tee down more than 120 feet to a green below — a dramatic descent in terrain that creates a standout memorable tee shots in Montana golf. A renovation by architect Carl Thuesen in 2000 updated the course's infrastructure and refined certain design elements while preserving the Benz-Poellot routing that established the course's reputation.

Thuesen, who was responsible for significant renovation work at other Montana courses during this period, addressed drainage, bunker integrity, and green complexes in a way that maintained the course's championship character. Briarwood Country Club has served as the Yellowstone Valley's leading private golf destination since its opening, providing a home course for Billings's competitive amateur community and hosting Montana Golf Association events. The combination of a nationally recognized design pedigree — the Golf Digest rankings reflect genuine design quality — a dramatic back nine that challenges even the most accomplished players, and the setting in the rimrock and river country of south-central Montana has made Briarwood a consistent standard-bearer for golf in the state.