Jackstrachan

Pretty terrible experience. Met the ranger on the first tee who bizarrely gloated about how many people he had busted for “bringing in beer”. Clearly the only thing he was doing. Front nine took 3 hours and 10 minutes. 5 groups on a hole. I called the clubhouse after 9 to see if the ranger could get things moving and the clubhouse told me to “deal with it because it was a full tee sheet”. If your tee sheet is resulting in a 6 hour time par, there’s something wrong with your tee sheet, not your customers. The Metropark courses are usually run well, so clearly an anomaly at this one. Would not recommend.

Easily one of the worst golfing experiences in many years. 11 am round on a Sunday, we arrive at the first tee to find about 7 foursomes backed up. Finally tee off about 50 minutes after our scheduled tee time. About 2 hours later (and about 3 hours since our scheduled tee time) we arrive at the 5th tee which is near the first tee box. So I walk over to the starter and ask if there’s any chance of the pace picking up because we’re on pace for about a 9 hour round and he said “there’s nothing we can do about it, that’s just Sunday golf.” 2 hours for 4 holes is apparently standard Sunday golf! I think what the golf course could do about it is not try to pack 50% too many golfers on the course because they want to take advantage of the fact that golf is one of the few activities available during a pandemic. We made the turn at after 3 (over 4 hours from tee time) and they had begun sending groups off the back as well! As impossible as that is to believe, they were actually ramming additional foursomes off the back between groups coming off a 3 hour front 9. I cannot encourage you strongly enough to pay none of your money to this golf course unless the management changes entirely. A disheartening experience all around. Not to mention the bumpiness of the greens and the fact that multiple tee boxes had tree branches in the swing path.

Glacier Club is a course that gives off the impression of an upscale experience but provides almost no enjoyment in the process. More than half of the holes have slopes leading to cart paths which have out of bounds lines on the immediate opposite side of them as the course is densely lined with houses. Several times in my group yesterday, well hit tee shots would hit the fairway, and then catch slopes that would send them into a backyard and out of bounds. Beyond that, the greens are nearly impossible to hold, even with a short iron or wedge. If you are able to keep your ball out of the hundreds of backyards and hold the green, you then have to deal with some of the most ludicrous slopes and hole locations I have ever seen in my life. Several holes were located on top of slopes that looked to mirror a miniature golf course, and would have been physically impossible to hit an approach shot within 15 feet of. Glacier Club has a high slope rating, and it is a difficult course to score on, but not because it's a tough test of golf. It is more so challenging because it penalizes good shots as often as it penalizes bad shots. Additionally, some of the holes (#8 comes to mind) have a layout so contrived that you can really only laugh at what faces you off the tee.
In terms of conditioning, the fairways and tee boxes are in good shape, but the greens are bumpy and the course is very poorly marked. Tee boxes are not marked, very few sprinkler heads are marked in the fairway, and the 100/150/200 plates were often not the correct distance from the green.
Lastly, our 18 hole weekday round took well over 5.5 hours and the rangers absolutely refused to do anything to help out. As other reviews here indicate, pace of play is a serious problem at Glacier Club.
The overall conditioning of Glacier Club is not terrible by any means, but this was my third time playing the course, and in my opinion, it is neither a fun, nor fair, test of golf.

Best course I've played in Michigan to date. Staff is incredibly friendly.