Reviews
This course is a great starter course to play if you’re a beginner golfer. Front 9 is short from the course being cut down by the highway years ago, so it makes for an easier course to play. The course gives you a very old time feel. The greens are all elevated, crowned and undulated. The course is wide open so even if you’re not an experienced golfer, you won’t lose a lot of golf balls. Pricing is normally fair. Great course to play in the area and to improve your game! Course does not have alcohol to sell, which is a big negative for me.
This is a great old school golf course in a relatively urban setting. It isn’t the longest or most difficult course, but it’s enjoyable and the staff is accommodating. Remember, this is a 100 year old municipal course that caters to all types of skill levels and cannot serve alcohol because if deed restrictions. Adjust your expectations accordingly. Pace of play us typically very good, but it is a busy course. The new management company has really improved the facility. Rackham was in better shape this year than some of the very expensive places I’ve played. It’s also my 9 year old’s favorite course. I will continue to come back and enjoy this gem of a course.
We played here during the week and it was awesome! It wasn't too busy, we could golf at our own pace. This is a classic Donald Ross course. Strategically placed hazards, gave me some challenges. Not to mention a few balls that went missing in the rough. The course was in good shape for the fall. It was easily accessible, plenty of parking. Enjoy!
Rackham is a beautiful course and an awesome Donald Ross design. But this course is unplayable 6 days a week Mon-Satbecause management has too many Golf leagues scheduled and they over book the course which results in 5-10 minute wait times at every hole. Played on a Wednesday at 4:30 and I had to quit 4 holes in because there were two groups on every hole. The only reasonable “good” day to play is Sunday after the morning crowd has left. Management seriously needs to understand that you need to spread out the tee times a lot more here. I’m tired of having a wait at almost every hole during the week, especially during twilight hours. You’ll be lucky to finish before the sun goes down.
A Donald Ross designed golf course next to the Detroit zoo that opened to the public in 1925. Undulating greens encourage keen eye to read the break to score well and not have those annoying three putts on the card. Always look forward to playing there.
What a fall from grace Rackham has had, even more depressing to realize the course essentially clawed it’s way back from being a useless money pit for the longest time. Long story short, do NOT waste your money with these clowns. Rackham had a few good years around 2015-2019 with a competent grounds crew and GM, but after the firing of the head grounds keeper it has noticeably sunk back to being the joke of a course it once was. GM doesn’t care to hire competent crews or Marshall’s anymore so you’re left with a course that consists of wildly under maintained greens, fairways that are 75% dirt and mud, and sand that somehow stays perpetually rock hard. The pace of play has become such a joke that finishing 18 in 5 hours is considered a godsend. You’re told that tee times after 5:30 don’t matter and it quickly becomes “first come first serve” format despite the manager insisting that isn’t true it is. You will actively find that people drive over tee boxes and greens with carts with no repercussions, divots in the fairway are never filled in, and the greens look like a constant mine field. Long story short, this course is an absolute joke. The marshal doesn’t know how to coordinate tee times last time we played there were 16 players lined up for tee times and it was considered “fast”, the grounds look worse each day that passes, and the manager doesn’t care one bit. Save your money for literally anywhere else. Edit for the owners response: The course is constantly like this when even the slightest bit of rain falls because you never restrict cart use. Almost every respected course I’ve played restricts play to walking on wet days and yet Rackham clearly does not. Even in the pictures it’s clear that the greens and tees were torn up because carts were riding over essentially a mud pit. Using the rain as an excuse for the poor condition of the property is a lame attempt to explain why carts are being used on flooded fairways. What’s even worse about your reply is it doesn’t address the complaint about slow play nor does it address the issue with tee times not being adhered to in the slightest. It’s sad that you phrase my preferences of having the Marshal stick to tee-times as booked, having the fairways not be constantly gouged out from carts running during floods, and adhering to a rate of play under 3 hours for 9 holes as anything beyond bottom barrel requirements for a halfway decent course. Cheap cop-out reply. The title of “clown” remains accurate.
Older course hidden right of I696. The course has some very challenging and long holes including a par 3 at over 200 yards. The greens are challenging and pin placement can dramatically change the difficulty. Standing water can be an issue after heavy rains.
I really enjoy this course, it’s great for golfers of any caliber as it has its challenges. The staff are very welcoming and accommodating as well. The pace of play and time management here are both unacceptable. Allowing groups of 7 and 8 individuals with no rangers to monitor pace does ruin what is an enjoyable course. Management needs to step up because this is an issue they’ve been ignoring for some time now.
Rangers are pushy, starters are rude, nice course very forgiving for the casual golfer but no cart girl on the course and they are greedy they send out 4 every tee time to make sure they squeeze every dime out of everyone for the day. All this money and no cart girl for refreshments while on the course. So be prepared to be paired up with strangers just for the sake of a dollar weather you want to pair or not.
They double booked us with a forty man scramble and then tried to blame us for slowing down pace of play. Meanwhile, we’re waiting on every tee for the foursome in front of us, but because we had two women in our group, the starter tried to blame us. This course is ridiculous.
