Designed by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, the new course will allow members, resort guest play Roscommon, Mich. (January 30, 2025): Forest Dunes, the award-winning golf facility in northern Michigan that already has three Top 100 golf courses in the U.S., is poised to add a fourth—SkyFall, a new private club designed by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner that will also allow limited resort guest play.
“The opportunity to have Gil and Jim craft their first original design in Michigan on what is the most compelling property at Forest Dunes is really exciting,” says Rich Mack, who owns Forest Dunes alongside business partner Tom Sunnarborg. “I’m also pleased that we will work with Gil and Jim a second time in our career and create something really special here in Michigan.”
Mack previously hired Hanse and Wagner to create Streamsong Black at the highly renowned Streamsong Resort. Mack was the vision and pioneer of Streamsong, and began his business partnership with Sunnarborg by bringing him onboard to develop, launch and oversee the evolution of the resort.
“Gil and Jim are two of the most influential golf course architects of our era, and are entrusted to advance projects of golf significance across the globe. We know they will find the best of the land to work with and turn it into something unforgettable that members and guests are going to thoroughly enjoy, hopefully many times,” says Sunnarborg.
SkyFall will be a unique private golf club at Forest Dunes. With elevation changes of up to 70 feet, the golf course will weave through 300 acres of forest land adjacent to the current Forest Dunes public play courses. While SkyFall will be a private membership club, public guests staying on property at Forest Dunes will have access to limited tee times.
Hanse says the course will certainly have some nods to a couple of his noted designs, including the sandy and rustic expanses that punctuate Ohoopee Match Club in Georgia mixed with the strategy and naturalism found in Scotland at Castle Stuart, and the rolling charm of the firm’s latest projects, France’s Les Bordes (respectively No. 81, 89 and 97 on Golf Magazine’s Top 100 in the world).
“This design is focused on the key landforms on the property,” Hanse says. “When you look at some of the great old courses by Tillinghast or Ross, there tends to be a landform they go away from and return to. That’s also the case at SkyFall, and it is those features that are the key to creating a truly compelling design. Jim and I also really look forward to working with Rich and Tom again. They have high standards and expectations for this project, and so do we.”
The SkyFall project marks the first time Hanse and Wagner have worked on multiple original designs with the same ownership group. “We loved working with Rich and Tom and our relationship will benefit SkyFall and will certainly allow the team to get the most out of a spectacular property full of rolling hills and sandy expanses.,” said Wagner.
At an intimate media gathering in Orlando with all of the parties involved in the project, Hanse elaborated on the unique land, linear routing and how the site reminded him of Boston Golf Club. We’ll do a deeper dive soon on all of the details and nuance of the project, stay tuned in the coming weeks.
With the addition of SkyFall to its portfolio, Forest Dunes will bring another stellar option to the highly acclaimed northern Michigan golf region and be the only golf facility in the world with courses designed by three legends of the game—Tom Weiskopf, Tom Doak and the Hanse/Wagner team. The popular Forest Dunes course, designed by Weiskopf, is rated among America’s Top 100 golf courses, as is The Loop, Doak’s highly touted, innovative reversible
layout with both designs among the best in the U.S. Forest Dunes also offers a popular short course named The Bootlegger, designed by Keith Rhebb and Riley Johns.
Entitlement work for Skyfall is in process and early construction activities could commence in late 2025 or early 2026. Golf enthusiasts interested in becoming Founding Members of SkyFall can learn more at skyfallgolf.com.
About Gil Hanse:
Over a career that has spanned more than 30 years, Gil Hanse has established himself as one of the leading designers in the game. His accomplishments are almost too extensive to list—reworking legendary classics like Winged Foot and Los Angeles Country Club in preparation for the U.S. Open, and designing new timeless classics like Castle Stuart, Ohoopee Match Club, and Streamsong Black. He is also noted for winning a world-wide design competition to create
the course in Brazil for the return of golf in the 2016 Olympics.
Throughout it all, Hanse and his team, including design partner Jim Wagner, have been widely recognized for crafting courses that were found instead of created, exhausting the possibilities offered by a natural landscape.
About Forest Dunes:
Remotely located in northern Michigan’s Huron National Forest and taking advantage of huge sand dunes created over centuries by glacial deposits, Forest Dunes opened for play in 2002. Anchored by the 18-hole masterpiece Forest Dunes course, designed by the late major winner and legendary designer Tom Weiskopf, the golf resort quickly gained a reputation as one of the best public facilities in Michigan and is perennially ranked in the Top 100 you can play in the U.S. That was followed by The Loop, the creation of Tom Doak who devised a reversible design that functions as two distinct courses. Golf enthusiasts travel from all over the world to experience this deign marvel playing one direction one day and the opposite the next. Experts have ranked both directions in the Top 100 in America.
For more information contact Steve Waxman, at Matchplay Golf Marketing – [email protected].
