Swartz Creek Golf Course Review

Swartz Creek Golf Course
Flint, Michigan
Grade: C-
Teacher’s Comments: It has the bones of a good course, but it was in bad shape. With TLC, it could be a gem.

Swartz Creek is a classic parklands course that is one of two municipal golf facilities in Flint, Michigan. It is routed in the Swartz Creek valley in a fashion reminiscent of nearby Atlas Valley (Tom Bendelow) and Flushing Valley (Wilfred Reid and William Connellan); it even is reminiscent in design of Western (Donald Ross) and Warren Valley (again, Ross).

For that reason, I had a notion that it might have been designed during the 1920s by one of that era’s classic architects. Flint Golf Club was built in that era, and designed by Willie Park, Jr.

Some online course listings indicated that the course opened in 1923, but that the architect was unknown.

So I did some digging and found a 1924 article in the Flint Journal that said the course would open June 21, 1924. Even more interesting is that the article named as architect Andrew Welch, “native Scotchman, who had considerable experience in golf course building in his native country.”

The article also indicates that it was just nine holes at the time.

I can find no further record of Andrew Welch, though.

All that said, Swartz Creek’s design takes clever advantage of the valley’s landscape. By my count, ten holes cross either Swartz Creek or the tributary Carman Creek (both of which are fairly substantial bodies of water). Others play down from the valley heights, or along the valley ridge on either side of the creek.

Rather than a back and forth arrangement, the two nines are loops, with the fourth and thirteenth furthest from the clubhouse.

The interior holes of the two loops play over the creeks, are mostly flat, but rarely straight. Challenge and interest come from navigating both the bends and the creeks. Sometimes that was not difficult, as the creeks cross close to the tee box. On other holes, however, the creeks interrupted fairways, asking for judgment off the tee, or on the second shot.

On the exterior holes, elevation changes came into play. One, six, seven and nine had meaningful elevation changes on the front. Ten through thirtheen and eighteen had interesting elevation judgments to make on the back nine.

Curiously, there are no bunkers on the course.

The outside loop of the back nine plays adjacent to US highway 69, and across from the sprawling General Motors Flint Assembly complex. Both can be seen from the tenth through twelfth holes. It’s noisy on those holes, even for this (mostly) deaf guy.

I wonder if Carman Creek’s is a play on the Flint Assembly plant. Carman Creek runs from the assembly plant area, under the highway and into Swartz Creek on the golf course.

In my search for the origins of the course, I also ran across an article from 2005 in the Flint Journal discussing toxic contamination runoff on the course from the factory. Excavation work to remove containated soils in a drainage ditch was conducted in 2004 – 2005.

My favorite hole was the dogleg right par 4 fifteenth.

The hole is intersected by Swartz Creek some 220 yards down its 389-yard length. The creek runs down the right side of the hole to the green, just behind a row of trees. A large tree on the far side of the creek, just at the bend threatens.

The fairway actually ends well short of the creek, and does not start up again until well after.

I liked that the hole forces a meaningful decision from the start: Can you fly the ball 240 – 250 to safety over the creek? A roll-out is not going to do the job. I laid up at 179 at the end of the fairway. Unfortunately, I was too far to the right to have a good shot at the green. I flew left of the green, wedged it 15 yards back right and two putted for bogey.

The fifteenth is one of several holes with creek crossings. The first plays like that, as do the fourth, fifth, and seventeenth.

The seventeenth — another favorite — actually crosses the creek twice, but has a different sort of problem. A long drive could actually roll into the second creek crossing.

Swartz Creek is a moderately long 6, 658 yards from the tips.

Unfortunately, Swartz Creek was let down substantially by its conditions. On the day I played, fairways were alternately weedy and thin; weedy and swampy; thin and dry; or bare and swampy.

Part of that surely is the danger of a course in a river valley. It’s going to flood and parts will occasionally be soggy. But bare and dry fairways on other parts are a poor showing.

I don’t expect munis to have great conditions and don’t mark them down too much as long as the conditions don’t get in the way of play. In this case, however, I often found myself moving my ball from where it had landed to spots that were either drier, or had thicker coverage.

The course deserves better.

On the positive side, with a couple of exceptions — the maintenance crews had done a good job of keeping the edges clear and the growth on the shores of the creeks under control.

The greens were in good shape. Humorously, they still had the supersized holes from an outing the previous day.

In spite of annoyance at the conditions, I had a good time at Swartz Creek. It has the good bones of the sort of classic course that I really enjoy. I also have a soft spot in my heart for munis, which

The Swartz Creek golf course review was first published on GolfBlogger.Com on February 24, 2026 from notes and photos taken on a round played in the fall of 2025. For all of GolfBlogger’s Michigan golf course reviews (and from a few other places), follow the link.

A photo tour of Swartz Creek follows:

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