A “Par 90” At Harbor Shores Golf Club

Harbor Shores Golf Club, in Benton Harbor, MI, has broken ground on two new projects: a five acre, 9-hole “Wee Course” and a 13,000 square feet 18-hole putting green. Both are designed by World Golf Hall of Famer Colin Montgomerie, who won his first US title at the 2014 US Senior Open at Harbor Shores.

Read GolfBlogger’s Harbor Shores Golf Course Review from 2016

As Montgomerie described it, each of the holes on the nine-hole short course will have two distinct tees, allowing players to go around twice, and then easily add another eighteen at the putting course.

“We’re talking about a par 90 situation here,” Montgomerie said. “Par three times eighteen, which is 54. Then you’ve got the putting green, with eighteen holes, each of which takes two putts for 36. That’s 90.”

“Playing should take about an hour. An hour’s challenge and entertainment.”

The Wee Course and Highlands putting green will have their grand opening in 2026. The design consists of holes measuring 60 yards or less that are modeled after the nine most iconic holes of the current Jack Nicklaus layout.

“I think a lot of Inspirations come from this course — to be honest, from Jack Nicklaus himself,” Montgomerie said. “You know the way that the greens have been shaped on the big course, so that’s the inspiration on this one.”

The Wee course and putting green are the latest community amenities at Harbor Shores Golf Club, providing another unique, fun golf attraction at the popular resort. Kids will play for free, and youth programming will be a priority.

Inspired by similar attractions at St. Andrews and Pinehurst, the new courses will have lighting, music, and food and beverage to help build a community gathering space. The project is just one of several new developments in the community, including an outdoor park along the canal on Riverview Drive and the continued expansion of walking and bike trails.

The Wee Course is sponsored by Corewell Health, one of Michigan’s largest non-profit health care systems.

The 530-acre, mixed-use Harbor Shores project is a remarkable story. Once a thriving industrial community, Benton Harbor was hit hard in the 1980s, when 6,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in an eighteen month period. The city languished in an economic depression.

Beginning in 2003, a consortium of community partners set out to revive the city’s fortunes. Key among those were Whirlpool and the Whirlpool Foundation. The appliance company was founded in 1911 in Benton Harbor and the area remains its global headquarters.

The vision — backed by $900 million in investments — was of a resort, golf course and housing development to replace more than 500 acres of abandoned industrial buildings and brownfields. Anchoring the project is a Jack Nicklaus Signature Design course: Harbor Shores.

The award-winning golf course winds through a variety of terrain including wetlands, riverside and hardwood forest and offers stunning views of Lake Michigan from lakeside holes. The 550-acre residential, golf, recreational and waterfront community features a marina village and river walk, town center with restaurants and shops, health and fitness center, deep water marina, the four-star Inn at Harbor Shores hotel and spa, golf villas, miles of recreational trails and rivers, and acres of parks and green space. 

Four hundred affordable homes were built, with 120 homes made possible through Habitat for Humanity.

In all, more than three million square feet of distressed buildings were removed, and 140,000 tons of waste removed. The golf course’s fourth and fifth holes are built on a slag pit left over from an automotive brake company. Fourteen and fifteen are on a Superfund toxic waste site created by a company that used radium and mercury to make fighter plane parts during World War II.

Harbor Shores Golf Club hosted the 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2022 and 2024 Senior PGA Championships.

Now The Golf Club At Harbor Shores is branching out with its Wee and Putting Courses.

The Wee Course and Highlands will be part of the annual Whirlpool Community Charity Golf event. The event provides more than $3 million in funding for the community’s youth by raising money for the Boys and Girls Club of Benton Harbor, First Tee of Benton Harbor, First Robotics and three local school foundations. The event has raised more than $34 million in its 21-year history, providing assistance to more than ten thousand local youth.

“I am very excited to be a part of such a wonderful project with the Harbor Shores Resort, a place and people that I am very close with, and to collaborate with them to create a wonderful golf amenity that will positively impact the community,” said Montgomerie. “Golf is a game for all ages and generations. Courses like the Wee Course will attract parents who play golf and want to introduce their children to the game, and grandparents who might not be able to play 18 but can bring their grandchildren along for nine holes. Children can be introduced to golf through friends and bring along their parents, who have yet to try the game. From my personal experience around the world and especially in Scotland, short wee courses can bring together communities and form a foundation for the whole area.”