Crystal Downs Country Club, MI

Crystal Downs Country Club is a census-designated place and private country club in Benzie County, Michigan, with 55 residents in the 2020 census. The community sits on a narrow, sandy rise between Lake Michigan and inland Crystal Lake, about seven miles north of Frankfort and forty miles west of Traverse City. The two-lake setting gives the place its strongest geography: broad water views, rolling ground, and winds coming off the big lake.

The golf course opened with nine holes in 1927, and Perry Maxwell shaped the eighteen-hole design that was completed in the early 1930s. The English-cottage clubhouse opened in 1929 on one of the highest points, looking toward both lakes. The course follows the land. Crystal Downs remains a private residential and golf community, with its roads, homes, clubhouse, and fairways following the sandy terrain. Crystal Downs Country Club is a Michigan community where Alister MacKenzie-era golf design, two lakes, a remote shoreline, and Frankfort’s nearby harbor town meet.