Harbor Shores Resort in Benton Harbor, Michigan, officially opened its new par-3 Wee Course on April 30, 2026 — and it doubles as Colin Montgomerie’s first short-course design on US soil. The 9-hole layout sits beside the resort’s Jack Nicklaus Signature championship course on the Lake Michigan shoreline, and it has been built around a single idea that has come to define golf development in 2026: shrink the time, the distance, and the intimidation, and you grow the game.
What Happened
After breaking ground in June 2025, the Wee Course welcomed its first paying customers this week. The layout was designed by World Golf Hall of Famer Colin Montgomerie — best known to American audiences as the eight-time European Tour Order of Merit winner and 2014 Senior PGA Championship victor at this very resort. Total yardage runs from 275 to 500 yards across all nine holes, with individual hole lengths ranging from a wedge-flick 20 yards out to a still-modest 80 yards.
Resort officials say a full nine-hole loop can be played in under an hour, and the course has been built to accept a green fee structure designed for casual walk-on play, junior groups, and after-work nine-and-dines. It joins Harbor Shores’ existing Jack Nicklaus Signature track — twice host of the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship — to round out a 27-hole, multi-format complex on a single Lake Michigan campus.
Why It Matters: 2026’s Short-Course Boom
The Wee Course is the second high-profile short-course opening in May 2026 alone. Just two weeks ago, Tom Doak’s Old Petty unveiled at Cabot Highlands in the Scottish Highlands, and developers from Bandon Dunes to Sand Valley have made par-3 layouts a centerpiece of their resort expansions. After two decades of bigger-is-better course design, golf’s biggest brands are now competing on a different axis entirely: how quickly, cheaply, and welcomingly can you let a beginner — or a busy parent — play nine holes?
Industry data tells the story. The National Golf Foundation reports that on-course participation is at its highest level since 1997, with growth driven almost entirely by women, juniors, and entry-level players — exactly the audience a Wee Course is built for. Resort operators have noticed: short courses convert curiosity into return visits in a way 7,400-yard championship layouts simply do not. Harbor Shores’ decision to embed its short course alongside its tournament track — rather than bury it in a back-of-the-property practice area — signals how mainstream the format has become.
Inside Montgomerie’s Design
This is Montgomerie’s first short course in the United States, and the routing draws inspiration from some of the most iconic green complexes on the Harbor Shores championship course. The Scot has said publicly that he wanted players to encounter real green contours — the kind that test touch and imagination — at lengths that even a beginner can reach with a wedge. Several greens borrow the false fronts and runoff slopes from Nicklaus’s original 18, scaled down so a 50-yard pitch demands the same shot-shape decisions a 150-yard approach would on the big course.
Shot variety was the design brief. The shortest holes are flat 20-yarders that double as a putting-green warmup; the longest 80-yard holes feature elevation change, water carries, and bunkering that punishes a careless half-swing. There is no rough to speak of — fairway grass runs from tee to green on most holes — which keeps the pace fast and removes one of the most common reasons new players quit a round.
What This Means For You
If you live in or are traveling to southwest Michigan this summer, here is the practical takeaway:
The Wee Course is genuinely accessible. The format works for any skill level — you do not need a handicap, you do not need a full set, and the sub-hour round time means you can fit it in before dinner. For families, it is a low-stakes way to introduce kids and partners to the game without committing four-and-a-half hours and a $200 green fee.
It also functions as a serious training ground. Tour pros from Jordan Spieth to Justin Rose talk publicly about how short-game practice on real greens — under the slight pressure of a hole and a flag — is the fastest way to drop strokes. A $30 nine on the Wee Course will do more for your scoring zone than two hours hitting wedges off mats at a range.
Pair it with a stay-and-play. Harbor Shores’ Inn at Harbor Shores sits within walking distance, and the resort is bundling Wee Course green fees into 36-hole stay-and-play packages that include a round on the Nicklaus Signature course. For golf travelers, the new format gives you a meaningful second round without booking another championship tee time.
A Wider Trend In Course Architecture
Harbor Shores is the latest in a string of 2026 short-course openings that include Cabot Highlands’ Old Petty in Scotland and several US municipal projects scheduled to debut later this summer. The economics are persuasive: a 9-hole, par-3 course costs a fraction of an 18-hole championship build, can be carved into 30–40 acres rather than 200, and produces revenue per square foot that often beats its bigger sibling. Architect Jim Craig’s 12-hole opening at the Commons at Sand Valley later this summer will test the model further.
For golf’s governing bodies — who have spent the better part of a decade wringing their hands about pace of play, course access, and participation — Harbor Shores is the kind of opening that quietly does more for the game than another rule clarification. The USGA and R&A announced six new rule clarifications last week aimed at making play simpler. A nine-hole layout you can finish in 50 minutes is, in its own way, the same idea executed in turf.
Key Takeaways
The Wee Course at Harbor Shores opened April 30, 2026, becoming Colin Montgomerie’s first US short-course design and the second high-profile par-3 layout to debut in the past two weeks alongside Tom Doak’s Old Petty at Cabot Highlands. The 9-hole, 275–500-yard layout plays in under an hour and is priced for casual walk-on use, putting it squarely in the same accessibility lane as initiatives like the Bank of America $5 Junior Golf program.
For experienced golfers, the appeal is short-game work on real green complexes. For new and lapsed players, it is the lowest-stakes way to get on a Lake Michigan resort property without paying championship-course rates or committing to a half-day round. Whether short courses keep multiplying through the rest of 2026 will depend on whether resorts like Harbor Shores can prove the format pays — but every opening data point so far suggests they will. If you have ever talked yourself out of golf because you “did not have time,” the Wee Course is the architecture answer to that excuse.
For more on golf’s evolving development pipeline, see our recent coverage of Oakland Hills’ new clubhouse unveiling and how the First Tee program is helping new players manage opening-hole nerves.
