The Forest Akers Golf Courses are two golf courses located on the campus of

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

in East Lansing, Michigan. Both the East and West courses are open to the public and are made in 18-hole championship style. The men's and women's Michigan State Spartans golf teams are resident there. The West course was redesigned by golf course architect

Arthur Hills Arthur Hills (1930 – May 18, 2021) was an American golf course designer. He designed more than 200 new golf courses, including private, resort, upscale, and public golf courses around the world. In addition, Arthur Hills' firm, Arthur Hills/Stev ...

– an alumnus of Michigan State. The East course was redesigned in 1997. The courses also contain a golf center for practice. The courses were rated four star by ''

Golf Digest ''Golf Digest'' is a monthly golf magazine published by Warner Bros. Discovery through its sports unit under its Warner Bros. Discovery Golf division. It is a generalist golf publication covering recreational golf and men's and women's competiti ...

'' in 1999. The courses are named after Forest Akers, an alumnus of who donated the land to the institution. A condition of the donation was that the course also had to serve as an

arboretum An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...

and as a result it hosts a variety of plant life native to Michigan. It is the only golf course to feature an arboretum. The original course was designed by W. Bruce Matthews. The West course was opened in 1958. The West Course is the most challenging of the two, and the East course is a par-72 course since its redesign in 1997. Given the quality of the courses, it has served as the venue for college championships included the NCAA regionals, Big Ten Conference Championships and the Western Junior Championships. In addition to golf, the courses served as the venue for the NCAA Men's Division I Cross Country Championships during its early history. Indeed, it was the only location used for the championship for the first 25 editions that it was held.NCAA Men's Cross Country Championship History
NCAA. Retrieved on 2016-08-24.

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* {{coord, 42, 42, 29.9, N, 84, 29, 37.8, W, type:landmark_region:US-MI, display=title Golf clubs and courses in Michigan College golf clubs and courses in the United States Michigan State University Tourist attractions in Ingham County, Michigan Event venues established in 1958 1958 establishments in Michigan