Just under an hour from Melbourne, on the northeastern tip of King Island, Cape Wickham is one of the game’s great remote destinations. Every hole boasts an ocean view, with co-designers Mike DeVries and Darius Oliver routing the course under the watchful view of the 157-foot Cape Wickham Lighthouse that’s the tallest in Australia as well as the tallest stone lighthouse in the southern hemisphere.
Check out the article to see what other great courses are mentioned!
In this Links article, Mike was asked his opinion on the importance of variety in golf. See his response as well as Bill Coore, Tom Doak, and Rod Whitman’s.
Grand Rapids, Mich.
This is Mike DeVries country. Here you’ll find three of his little-known, but hugely enjoyable, courses—The Mines about 10 minutes from downtown; Pilgrim’s Run half an hour north; and Diamond Springs a similar distance southwest of the city. Each demonstrates DeVries’s ability to create intriguing golf without moving a great deal of dirt and to which you want to return often. Other options outside the “Furniture City” are Ray Hearn’s impressive Quail Ridge, Mike Hurdzan’s tremendous Meadows course at Grand Valley State University, and, half an hour to the west near the Lake Michigan town of Grand Haven, Jack Nicklaus’s American Dunes which opened in May 2021 and is owned and operated by the Folds of Honor Foundation.
Matt Fernandez recently worked with Noah Jurik to create this list based on affordability (under $100 at some point during peak season), architecturally interesting, playable for all, great value, and uniqueness. And all three of the Grand Rapids area DeVries Designs courses made it!
From an aerial view, the 11th hole of the Greywalls course at Marquette Golf Club doesn’t appear to meet this story’s criteria. The short par four is punctuated by eight fairway and greenside bunkers, but there’s still plenty of fairway that’s in play off the tee. Yet, the 11th at Greywalls is a perfect fit not for the physical amount of sand in play, but for how much sand looks to be in play. It’s all about the bunker positioning on this hole and based on the angle presented to players on the tee, they’re likely to see only slivers of short grass.
Erik Matuszewski has compiled a list of 10 courses in the rare 73-Par category, of which there are less than 100 of in the United States. Among these select few is Pilgrim’s Run!
Built on more than 400 acres of natural wooded terrain in Central Michigan, about a half hour north of Grand Rapids, Pilgrim’s Run is another par 73 with only three par-three holes. The public layout from Mike DeVries and Kris Schumacker has some wild hole names too: Slough of Despond, Bottomless Pit, Error Hill, Giant Despair, and Valley of Humility among them.
The guys from No Laying Up finished out this season of Tourist Sauce at Greywalls in Marquette.
Big thanks to the whole No Laying Up crew for showcasing Michigan golf and including DeVries Designs courses throughout the journey. It was a pleasure meeting everyone and hearing your commentary on the golf. Keep up the great work!
It’s finally here! Check out the Kingsley Club episode of Tourist Sauce from No Lane Up featuring our very own Mike DeVries.
Click here to watch the rest of Tourist Sauce Season 7: Michigan
In their current season of Tourist Sauce, the team from No Laying Up played multiple courses throughout the state of Michigan including Pilgrim’s Run, Greywalls, Kingsley, and more! Mike got the chance to talk more in depth about his courses and his background in design with Soly.
During their tour of Michigan golf this summer, the guys from No Laying Up played the 3 DeVries Designs courses in the Grand Rapids area; Diamond Springs, the Mines, and Pilgrim’s Run. And they met up with our friend Andy Johnson from The Fried Egg!
If you haven’t heard of No Laying Up, we here at DDI highly recommend you check them out. They have an extensive library of podcast episodes and YouTube videos diving deep into the courses and players that make golf such a great game to play.
One of their many projects is a travel show called Tourist Sauce, where they visit a specific part of the States or world. Season 7, filmed this past summer, was all about courses in the state of Michigan. The guys traveled all throughout the state and Mike even spent a day with them at Kingsley!
You can listen to their podcast recapping the entire trip here. We’ll have more posts to come soon with some highlights about your favorite DeVries courses. New episodes of Tourist Sauce are posted every Wednesday at 9pm EST on their YouTube Channel.
Every year Golfweek creates many Best of Lists, but this one is an entirely new category. They’ve ranked dozens of the world’s best courses that were built in 1960 or later. And Cape Wickham takes spot #5 on this debut list! Check out the rest of the rankings here.
Greywalls was listed #65 in GOLF’s Top 100 Courses You Can Play
Some say Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is a world unto itself, and after crossing the Mackinaw Bridge, you’ll quickly see why “Yoopers” love this part of the state. From the “border” crossing, it’s a three-hour, well-worth-the-drive journey to Greywalls. Rugged beauty is an understatement on this DeVries design, where he somehow managed to carve out a memorable layout though granite outcroppings; the course’s namesake comes into play on several holes, most notably the par-3 6th. The woodsy setting has plenty of ups and downs, plus breathtaking views of nearby Lake Superior, especially from the elevated opening tee. Forget the scorecard and enjoy the ride.
Check out the rest of the list here
And Cape Wickham was mentioned in GOLF’s Best Golf Course Lighthouses by DDI’s good friend, Mike Clayton!
Golf Digest's “Best Golf Courses in Michigan” features 3 DeVries Designs courses!
#4 - Kingsley Club
#12 - Greywalls
#26 - Pilgrim’s Run
Lots of lists from Golf Week’s Best of 2021. See where your favorite DeVries Designs courses rank!
Top 200 Modern Courses in the US (built after 1960)
#18 - Kingsley Club
#80 - Greywalls
Best Private Courses (by state)
#3 - Kingsley Club
Top 100 Public Courses in the US
#28 - Greywalls
Best Public Golf Courses You Can Play (by state)
#2 - Greywalls
#10 - Pilgrim’s Run
Golf World just curated their latest Top 100 Courses in the World featuring Cape Wickham at #10! And shout out to our Australian partner Michael Clayton’s course, Barnbougle Dunes, at #19.
Last week GOLF released its Top 100 Rankings for 2020/2021 where Kingsley was listed at #79 in the U.S. and #3 in Michigan!
Greywalls was also listed at #12 in Michigan.
Check out the Top 100 Courses in the U.S.
Check out the Top Courses in Michigan
Tony Dear of LINKS wrote an article about how trees effect the game of golf. In it he asked architects, including our own Mike DeVries, to share their favorite golf course trees.
Mike DeVries
The American Beech on the 420-yard 12th at Crystal Downs. It’s an enormous specimen, straight away from the tee on the far side of the dogleg. The tree is in play for longer hitters and demands you turn the ball a little left to right to avoid being blocked on the second shot. It’s in decline sadly, split in the middle of the trunk from its large outstretched branches weighing it down. It’s cabled to help keep it together.
Check out the article to hear about the favorites of Mike Clayton, Derek Duncan, and more!
Golf Australia has created the top 100 best par 3s in the country and Cape Wickham proudly has 3 of its 4 listed! Our Australian partner Michael Clayton has a number of mentions as well, including Barnbougle Dunes, Peninsula Kingswood, and Port Fairy.
Derek Duncan and Ron Whitten of Golf Digest have updated Dan Jenkins’ All-Star Team of golf holes. Back in 1965 Jenkins created a list of the best 18 golf holes in America, each corresponding with their natural position on the course. Duncan and Whitten have decided to make their own but with the twist of only courses built since 2000.
We’re honored that Kingsley Club has made it on as their hole #1!
Our opening hole, with its 90-yard-wide corridor, would seem to be a comfortable par 5 to ease us into the round. The first hole at the private Kingsley Club, near Traverse City, actually has two fairways, a high-right avenue and a lower-left route, the two separated by a cluster of bunkers. But here’s where Mike DeVries messes with our heads (the goal of every great architect), by making us pick and choose on the first shot of the day. Do we play up the narrow right side? Can we reach the crest? Or do we aim at the wider left side, at the risk of rolling down into the trees? Or do we split the difference and try to carry over that frightful field of pits? Kingsley’s wonderful glacial domes and hollows provide brain teasers and aggravating options throughout the round, demanding that our mental game be focused on the shot in front of us and nothing else. Which is good, as golf is meant to be an escape.
-RW
Thanks, Ron!
