Kingsley Club

Kingsley Club among the Hottest Courses in America - Golf Digest

This northern Michigan jewel by architect Mike DeVries has long been a darling of architecture fans for its rugged topography, naturalistic bunkers and wide, multi-option fairways and greens. Golf Digest panelists were slow in getting there after it opened in 2001 and their appreciation of the design didn’t translate into a ranking until 2013 when it popped at no. 114. It slipped the next cycle to no.133 but has since rose consistently toward its highest position yet at no. 110. Kingsley is a dark horse candidate to crack the top 100 in next year’s new ranking.

Check out what other courses made the list

The Science of Split Fairways - LINKS

Mike DeVries, whose incredible opening hole at Kingsley Club in Michigan has players pondering which side of a group of bunkers and rough ground to take with the very first shot of the day, says giving players options off the tee always makes the hole more interesting, especially if the choice is close to 50/50. “It’s better not to dictate or force the hole’s strategy,” he adds. “That takes an important part of the game away.”

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No Laying Up, Episode 494: Mike DeVries

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.

Listen to the full episode here.

No Laying Up: Tourist Sauce, Michigan

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.

Kingsley in "America's Best Holes since 2000"

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!

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Kingsley Club in the Spotlight

Kingsley Club has recently been the highlight of many Michigan golf posts online: Ran Morrissett’s “Dream 18,” selected as 3rd best in the state, and now there’s more!

First off we have a Michigan Golf Live segment with Bill Hobson. Mike recently chatted with him about all of his public Michigan courses but in this piece you’ll get a chance to hear more about the ideology about Kingsley Club with the owner, Ed Walker.

If you want to hear more about the nitty gritty of the course, GCSAATV had a quick interview with Dan Lucas, superintendent, about the fescue that runs throughout the course.

And last but not least we have an article by Steve Habel of Golf Course Trades, which starts out with a comparison to one of Mike’s favorite bands.

If comparing a round at The Kingsley Club to 1970s’ and ‘80s pop music, the course plays like the great Steely Dan, whose music is smooth and subtle, with accents sharp but never forced.

Righteous! Read the rest of the article here

Kingsley featured on Ran Morrissett's "Dream 18" of modern courses

In 1976, Pat Ward-Thomas published the article, “Elements of Greatness - The Classic Course,” pulling interesting and unique holes from various courses to create the hypothetical dream course. Each hole has to correspond with the same number, for instance you couldn’t use all hole 9’s for your layout. Many have since created their own, most recently Ran Morrissett who chose his Hole #2 from Kingsley Club!

Hole No. 2: Kingsley Club

Kingsley, Mich. — Par 3, 150 Yards

Architect: Mike DeVries

Why it’s great: An ultra-precise par-3 shot is the perfect follow-up to a wide-open starter.

Overview: People who study golf’s pace of play—yes, there are such people—pooh-pooh the idea of a reachable par-5 or a par-3 early on either side, holding forth that such holes cause play to back up. My experience says that the opposite holds true, that both hole types invariably spread out play. 

Regardless, Mike DeVries routed this one-shotter along the top of a ridge, with the narrow green naturally falling off on both sides toward either deep bunkers or, worse still, thick fescue grass. The green, at 38 yards, is much deeper than it is wide (just nine yards at the front). 

Yard for yard, this may well be the hardest hole on this entire Dream Course. More important, the juxtaposition of its intense call for precision against the freewheeling, spacious opening hole is simply too delicious to pass up. 

Thanks for including us in your dream course, Ran!

See the rest of the course here

Kingsley Club 3rd in the state!

Kingsley Club has been unanimously chosen by a handful of GOLF’s Top 100 panelists as the 3rd best course in Michigan!

After Crystal Downs and Oakland Hills, the highest-rated Michigan courses in GOLF Magazine’s rankings, what’s the best course in the state and why? 

Ran Morrissett (Architecture Editor): Michigan is stacked with great golf, both from the Golden Age and from the Modern Age. Narrowing it down to one is brutal, but when in doubt, I tend to side with the course that promotes ‘bouncy-bounce’ golf, which would be The Kingsley Club and its fescue playing surfaces. The ball releases more across its fairways and greens than the great parkland courses around Detroit. 

Steve Lapper (Panelist since 2009; has played 84 of the Top 100): The Kingsley Club hands down. This private gem dances around, over and through undulating, heaving terrain that encourages the player to think about not just where the green and pins are, but also the land and its movement that takes you there. It’s natural, no-fuss routing is a delightfully fun mix of golf adventure and strategic, insightful design. The highest praise is that it never fails to demand both your best swing and capture your interest – from the first hole to the last. 

Thomas Brown (Panelist since 2015; has played 95 of the Top 100): The Kingsley Club. The Kingsley Club was built in 2001 by a young, brash golf architect named Mike DeVries.  Kingsley is simply one of the premier designs built in the modern era of golf architecture. I remember approaching the 4th green on my first round there, thinking that golf enthusiasts might finally be able to find consensus on what the merits of natural design look like. DeVries took chances on the design. Fellow critics have tried to explain to me that par-3 9th hole is too challenging, or that the 13th hole, at 292 yards, is sensory overload. I’ll have none of it. Kingsley is perfect.

Check out their other choices here

Kingsley Club featured in The Fried Egg's Newsletter

On the Skillet: Kingsley Club - 12th - par 4 - 455/425/325 yards


Sometimes the hardest skill for an architect to master is restraint. The tendency is to put design more features than less when laying out a hole or a course. In some ways, golf course design follows the adage "less is more."

Kingsley Club in Northern Michigan is a modern marvel of minimalist architecture. Architect Mike DeVries moved only 30,000 yards of cubic dirt to construct the course. That's a fraction of a normal course. The minuscule amount is jawdropping when compared to Whistling Straits which moved over 1 million tons of earth! Kingsley's sandy soil and fescue fairways promote firm and fast conditions and highlight the natural land.

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Kingsley Club ranked 110th in USA by Golf Magazine

BUBBLE COURSES: TOP 100 IN THE U.S.

101. Quail Hollow, Charlotte, N.C.
102. Crooked Stick, Carmel, Ind.
103. White Bear Yacht Club, White Bear Lake, Minn.
104. The Country Club, Pepper Pike, Ohio
105. Country Club of Fairfield, Fairfield, Conn.
106. Lawsonia (Links), Green Lake, Wis.
107. Atlanta Athletic Club (Highlands), Duluth, Ga.
108. Wykagyl, New Rochelle, N.Y.
109. Oak Tree National, Edmond, Okla.
110. The Kingsley Club, Kingsley, Mich.
111. Gamble Sands, Brewster, Wash.
112. Canterbury, Cleveland, Ohio
113. Kapalua (Plantation), Maui, Hawaii
114. Wannamoisett, Rumford, R.I.
115. Colorado Golf Club, Parker, Colo.

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