Tom Doak Designs Detroit Golf Facility

Midnight Golf is a Detroit initiative that, through a 30-week program,

teaches life skills including financial literacy, college preparation, community activism, as well as, learning to play golf. It is a program that makes a significant difference in the lives of the participants. The mission is to improve under-served young adults’ personal development, educational preparedness, and appreciation of the game of golf.

Its been enormously successful:

Since 2001, 615 young people joined the Midnight Golf Program, 425 completed the 30 week learning experience with 351 students admitted to more than 60 different colleges and universities. The participants come from a wide range of high schools and community based programs.

The organization recently acquired the use of a plot of land in downtown Detroit from Marygrove College, and the SI Golf group convinced architect Tom Doak to do a pro-bono design for a new facility. Doak, who’s based in Traverse City in Northern Michigan (what we refer to as “God’s Country”), is famed as the designer of such courses as Pacific Dunes. I played his Black Forest and pronounced it excellent. I’m sorry that I didn’t get a chance to play his High Pointe, in Michigan, before it closed.

At any rate, Doak apparently has done some preliminary design work, the Michigan State Turfgrass department has volunteered some expertise, and construction should begin this summer.

It sounds like a worthy cause.

Read more here.