A golf management company has accused a city in Florida of lying about the provenance of its Donald Ross course, and is suing to get out of its 20 year management contract.

If the city is lying, the lie is some 90 years old, because the claim has been made from the start. However, not all have believed the story. One doubter is Michael Fay, a founder of the so-called Donald Ross Society. Fay says that the course isn’t designed like a Ross and that city officials have been unable to come up with the proper papers.

I have little respect for that Society, though. In some communications I had with them earlier this year, it became evident that they had confused two Detroit area Ross courses, believing that Rouge and Rogell were one and the same. That’s not good research for a Society that claims to insist on proper documentation. If they’ve got that confused, who knows what else they have wrong.

There’s also the issue that many courses originally designed by Ross has been so bastardized over the years that they’re now barely recognizable. The St. Clair River Country Club, for example, sold several of the holes on its Ross course to a developer, and then hired a hack to add a few holes through a swamp. The transition is jarring. There are a couple of others in the Detroit area that have suffered similar fates.

Finally, on courses that are 90+ years old, I’m not surprised that there aren’t still bills of sale or other modern documentation around. The accounting and records keeping practices of many smaller municipalities and government organizations aren’t very good now—and surely weren’t that good back then.

Above: The ninth hole, a 186 yard par 3.

ating to 1927, the Western Golf and Country Club is a beautiful Donald Ross course located in Redford, Michigan along the banks of the River Rouge. It’s a private club and I’m grateful to board member Pat Hinman and Membership Director Jennifer Coleman for making me a guest for the day.

The Rouge is the central, unifying feature of Western. Although at that point in the watershed, the Rouge is little more than a glorified creek, the landscape it has carved comes into play on nearly every hole. Much of the course runs on one bank or the other of the deeply cut flood plain; the rest are located on the heights just above.

Following the river, Western is long and narrow; at only one point is it ever more than two fairways wide, and even that is separated by water. The first two holes move upstream, the third crosses the river and then the course turns back. The green of the par five fifth is the furthest the course wanders from the river; the sixth brings you back within sight. And so it goes.

The overall effect is that the course feels at once both large and cozy. Because there’s rarely more to see than the hole ahead, each made me feel as though my group had the course almost to itself. The same topography, however, made me feel as though I had undertaken a serious trek. (Don’t get me wrong; the course is eminently walkable and I was not at all fatigued. It just felt that way.)

The hole designs are what I’ve come to expect from Donald Ross courses in the metro Detroit area: fairly straightforward, with narrow fairways and small greens protected by oft scary bunkering. Changes in elevation from heights to flood plain and back also created some interesting optical illusions. Particularly when playing from the plain upward, holes and flags appeared much closer than they were.

As an aside, the course’s design reminds me very much of Rouge Park, another Ross course further down river. In conditioning, however, there’s no comparison.

I admit that I was a bit surprised to find excellent course conditions at Western. Over the course of the summer, I’d played several courses located along river flood plains and all had been badly damaged by the spring and summer’s alternating wet and dry conditions. The Donald Ross course at Rouge Park had been hammered by the weather. Michigan State University’s turfgrass center had even sent out a bulletin explaining how the wet weather drove oxygen out of the ground, preventing root development which then killed the grass as temperatures rose. In fact, virtually every course I visited this summer—regardless of geography—had seen better days.

There was little of that at Western. The fairways were full; the rough punishing and the greens smooth and slick. It was all the more surprising when I learned that the bulk of the course had been underwater during a spring flood. At one point, a greenskeeper apparently went out in a boat to rescue the flags—only the tops of which were visible.

y favorite holes on the course were the par threes. The third is a 190 yard shot from an elevated tee across the Rouge to a slightly elevated and mounded green flanked left by trees and right by a long bunker. The ninth is a 172 yard shot from a high bluff across the Rouge to a tiny green guarded front, left and right by bunkers. Both are particularly picaresque shots. Finally, the twelfth is a 165 yard shot from an elevated tee to a green nearly completely surrounded by bunkers. The elevation on all three make them play shorter, but the size of the greens and bunkers call for precision shots. It is as fine a collection of par threes as I can remember seeing on a course.

I had a fun round, made all the more enjoyable with the assist of a caddy. It’s the first time I’ve played with a real caddy and there’s nothing quite like it in golf.  In addition to the bag lugging and club cleaning duties, he fed me yardages, gave me aiming points, and offered putting advice—most of which I sadly was generally unable to execute. He was a very nice young man from a local high school (so I won’t mention his name), and made a great course even more enjoyable.

Above: A view of the Clubhouse from the 18th fairway, looking across the 10th fairway.

estern’s clubhouse is a sight to behold—a large classic structure that overlooks the tenth and eighteenth fairways, and the ninth green (the only point at the course more than two fairways wide.). The clubhouse dates to 1926, and clearly is appropriate to that era. It has a large main dining room, the “English Room,” Library, Western Grille, a main bar area and a Donald Ross room that just screams “Board of Directors.” The men’s locker room is immense and well appointed.

Of great interest to me was the men’s grille.Western has what I am sure is one of the area’s last remaining men’s only bar and grille areas. As you’d expect from a ‘Man Cave,” it’s got big screen televisions, a bar and no-frills seating and tables—all of which were bought with money donated by the gentlemen for just such purposes.

I feel lucky to have had the chance to play Western. If you’re interested in becoming a member, they’ve got some interesting specials running right now, which you can find here.

You can see a photo tour of the course, here.

Huntmore Golf Club
Brighton, Michigan

Grade: B
Teachers’ Comments: Tough.

Huntmore Golf Club is a deceptively tough course that requires precision shot making ability. Players who spray their shots are going to run up their scores and run out of balls.

Located near Brighton, Michigan, Huntmore is cut through swamp, field and forest. Fairways are tight, and there always seems to be a tree, a pond, a patch of grass or a swamp to make you pay for an error. The greens, too are tough.

When playing Huntmore, pay attention to the yardages. As a bogey golfer, I found the white tees offered plenty of course, even though they measured only 5995 yards. At that distance, Huntmore plays to a 68.8/127. Playing the blacks at 7,105 finds you at 74.8/143—as tough a course as I’ve seen in the area.

Local knowledge is at a premium at Huntmore. There are blind shots, deceptive lines and hidden surprises aplenty. I was lucky to play with a regular. Otherwise, I think I would have completely missed the fairways on a couple of holes. The fourth, in particular, gives no real clues as to what you’re supposed to do. I also was grateful to have someone telling me where to aim on the seventh, where the fairway seems to disappear in the landing area, and on the thirteenth, where the fairway runs at a right angle to the line off the tee.

Conditions on the day I visited were just so-so. The fairways were not in particularly good shape, with swampy areas and dead grass. Some areas looked uncared for. The greens were better, but nothing to brag about.

Huntmore’s prices are very good. As of this writing, you can play for $25 during the week, and they have an email club that regularly sends better deals.

I don’t know that I’d go out of my way to play Huntmore, but if you live in the area, it could be a part of your regular rotation.

You can see photos of Huntmore Golf Club here. When browsing, take into account the fact that it was a hazy, very humid morning, making everything look much more drab than it actually is. The photo above is the par 3 third.

The Nightmare
West Branch, Michigan

Grade: A-
Teacher’s Comments: A fun and beautiful course. Management needs to allow people to walk.

I’d be surprised if there’s a course more inappropriately named than The Nightmare. No bad dream, it’s instead a fun and beautiful layout that gives the bogey golfer a good chance to score well.

Cut through pine and broadleaf forests near West Branch, Michigan, The Nightmare’s most notable feature are the generously wide fairways and lack of trouble off the tee. If you’re even moderately accurate with the driver, you can grip it and rip it on every par four and five. The course tips out at 7020 from the blues and plays to a 73.9/132. I played from the white tees at 6527 (71.4/130) and don’t think it was as difficult as that might suggest. Had I not been stiff from the drive from Ann Arbor and blown up with a nine on the final hole, I think I could have broken 80.

The greens on the course are quite large, making the course even more accessible for the bogey golfer. There’s really no excuse for missing too many of these, but your first putt may be a long lag from the hole. That’s ok, though, because I found that the ball did just what I expected with the flat stick. There were no particularly tricky reads, or putts where I thought “wow, I didn’t see that coming.”

The Nightmare has two principal defenses: length and bunkers. Sixty five hundred-plus from the whites is quite a course. With the elevation changes, holes frequently played much longer. Fairway bunkers are the other threat. By my count, there were 34 such guarding the left or right (or both) sides of landing areas. An equal number guard the areas around the greens. Together, they have the potential to catch a player who is careless in lining up his shots. But playing out of the sand is not a certainty. I managed to avoid all until the 18th, when I caught two.

Course conditions on the day I played were terrific. The tee boxes, fairways and greens all were in top shape. Flowerbeds, fieldstone retaining walls, and other landscaping features added to the already beautiful north woods setting. The cart paths were in better condition than most of the roads in Ann Arbor. Mid afternoon, everything was still nicely cut.

It’d be difficult for me to pick a hole as my “favorite.” I thought the par 4 first, at 321 yards was a nice warm up. There’s no trouble off the tee, and the “rough” is so wide, I don’t think its possible to lose a ball here. The sixteenth (shown above) was a lot of fun, requiring a decently aimed tee shot, and an accurate iron to a hole set near water. The par 5 eighteenth is a nice way to finish. But in truth, all of the holes were pleasant. You can see a gallery of photos here.

The clubhouse is nothing to talk about, and the food is greatly overpriced, basic 7-11 fare. The Nightmare needs better meal facilities to match its ambitions as an upscale resort course. Eat in West Branch before your tee time, or play to return there after. That’s a minus for the course.

There are two other reasons why I don’t give The Nightmare top grades. The first is that they don’t allow walking. I asked at the clubhouse if I could walk, and the clerk said “its way too hilly to walk.” Pshaw. Aside from some graceful elevation changes and the long uphill sixth, there isn’t a topographic feature there worthy of the name “hill.” In fact, the course is perfectly designed for walking, with tees following relatively closely to greens (my guess is that the architect intended walkers).  Ironically, my cart gave out on the last hole and I had to abandon it and walk in—carrying my bag. The truth is that carts are a cash cow for management, and they don’t want to take a chance of losing that money machine.

And that brings me to the other issue. As beautiful as the course is, The Nightmare is overpriced: $60 weekdays and $70 on weekends (Fri. - Sun.). That’s in the price range of top Gaylord resort courses. For me, West Branch is the place where we stop to refuel on the way to those Up North resorts, not a destination in itself. In my opinion, they’re over reaching. On the Friday I played, went around the entire course and saw just one other group, who kindly let me through. My recommendation is to play if you can get a steep discount.

I played Worthington Manor golf course in Urbana, Maryland on Friday. It’s a terrific track.

The Los Angeles Country Club has a terrific pdf with descriptions of their restoration of Captain George Thomas’ design for the North Course. It’s full of before and after photos, and descriptions of the work.

Golfweek has its list of top college golf courses. Two of them are the University of Michigan Golf Course (number 12) and the University of Michigan’s Radrick Farms golf course (number 16). I’m surprised that Michigan State’s Forest Akers didn’t make the cut—it’s every bit as nice as Radrick Farms, although much more heavily played. Radrick is a semi-private course for University staff and alumni only, while Forest Akers is open just about everyone (as near as I can tell ... I just walked on one day with no tee time or credentials). Forest Akers is a bit more beaten up at any time than Radrick.

I’ve played four Big Ten courses—the two Michigan Courses, Forest Akers and Indiana University’s home course. The Ohio State University’s Scarlet is next on my list. What I’d really like to do is to play it on October 10 of this year on my way back from a football game in Morgantown, WV. I wonder if anyone out there can hook me up ...