The other day I was driving down 12 Mile Road in Farmington Hills, MI. I noticed a street sign for Country Club Drive and it hit me that the office park I was passing once was the home of the Farmington Hills Country Club. This private club, one I never played, sold the property to developers after Twelve Oaks Mall was built. They then purchased a public course in South Lyon, Godwin Glen, re-designed the 27 holes, built a large clubhouse and renamed the club Walnut Creek Country Club. It continues to be a successful private club. One day we attended a wedding reception at Walnut Creek. While looking out at the course, many good memories came to me. Our golf league had played there when it was Godwin and while Arthur Hills had tweeked the course considerably, it was still recognizable from the days when it was Godwin.
A course I played fairly often in the 1980’s was Bogie Lake Golf Course (Commerce, MI?). There was nothing terribly special about Bogie Lake and I suspect that was their undoing when several more modern courses were built nearby. My lasting memory was playing there on Master’s Saturday. I had my VCR set to tape the event and told everyone not to discuss the ongoing action. Of course one of my buddies had to hint that “an aquatic creature” was making a move. I spent 18 holes trying to decide if it was Greg Norman or Craig Stadtler.
On my way to the inlaws in Northville, we pass a subdivision, Brooklane Estates, on Sheldon Road. This was the home of the Brooklane Golf Club, an executive 18 hole course. Our two boys played with my wife and I a couple times at Brooklane. However, my two memories involve Winter golf. One year a bunch of guys must have convinced the owners to allow them to play through the Winter. When we would drive by the course, people in snowmobile suits could be seen trudging through the snow on most weekends. They would shovel an “X” on the green where the flagstick/hole was located. That Spring, there was a large brown “X” on every green. Another year, we had a prolonged thaw and the first week of February temperatures were running in the 50’s with sunny skies. I called my friends when I heard Brooklane was open and we met there around 11am. A line of 30 guys stood on the first tee waiting to get a chance to tee it up.