Muskegon Country Club
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Muskegon Country Club was founded in 1908 and is a private country club owned by the RedWater Collection [1]
The club features a private 18 hole golf course in Muskegon, Michigan located on 130 acres of dunes between Lake Michigan and Muskegon Lake.[2] The course was originally laid out by early 20th-century golf course designer Tom Bendelow.[3] The course design was updated in the early 1920s by famous golf course designer Donald Ross.[4]
Muskegon Country Club has hosted many golf tournaments over the decades, many of them sanctioned by the Golf Association of Michigan (GAM).[5] Since 1985, five U.S. Open (golf) qualifiers have been played here. Since 2005, two Michigan Amateur Championships were held here.[6] In 2017, the Senior Amateur of Michigan was held here.[7]
First Designer - Tom Bendelow
On October 29, 1908, Muskegon business and professional leaders met to form the Muskegon Country Club. They purchased 167 acres of heavily wooded, second-cut hardwoods. This dune land near Lake Michigan closely bordered Lake Muskegon. Interestingly, they had an option to buy a tract of land extending west all the way to Lake Michigan. They declined.[8]
Tom Bendelow worked for A.G. Spalding and had developed over 500 courses in that era. One of his most notable was Medinah Golf Course #2 in Medinah, IL.[9] Bendelow made several trips to Muskegon from Chicago and when the course was complete, he said, ″The course is a splendid one, considerably over 6000 yards, and abounds in all kinds of hazards found in any seaboard course of the old country. There is not a level piece of ground in the whole tract, and the versatility of the golfer who thinks he can play- and may able on that course - will certainly be tested to a fine degree.″ [10]
Second Designer - Donald Ross
After World War I, leaders at the Muskegon Country Club employed Donald Ross to confirm the choices of Bendelow's original design and upgrade the golf course to an even higher degree of play and credibility.[11] After Donald Ross saw Muskegon Country Club, he claimed, ″The fact is, you have the most wonderful piece of property for a golf course I have ever seen."[12] Ross tweaked Bendelow's design and improved upon it. He affirmed the fan design. "It gives you an opportunity to place your clubhouse at the handle of the fan and then layout two loops of nine holes each of either side from it. The first tee, ninth green, tenth tee, and eighteenth green are then all the handle of the fan." Ross said.[13] The Bendelow and Ross legacy benefited from two masters of golf course design. Ross worked with the Muskegon Country Club or over the next ten years, improving fairway locations, new grasses, and new bunkers.[14]
Walter Hagen Exhibition
In 1925, Walter Hagen was at the peak of his illustrious career. He had won the U.S, Open (golf) in 1914 and 1919. The USPGA in 1921, 1924, and 1925. It was in 1925 that Hagen staged an exhibition at the Muskegon Country Club.[15] According to local accounts, Hagen was late and arrived with a beautiful woman draped on each arm. This account was not reported in the local newspaper. What was reported was that Hagen shot a 65 and impressed everyone! [16]