100 Years: Sharp Park in Jackson
By Tom Lang
One of a half dozen Michigan golf courses that turned 100 years old in 2024 includes Sharp Park Golf Course in Jackson. It was the starting grounds for virtually every player in the community, including three men who recorded several PGA Tour victories – brothers Dave and Mike Hill, plus Brian Stuard.
“When you think of golf in Jackson, one of the places you think of is Sharp Park,” said Stuard, winner of the 2016 Zurich Classic in New Orleans that put him in the 2017 Masters. “I have some great memories of winning the Junior City Championship at Sharp Park. It was always such a fun place to play.”
I built my own memory there in September, one week after playing at the fabled American Dunes in Grand Haven. The comment I shared with my random playing partner at Sharp Park was that while the two courses were polar-opposites in style, size and persona, I had fun at both.
Sharp Park is a fairly-typical municipal course, in that many of them around the country are inside city limits, are land-locked and thus, a shorter parkland style. The Jackson land has some nice gentle rolls to it, enough to even create a handful of unexpected blind shots.
My favorite back-to-back holes are 12-13. Hole 12 is a long par 4, made longer and more memorable by a well elevated green. My best summation is the large green sits 40-50 feet above the fairway.
After being happy with a bogey there, golfers move on to the short par 3 blind shot hole 13 – blind because the entire green complex sits in a bowl below the fairway run up where an extended flagstick barely shows from the tee the tippy top of the flag.
The green complexes are not overrun with sand traps. Most holes have only one trap to avoid (seven holes have two traps). This makes for a less egregious golfing environment, but they’re still nice deterrents that require some accuracy for scoring success. Several greens have run-off slopes on the sides and back that demand precision on approach as well.
The only water on the course sits right of the 2nd green and in front of No. 8’s back and middle tees. Each fairway also has a junior tee. Translation: this is a good course for those learning the game, while still testing good players.
There is a good mix of long, average and short par fours – the latter being short enough for some to try driving the green. But beware, as mis-hits will be penalized.
A very nice surprise for playing an affordable muni that is a good walk, is that their power carts have a nice GPS system. Not top-of-the-line luxury, but still very useable and helpful.
The clubhouse is a classic style, with an older home first on the property serving as the main core. Extensions made to the building since then are architecturally tactful and cool.
The Tom Bendelow design has barely been modified over the years, but at least three greens were moved in the past couple decades in an effort to give more space from possible wayward golfers’ shots. The course is designed as you would expect for Bendelow’s era a century ago – and it still holds its own as a classic.
