Oceana Golf Club Continues Expansion
More playability, visual interest and growing youth golf are keys
By Tom Lang
The sport of golf has gone through a bunch of changes and explosive growth since the Covid pandemic hit and cleared – and one such golf property showing how it’s done is Oceana Golf Club in Shelby, north of Muskegon.
In the past two years, the small-town public golf course with a history of ‘can-do’ attitude, has made serious, yet tactical and thoughtful changes for the future of golf in their region, by adding four new holes and starting the creation of its first ever practice center.
It was the 1960s when a group of townspeople decided to build a golf course in their community that had none. It was a great run until the doors almost closed at the end of 2019.
Enter Shelby High grad Jason Wenk – who built and maintains financial investment businesses he developed in California – to infuse needed financial capital and has led the changes to his boyhood home all these years later.
Last month, Oceana opened a new 14th and 15th hole from acquired land on its north border and made changes to the new 16th (old par 5 hole 14) that have already been impressing members and the public. The updates created a run of a par 4, par 3 and par 5 all with elevated tee boxes.
In 2022, Oceana opened a new 5th hole downhill par 3 and developed a new 8th hole par 4 dogleg by combining two previous holes.
“We want to make improvements every single year and when you see a hole like that (14) it’s pretty beautiful and breathtaking,” Wenk told me recently.
“I’ve noticed that it seems easier to build a new hole than to reshape or refactor an existing hole. I do think that will be the next phase here after we build the practice center – that we hope to not replace any of the existing holes, but find ways to elevate them in terms of their esthetics and the way they play, so when you play all 18 holes they play with that same special feeling like our new 14th.”
Hole 14 is now the ‘crown jewel’ of the back nine. It’s a tree-lined downhill par 4 over heather rough near the tees, to a large, receptive green slopping a little back to front. Golfers then head to the 15th tee to find a downhill par 3 as good as any you’ll find in a wooded setting. They next venture to what used to be hole 14, a shorter par 5 that was straight as an arrow with tee shots coming out of a tunnel of trees. Now the tee is in the side of a hill about 50 feet higher in the air and 50 yards to the right of the old tee, making the hole play as a slight dogleg left to right.
“Esthetically it was probably regarded as the least memorable hole on the course,” Wenk said about the old 14/new 16th. “Now I think it’s going to be one of the highlights for people – and I think we’ll have a lot of other opportunities to do something like it as well.”
Head pro Marc Inglis said a main reason for the hole expansion was to incorporate some of the natural terrain in the area that wasn’t being utilized – and eliminate some of the back-and-forth layout of the original back nine that was designed and laid out by the townspeople 60 years ago using more primitive means.
“This gives us a little bit more of the northern Michigan feel,” he said.
To add the new 14 and 15, Oceana acquired neighboring land that wasn’t available to the original creators. From my golfer perspective, it infuses a burst of excitement in the middle of the back nine.
“They didn’t have the equipment back then to do what we did, nor could they have done it economically,” Inglis added. “We don’t want to change the feeling of Oceana, we just want to improve the experience of Oceana.”
Oceana superintendent Corey Parmalee, who as a teenager began working on the grounds crew at sister course Benona Shores, has been leading the new hole designs and construction – despite his only experience being “dreaming about it as a kid; I thought it was cool to draw pictures back then.”
The entire project has all come together with local help – similar to the original townspeople chipping in – and all the staff at Oceana expanding their horizons and adding the elbow grease. Much credit for ground shaping and the major legwork has been given to a local vendor as well: VandeZande Excavating.
“This experience was fun, and it was stressful. I seemed like it went from, ‘this could be really fun, to oh boy, this is really overwhelming.’ But in the end, I feel it turned out really cool,” Parmalee said. “It was one of those things when you’re walking through the woods and can barely see where you’re going, trying to figure out lines and what trees to keep and what trees to take out. I’d put Xs on trees, and then change it, and put them back.
“The new par four I absolutely love. I think it has a lot of character.”
Wenk still lives in California but comes home to Michigan when he can, especially in warm weather. He is the first to acknowledge all the hard work and effort put in by all the staff at Oceana.
“There is always a certain nostalgia of coming back every summer, you see some things that are familiar but you’re also going to see some things that are brand new,” Wenk said. “That’s exciting, and it’s exciting to share it with my wife who is learning to play golf – and with our two-year-old who wants to grab a club. So, we are super grateful of everyone on the staff who are insanely committed to making this place an awesome golf course and a great place for people to be.”
Enhanced Benefits:
So, what do these additions mean in the big picture? The shift allowed Oceana staff to close down old holes 15 and 16 and start building a true driving range and practice center, keeping the 16th green as a short game area. This is a huge change for the community that for nearly 60 years only had a small net near the maintenance building to hit into, one-at-a-time, before teeing off on No. 1.
“For me, the practice facility is a place that hopefully will bring in a whole new generation of golfers and maybe everyone can come and practice and get better, but I’m also most excited about it for kids, with our deep roots here with First Tee and other junior programs,” Wenk said. “I think we’ll have a world-class practice area, for short game practice and a deep enough range for every club in the bag.
“I’m hopeful the Shelby High golf team will come out and use it a lot. They’re getting some exciting young players here and giving them a place to start young and practice, improve, and make it really a complete golf course with a great place to play and practice. And if my own kids would want to spend the vast majority of the day here at the golf course, it’s a lot better than other choices.”
Inglis’ vision includes adding a small building at the range, tapping a teaching pro to give many lessons, and storage for the West Michigan First Tee, which has expanded into Oceana County. His daughter, McKenna, is the program director for the region.
“My dream is that they can have a permanent home here, to build a facility that can house their needs,” Inglis said of the First Tee. “One of the things we want to do is increase our junior golf participation, and the best way is from the ground up. We’ve got a market for that here.”
Just like they did when Wenk and others were growing up on the rural, fruit producing landscape.
What could be more hometown all-America than that?
