The Donald Ross Memorial Golf Course Continues to Evolve
Boyne updates classic course design replicas
By Tom Lang
Who doesn’t like a greatest hits album?
How about a greatest hits golf course?
That’s what you get at the Donald Ross Memorial Course at The Highlands.
Going back nearly 30 years, Boyne’s Sr. VP of Golf, Bernie Frederick, and family owner Stephen Kircher, appointed designer Bill Newcomb and former teacher Jim Flick traveled the country in search of Ross’ best designed holes that would also fit the topography at Boyne as best as possible to create a truly memorable and memorial course for the modern-day golfer.
The thought was to do a tribute to arguably one of the best architects of all time from the era golf first began trickling into the United States from Scotland, but the other factor was that so many of those courses are private, meaning today’s public golfer couldn’t get access to play them.
BOYNE Golf wanted to change that limitation and provide such options for everyone.
The challenge however was that some private clubs would not provide Boyne with the Ross blueprints. Michigan designer Bill Newcomb was called in to help create the Ross Memorial, and some of the holes had to be designed from personal observation notes and memory – and Polaroid’s. Thus, exact replica standards were a challenge but it’s a breeze today with GPS, satellite imaging and 3D cameras to get a nearly-perfect match.
Yet the 15th hole has been a bit unique for other reasons. Modeled after the par 4 11th hole at Aronomink Golf Club, Boyne first built a replica of what was there in Newton Square, Penn. At the time. Then about a decade ago, a member committee at Aronomink did some homework and learned that many more decades before that, the club drastically changed what Ross first built, and current Aronomink members decided to go back in time.
Boyne could have left everything alone and save itself the money, but didn’t. This past entire golf season Boyne closed and redid hole 15.
“The question will always be why did that board see fit to change what we have now to what we had, because what Ross first had was spectacular,” said Ken Griffin, Boyne Director, Golf Sales and Marketing.
It’s a good question.
I went to Boyne to look at the changes in early September and as I turned the corner from the 14th green to the 15th, I was taken aback by the restoration. A new tee was added on left side, and the fairway has been widened by 40 percent, but the second shot is so different and striking. Four new bunkers, side by side up toward the right of the green complex, with a putting surface almost twice the former size stands out the most.
Michigan architect Ray Hearn is leading the renovations on the Donald Ross and other Boyne courses.
“It had gotten so far away from the original, that by updating the 15th Hole (at Boyne) we are matching what Aronomink had done the last few years and we’re staying true to the Ross original,” he said. “It’s eye-popping beautiful. You have the complexity of angles and options on your drive, but the real testimony to Ross in the recent restoration is how the bunkers and the valley front right between the bunkers and the green set out an optical illusion that Ross often studied from Willie Park, Jr. It adds to the total complexity of that green complex.
“This green has so much going on that it needed to be larger.”
Next is the 13th hole, a par 5, 510-yard replica of Hole #15 at Seminole Golf Club; North Palm Beach, Florida. This dramatic par 5 utilizes several Ross design strategies. The fairway is divided into two distinct landing areas which are separated by sand bunkers and pine trees (palm trees at Seminole).
The green has been lifted more than three feet in the air higher than it’s been the past 25-plus years in part because better modern design tools confirmed the need to do so to better resemble Seminole. Grass seed will be spread before the snow flies and by early summer should be playable.
“On a hole this long, a golfer really has to pay attention when the pin is in the back,” Hearn said. “The recovery shot is still fair, and Ross was always thinking about that. He let you have the four options of you can pitch it or lob it, or putt it or (bump and run) it. But if you go long, it’s a little work to get up and down.”
Hole No. 1 was worked on last year and has been open all summer of 2022. In addition to more than 100 trees being removed, the majority of the work was done to the green complex, reshaping bunkers and the outline of the green – also turning it about 45 degrees sideways. The heather in the waste sand running almost the entire length of the left side needs to grow in more, but once that happens the replica of Hole 6 at Seminole should be complete. The new waste sand on the right side of No. 1 also gives the right side of No. 16 – which replicates Hole No. 10 on Pinehurst No. 2 – that much more of a Pinehurst ambiance.
Don’t Wait Long for 2023 Golf Plans:
Like a handful of other Michigan resorts, BOYNE Golf opened up 2023 bookings (on Aug. 9) almost two months earlier than normal years to accommodate public demand for getting the optimal dates golfers want to be at Boyne.
Most of the advanced booking demand is coming from out-of-state golfers who tell Boyne staff that they have some of the best rates in the country compared to other options.
“At Boyne, we host golfers from all over the United States,” said Ken Griffin. “A majority are from Michigan, and we have some great competitors because of the great golf that’s here in Michigan. But we also compete with nationally-recognized courses, such as Pinehurst, Pebble Beach, Bandon Dunes and Whistling Straights. We are a popular destination here in Michigan, but we don’t just have people coming from in-state. For each of the last three years we’ve had golfers from 48 states, and D.C. come to Boyne Golf and enjoy our courses.
“With all the flights coming into Traverse City (to Cherry Capital Airport from cities like Philadelphia, Boston, DC, Dallas), those groups fly in, and while we’re not the least expensive golf in Michigan, I have folks tell me all the time that we’re very inexpensive on a national level. It used to be harder to get here, now it’s not.”
Boyne is very popular for biking, hiking, horseback riding and unlike those activities, tee times limit the number of golfers, so act earlier on your lodging and tee times if it’s on your 2023 list.
