Washtenaw Golf Club Restoration and Redesign

By Tom Lang

Oftentimes a golf course will go through a restoration, or a redesign.

At Washtenaw Golf Club on the edge of Ypsilanti near Ann Arbor, it’s going through BOTH – and doing so a little at a time. 

The plan is over the next five years to restore much of the earlier 1900-30s look and feel of square-corner greens, and much fewer trees in general that have grown up and out over the decades and have cut off fairway angles and approach shots that have stolen some of the best virtues of the 1899-founded club. It was a private club all that time until just a few years ago it opened for public play.

“I think it’ll be fun to see the evolution,” said Dave Kendall, owner, a golf teacher and Michigan Golf Hall of Fame member who is often the public voice of Washtenaw’s tri-partner ownership. “And if you come back just once a year, each time you’ll say it’s better than it used to be.”

Award-winning golf course architect Ray Hearn, who lives in Holland after many years in Lansing and metro Detroit, is the lead restorer and designer on the project. He said about 40% of the remaining trees will be gone in the next few years.

“At the top of the list is finding the old, historic (square) corners of some of these greens that were lost over the years,” Hearn commented. “Then not only bringing back green shapes from that age, but some new cup areas from these corners that will amaze golfers who have frequented that course over the years. 

“Then from the edges of holes, remove enough trees that get back to the original angle and options that used to be there. Make more freedom of fairway edges to the mowing lines, to give them a little more rhyme and reason and make them look like they’re set back in time too.

“And a heavier lift will be restoring the bunkers that make sense to restore and then calibrate others with modern-day hitting distances” Hearn continued. “But at the end of the day, we want people to look at Washtenaw and say, ‘this architect and these owners have really respected the history of this course.’ So, it’s a course of both restoration and renovation.”

I took a recent tour of Washtenaw, and it was obvious that many green corners used to be square. The shape and the mounding to support them is still there, it’s just that over time, mowers ‘cut corners’ so to speak by just driving in circles because it was easier.

Holes No. 1, 6, 7 and 9 on the front clearly have squared off green complexes, plus the first three holes of the back nine.

Kendall did a hand count of trees on the property and found 1,298.

“It’s kind of a faze in golf right now, with the cutting of trees,” Kendall said. “Oakmont basically clear-cut their course. Inverness (Toledo) did a little bit of that. I don’t have something against trees, they are a big part of this golf course, and they will continue to be. But they need to be managed because over time they grow up and out and over fairways and into each other. That’s not healthy.

“I was expecting a lot of controversy from some of our regulars about taking out trees, but the ones who have said something have said, ‘it’s about time. I’m so glad you’ve done it.’ Some former private members here have said we’re bringing it back to what were some of its best years.”

Research by Hearn also revealed the original 9-hole design was completed by English golf professional and architect Herbert Way, who was a good friend of Donald Ross and assisted him with some courses in the metro Detroit area. Way also was runner up of the 1899 British Open, the same year Washtenaw was founded.

Fast forward to today and Kendall and his partners have paused plans to add a year-round updated restaurant into the mix until Covid is more under control, but construction is almost complete on an indoor bay/lounge that people can rent out and use for small parties at the north end of the clubhouse, which in part used to be the locker room when the club was private.

A personal plug for Washtenaw is that the layout, fun atmosphere and solid staff makes for a great outing. This author hosted one in 2021 for the Michigan Armed Forces Hospitality Center at Detroit Metro Airport and it was the best one to date.