BELVEDERE GOLF CLUB WILL HOST 2023 HICKORY GRAIL MATCHES
By Tom Lang
Belvedere Golf Club announced that the club has been selected to host one of the premier hickory club events in the world, The Hickory Grail in 2023. The Hickory Grail matches is a Ryder Cup style event where 13 of the most passionate hickory players from the United States and Great Britain/Europe compete in the oldest international hickory match in golf.
“With Belvedere’s history and the passion that our club members have for hickory club play, it was a natural fit for us to be selected to host The Grail Cup”, said head pro Marty Joy. “To have been able to participate in this prestigious event at St. Andrews, the home of golf, and now to play host is a dream come true for all of us at the club.”
The Hickory Grail was founded in 2000 by American’s Ralph Livingston III and Tom Stewart, both hickory pioneers and experts, along with Scotland’s David Hamilton, one of today's premier golf historians. The biennial event is conducted under the auspices of The British Golf Collectors Society, with current membership of 700+ members in Great Britain, America and around the world. The tournament is noted for selecting many of the world’s most prestigious historical courses for its venues. Among them are St. Andrews; Baltustrol; Kilspindie, Scotland and Falsterbo GK, Sweden. Visit https://thehickorygrail.com.
Belvedere is the only club in the U.S. to have as many as 44 antique hickory club players and hosts Hickory tournaments annually including the Belvedere Hickory Open since 2006, and in 2019 hosted the national U.S. Hickory Open. Competitors dress in period appropriate apparel, including knickers, ties, and jackets. Conservative estimates of the total number of hickory players in the world now total about 3,000 and growing.
Belvedere, named 2016 Michigan Course of the Year by the Michigan Golf Course Owners Association, has been a respected tournament venue for nearly a century, having hosted the Michigan Amateur 40 times. Beginning in 1963, Belvedere hosted the event for 26 consecutive years. The 41st hosting of the Michigan Amateur at Belvedere will come in 2025, the club’s centennial year.
