Go back

Art Lane golf presentation

Archive
Powerpoint and Keynote programs, saved as PDF, from two talks about local golfing history by Art Lane.
screenshot of presentation title page
ArtLaneTextPage1.jpg 562KB; Saugatuck-Douglas Golf Courses, Some Lively, Some Forgotten A few months ago I was reading about a designer of golf courses who was invited to a small island west of Scotland. The dozen or so members of the local golf club asked him to spruce up their little course. After walking the course, he and the committee went to lunch. Someone mentioned that their course was not the original one on the island. The first course, they said, which was right on the seashore, had been abandoned during World War 1, because the golfers feared shelling from enemy submarines. An exploding shell, of course, could make a person miss a putt. The islanders said the first course had been laid out by Old Tom Morris. Old Tom was a legendary golfer of the mid-1800s who designed many courses, including the Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland. He was superintendent at St. Andrews for 45 years, and won several of the first British Open championships. The designer had studied many of Old Tom's courses but had never heard of one on the island. After lunch he went back out in the rain to check, and sure enough, in grassy dunes populated only by sheep, were the remains of the course. When I started gathering information about the courses of the Saugatuck-Douglas area, I thought I knew about all of them. But, like the Scottish designer, I was surprised to hear about a lost, or almost forgotten course. In fact, not one, but possibly two former golf courses, were right here in town. Today most people never knew they existed. But first, let's talk about the courses we do know: WEST SHORE AD West Shore Golf Course, at the corner of Center and Ferry streets, is the oldest course in the Saugatuck-Douglas area. The West Shore cap proudly dates the course to1916, although it may have taken a while before golfers replaced cows there: on the FormeR Dairy larm. COURSE 1925? COWS West Shore is one of the earlier courses in Michigan. That may seem strange, since this is not a large population center, but the first course in Michigan was in Harbor Springs. That summer resort teed up in 1894 with Roaring Brook golf course, just nine years after the ancient game of golf came to America, with Brooklawn in Fairfield, Ct. ArtLaneTextPage2.jpg 507KB; Like Harbor Springs, the Saugatuck-Douglas area started to get golf courses because of its summer people. Before about 1900 the people here were mostly busy growing and shipping fruit, turning logs into lumber, building ships, and selling things to each other. Then, to the surprise of the populace, people from faraway places started buying land and spending vacations here. AERIAL The golf craze took a while to filter down to our above-average summer resort, but the first inkling was in the Commercial Record of August 10,1916. The headline said, May Have Golf Club. The story said: ArtLaneTextPage3.jpg 521KB; The story says, ArtLaneTextPage4.jpg 525KB; holes on the high land west of the creeks. It was expanded to 18 holes in the late 1920s or early '30s. Now it runs from Center street to the properties on the east side of Lake Shore Drive. For a long time the most talked-about hole at West Shore was more than 600 yards long. It included what now are holes 16 and 11, and had a wooden bridge across the gully between those holes. CARL TOP STEP In 1931, Carl Wicks, a 10-year-old Douglas boy, started caddying at West Shore. He earned 40 cents for carrying a golf bag 9 holes, 75 cents for carrying it 18 holes. His mother saved his earnings, which he used to buy clothes and supplies for school. In 1950 Kingsley sold the course to Harry Randall, formerly of Oak Park, who moved here after owning a nine-hole course in the heart of Chicago. Meanwhile, in 1953, Carl Wicks, having been a merchant seaman during World War II, bought Hickory Hills Golf Course in Tilton, Wisconsin, 30 miles south of Green Bay. In 1959 Carl was in town for a high school class reunion when he heard West Shore was for sale. He says, ArtLaneTextPage5.jpg 529KB; CLUB HOUSE CLUB HOUSE SCORE CARD West Shore was a favorite destination of the summer residents of Douglas. The families who escaped the heat of cities to enjoy the breezes of Lake Michigan had a handy course which, while advertised as ArtLaneTextPage6.jpg 551KB; 6 BEAUTY SPOT The paper continued, ArtLaneTextPage7.jpg 535KB; 1 HAMILTON LAKE In the mid-1950s, according to the course's history, it was sold to ArtLaneTextPage8.jpg 566KB; RAVINES Condominiums were in the eyes of the first people who started buying land for what now is Ravines Golf Course, south of 136th avenue, east of Saugatuck. The initial group was headed by Howard Siebelink of Laketown Township. According to General Manager Jim Hirt, the 430 acres of rolling land on the road to Hamilton was originally conceived as a large condo development. The idea was for about 300 condos and a golf course, but Saugatuck Township and the DR threw cold water on that idea, owing to the lack of infrastructure, such as water and sewer lines, in that area. AERIAL PHOTO So a first group of investors acquired the land, but later another group developed what you see today, an 18-hole championship golf course with upscale single-family homes nestled in the trees. The residential portion now has about 40 residents with about 40 lots still available. The development has city water from Kalamazoo Lake Authority, and partially grouped septic systems. The course gets its sprinkling water from four wells. The superintendent of course maintenance is John Tuckerman, SHS and MSU graduate. The first plan for a golf course was designed by Bruce Matthews of Kalamazoo, who has done a number of courses in Michigan. Later the second company found it desirable to have a more prominent designer, and the legendary golf champion Arnold Palmer was selected. Palmer's large design company produced the layout for the course you see, which opened for play in 1999. PALMER, BLUE SHIRT In the summer of 2000 Arnold Palmer himself flew here for the grand opening of Ravines Golf Course. MONTAGE He drove, chipped and putted before an admiring crowd. P AND FRIENDS After a glorious day of playing and greeting local enthusiasts, he flew away, but his name remained attached, POST to the course, the clubhouse, and the street it is on. The name, along with the beauty and challenge of the course, has done its work. Ravines draws players from a wide area. Manager Hirt compares Ravines to many of the courses in northern Michigan. Ravines is their equal, he believes, and it is much closer for many golfers. Some come from the Grand Rapids area. ArtLaneTextPage9.jpg 519KB; Some drive over from Chicago to play at Ravines. He said Chicagoans can make the round trip, and play here, in about the same time it would take just to play, on crowded Chicago-area courses. BRIDGE The course has a mixture of relatively level holes with generous fairways, and holes where steep wooded valleys, carrying little streams bound for the Kalamazoo River, dare the golfer to go for it. The signature hole is No. 14, with a deep, 147-yard ravine facing the longer tees. Fortunately, for golfers like me, there are shorter tees on the other side of the valley. CLUBHOUSE The cottage-style clubhouse includes a dining room overlooking the 18th green. The dining room was designed to look like a porch added to a clapboard building, but actually was part of the original construction. Below it is a heated place for storage of carts in cold weather. As at many northern courses, a round of golf includes a bucket of balls for the driving range. For a few years Ravines and Clearbrook were run as a joint operation, and sometimes you still find a ball with the logos of both courses on it. Since about 2001 they have been separate organizations. SCORECARD From the start, resorters and summer visitors have been important in the development of golf courses here. Felicia Fairchild, executive director of the Saugatuck-Douglas Convention and Visitors Bureau, says that ArtLaneTextPage10.jpg 520KB; ANCHOR PARK -- SCORE CARD -Anchor Park, from 1953 to about 1975, part of an amusement concession run by Dick Hoffman on a lease in the riverfront park where the Bicentennial gazebo was built in 1976. - Henry Gleason's course, built about 1980, and open about two years, adjoining Ida Red's on Water street. It had a nautical theme and it too was called Anchor Park, because of a big anchor, loaned by Clare Harrington. Henry, who built the Ida Red's building, said it first housed Gary Diepenhorst's fish market. Henry said he and Claradine enjoyed running the course but were too busy with their nearby convenience store and Laundromat. DUNE MOUNTAIN -Across 65th street from the Dune Schooners, on the road to the former Potawatomie Beach, was another Henry Gleason miniature course called Dune Mountain. It also started about 1980 but didn't get much business and closed after two years. - At the Root Beer Barrel on Center street in Douglas. It's unclear who built it or when, but by 1965 it was unused and buried in weeds. PLAYLAND AD -At the former Blue Star Playland north of Saugatuck. The property now is the Laketown Golf and Conference Center. It has a two-story driving range, and used to offer chipping and putting in the enclosed conference building. At one time a short nine-hole practice course was laid out south of the driving range but it never was completed. -And, probably several other miniature courses. Who can name one? Now we come to former, lost, and almost forgotten golf courses. One that you may recall is the Mi-Ro Golf Course, a nine-hole layout just west of the Mi-Ro Motel, which now is the Northern Lights Condominiums, at Blue Star and 130th avenue. It was built by Joe Migas, who earlier built and operated the motel. The Mi-Ro course was open by 1976 to about the mid-90s but now has become a grassy field. In 50 years it likely will be forgotten. ArtLaneTextPage11.jpg 549KB; Little remembered now is a course which existed 100 years ago and preceded today's courses by 20 years or more. It was built near the corner of Campbell Road and Lake Shore Drive. Here is what is recorded in Nancy Budd's compilation of history about a cottage association on Lake Michigan, entitled ArtLaneTextPage12.jpg 347KB; BACK TO SHOREWOOD COURSE If so, the Ferry course could include the lowland we know as the marl pit, where farmers dug lime to put on their fields, and the highland where Lloyd J. Harriss had a home, now known as Suites of Saugatuck. That's about where the Shorewood course was. Now, did Ferry build his own course, or operate the Shorewood course at one time, or what? I haven't yet been able to confirm George Ferry's golf course, in property records or in the paper, but this is Carl's story and he's sticking to it. I hope it pans out. Thank you for the opportunity to study my favorite sport. GolfArtLaneProgram Rotary 2014.pdf 78.5MB; AnchorParkGolfColor.jpg 807KB AnchorParkScoreCard.jpg 502KB EndThankyou.jpg 1.1MB GleasonMinatureGolf.JPG 282KB GolfCourseStockCertA.jpg 909KB HenryGleasonGolfing.jpg 212KB PlaylandGolfh.jpg 370KB; Blue Star Playland Picture 1.png 267KB; Riverbrink playground on west shore Kalamazoo Lake GolfArtLaneProgram.pdf 87MB; For a 2010 presentation

2021.72.33

For the Clearbrook images from this presentation, see 2021.72.34. For the Ravines images from this presentation, see 2021.72.28.

Sports: golf

Winthers, Sally

Lane, Art 1930-2020

2014

Digital data in CatalogIt

Anchor Park Amusement Center 1951-1975Clearbrook Golf Club/Hamilton Lake Club/Saugatuck Golf ClubRavines Golf ClubSaugatuck Golf ClubWest Shore Golf Course 1920-Gleason, Henry 1925-2019Walker, Dr. Robert J.1869-1944

09/19/2024

09/19/2024