Designer on course to bring back High Pointe 32 years later

May 28—WILLIAMSBURG — Old golf courses die both a slow and a fast death.

As soon as the irrigation is turned off, fairways mowed to 0.45 inches and greens at 3.5 millimeters "dry up and turn to nothing pretty quick," according to a longtime designer of golf courses.

The rough — often outside of the reaches of water not coming from nature — quickly spouts weeds. Bunkers can grow trees out of the once pristine sand.

Even after the rough has been reclaimed and fairways lose their way, it's still possible to see holes the way they were in your mind's eye.

It isn't hard to visualize No. 9 at Mitchell Creek Golf Course as it heads back toward the clubhouse while driving on Three Mile Road in Traverse City, the elevated tee above the short par-three at Matheson Greens near Northport or the treacherous No. 18 at High Pointe Golf Club in Williamsburg.

Once closed, these old golf courses become something else. They can become a county park, be reclaimed by nature or even serve as a place to grow hops for that cold beer at the 19th hole. Sometimes links become home to houses and other developments.

They almost never return to what they once were: an opportunity to cut the corner of a dogleg for a chance to putt for eagle on a par 5 or spin a wedge back to the cup for a tap-in birdie.

Almost.

Famed golf course designer Tom Doak returned to where it all started, bringing High Pointe Golf Club back to 18 holes over the course of the next year. He'll return five overgrown holes — Nos. 10-15 — from the former back nine at the course that opened in 1989 and closed following the 2008 golf season.

Ground was broken earlier this spring and Doak is back at the course he first designed in 1987.

"This is very much a labor of love," a dust-covered Doak said on a sunny day in mid-May, a lob wedge away from the former clubhouse that is now part of the MI Local Hops Farm, which took over most of the original front nine and a portion of the back. "I was 26 when I built this the first time.

"Now I'm 62. It boggles my mind."

"It's something that makes this project so unique," said High Pointe Golf Club Founder and Chairman Rod Trump, who in addition to sharing his home state of Florida and passion for golf with former President Donald Trump, is no relation.

Doak gave a walking tour of the reclaimed holes and the new ones for a group of founding partners and members of what will become a private club, home and national members and 20 prospective members, showing the six holes that were first reclaimed from nature and tweaked by bulldozers before grass begins to grow.

Some of those in attendance wore baseball hats with four letter on the front: 'HI' on one side, and 'PT' on the other. On the back were two words: 'Doak Reincarnated.'

While the former public golf course will be a member club when it returns, it hasn't dampened the enthusiasm for the estimated $24 million project.

"This is a passion project for me and it's immensely personal for Tom," Trump said. "It will be part of the community in perpetuity.

"It's the right thing to do for golf, it's the right thing to do for one of the best architects and then it's the right thing to do for northern Michigan."

"Just learning about Tom Doak and that golf course, it's amazing it went away with how much people thought about that golf course," MI Local Hops President and Sales Director Mike Moran said. "It's be interesting to see how it's received in the community. There's a lot of public anticipation for it."

Moran, who worked in the golf business for nearly a decade as a teenager at the Bellaire Golf Club and at Oakhurst Golf and Country Club downstate, said a group of brewers he plays golf with have already been asking him about High Pointe.

"Those guys are moving super fast" said Moran, who sold 316.8 acres to the golf club and still has 264.2 acres for MI Local Hops. "I can't believe how fast they're moving."

Trump said Doak and his experienced crew are the ones getting the course back in shape for its return. A designer with seven of the Top 100 courses in the world will do that for the vision of a course, especially since a lot of his vision remains.

"I think this course holds a special place in his heart because No. 1, it's in the town he calls home," said Trump, who hopes to have 8-12 holes ready for play by June 2024 with the rest opening over the course of the summer. "No. 2, it was his first and No. 3, to this date, it's still the only golf course where he personally shaped all 18 greens.

"This is Tom's project," Trump said later on the walking tour. "This is Tom's golf course."

No. 10 and 11 from the former back nine will now become No. 8 and 9 on High Pointe Golf Club 2.0. Two former holes now begin the back nine with new holes No. 12 and 13 on 40 additional acres to the south.

"Some thought that this was the best green I ever built," Doak said, standing on what was No. 13 and is now No. 11. "It was the first green I ever built."

Doak, who said he learned "how golf courses are built at the highest level" while working for designer Pete Dye and his sons for three years, according to his biography.

"I'm known as a minimalist and it all started here," said Doak, who told those in attendance that he did so in the early days because he was new to the process and didn't have a lot of help when first shaping High Pointe the first time.

Now Doak said he likes to shape a course to the land and not the other way around. Doak added he's not one to bring in fill for the greens and prefers as few of paved cart paths as possible.

"Most of the back nine was there," Doak said of the second iteration of High Pointe. "They did more earthwork to turn the front nine into a hops farm than I did to turn it into a front nine."

No. 14 and 15 — the latter of which is the lone Par-3 on the back nine and will feature an additional tee for a completely different approach to a downhill green — return while the former No. 18 will become a reconfigured No. 16.

The former finishing hole featured one of the biggest risk-reward shots over a pond that Doak admitted made some cringe and sometimes cry on a daily basis.

"It was a hard hole," Doak said on the walking tour. "It was kind of out of character for the golf course. It ate up the average golfer a lot."

"We're going from the worst hole to one of the best holes," Trump said of the new No. 16. "It will most likely be the most expensive hole on the whole golf course."

There is a completely new No. 17 and 18 returning to a new clubhouse on the eastern edge of the property.

Doak said this is ideal to avoid sunlight in the golfer's face at the start and end of the round.

Holes 1-7 will also be new on the opening nine, which will feature three par-3s.

Trump said the Par-72 course will measure about 6,700 to 6,900 yards. "It will be a very challenging course, but also enjoyable to play," he said.

Trump said he first learned about High Pointe while playing a round with professional golf instructor Adam Schriber in Florida, who has worked at several courses in the Grand Traverse region. After Schriber relayed hearing Doak talk about bringing High Pointe back on "The Fried Egg" podcast, Trump said he couldn't "remember a single shot the rest of the last six holes" and pulled out his phone to do some research after the round and listened to the bulk of the podcast.

Trump said he called and later emailed Doak and the whole process of bringing High Pointe back went from that initial conversation to today faster than a green with a reading of 14 on a Stimpmeter.

"There was a leap of blind faith involved," Trump said. "Then when I saw the land (for the first time in May 2022), I could see how special it was."

Trump said he is often reminded of what it means to bring High Pointe Golf Club back.

"It's been incredible to hear," he said. "So many people will pull me aside and tell me a story of playing a round there whether it was their son, the first time they broke 90, the first time they broke 80, working on the maintenance crew or running carts as a teenager.

"So many people have stories. That makes the rebirth or the reincarnation so exciting."

Even though it's a member club, Trump said High Pointe will always emphasize the game above all else.

He said members can bring guests and there is already plans for an end-of-season tournament featuring first responders along with active and retired military as everyone's guest.

There will also be openings auctioned and raffled off.

Trump said there are 28 founding members, 10 founding partners, 24 home and national members and 3 international members signed up with many more interested.

"Wherever we take out inspiration for golf, when we started on this course we had one simple goal, that High Pointe would be the high point of golf," Trump said.