Battle Creek

The Top100 vision for a good morning is a healthy breakfast, followed by a healthy round of golf. Those who enjoy cereal as part of that meal will recognize Battle Creek as the hometown of Kellogg’s, but perhaps they should also recognize the town for its title country club.

Settled along Goguac Lake on the city’s south side, Battle Creek Country Club is a Willie Park Jr. layout. During the last 20 years of its first century (reached during 2019), Bruce Hepner has been working with the club to steadily restore it to Park’s vision.

The first order of business has been the expansion of the greens (as Park was a prolific putter). Many of the putting surfaces here are long rather than wide, and could alter your approach by several clubs depending on where the flag is that day...green-in-regulation is fairly simple, but two-putting up or down a tremendous slope to the other side of the green is less so. A steady regime of tree removal has also been in progress.

The club has hosted qualifying tournaments for the U.S. Open (2010), the U.S. Amateur (2007) and the U.S. Senior Open (2019). It’s also been the venue for an annual event on the LPGA’s development circuit, the Symetra Tour, since 2014.