Bloomfield Hills Country Club

Although design partner Charles Hugh Alison left quite a few fine courses scattered around the United States, British golfers cannot but feel sympathy that Americans have very few opportunities to play a true Harry Colt design within their homeland. Apart from the Country Club of Detroit, there is just one remaining exception, and that is Bloomfield Hills Country Club, located a few miles north of Motor City.

Despite Tom Bendelow taking a stab at the club’s original course, the current design has recently been attributed to Colt after the Englishman's original plans were unearthed. Since Colt left in 1913, Robert Trent Jones and Arthur Hills have tinkered.

Naturally, as this Colt is a rare specimen in the United States, it is all the more essential that it be protected. Accordingly, Mike DeVries and Frank Pont were called in during 2020 to reshape the Nos. 3 and 4 holes to better imitate Colt’s original routing, reintroduce the double fairway on the 1st and 18th holes, as well as rebuild three greens and restore the course’s bunkers to a style more representative of the master’s.

The project also involved expanding some putting surfaces to provide additional pin placements, with green surrounds also extended to allow better recovery options. A tree management programme also saw the introduction of native species to screen the course boundaries from outside developments and a new Toro irrigation system was also installed.