Meadowbrook Country Club

Meadowbrook Country Club in Northville was established in 1916, when 125 acres of the old Cochran farm were purchased and Willie Park Junior was then brought in to lay out a 6-hole course. This rather elemental track was quickly expanded to a nine-hole layout before it was eventually doubled in size to eighteen holes.

The club hosted the PGA Championship in 1955 and four editions of the Motor City Open (a PGA Tour event held at various Detroit clubs between the late 1940s and early 1960s) were also held at the club, with the longest (11-hole) sudden-death playoff in Tour history taking place at the conclusion of the tied 1949 tournament.

The course closed for an 18-month renovation by Arizona-based Andy Staples at the start of 2016 and this reputed five million dollar upgrade involved the rebuilding of tees, bunkers and greens, the re-turfing of fairways and the installation of new drainage. An important part of the improvement programme was the preservation of the original Willie Park Jnr holes at the 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 10th, 11th, and 18th.

The renovation strategy for the holes that Park did not originally design was to integrate as many of the Scotsman’s features into these holes as possible to provide overall coherence. A research trip to London to visit Huntercombe and Sunningdale provided Staples with all the inspiration he needed.

Highlight holes on the refurbished layout include the left doglegged par five 4th (rated stroke index 1, with water to the left of a fairway that plays to a domed green), the wonderful short par fours at holes 9, 10 and 14, and the par five 17th which features a raised, square-shaped putting surface with a crowned center to throw off imprecise approach shots.

Writing in his blog, the indomitable Rudo (Mr. Top 100) didn’t know what to think after playing Meadowbrook for the first time after re-opening in July 2017:

“The course is unique. The greens are filled with slopes well above 3% (the yardage book shows the degree of all the green slopes) and above 3% at today’s green speeds things get pretty wild… The green shapes are very geometrical with many (if not most) being rectangular or at least squared off in a few corners. The bunkers are also geometric in shape, with flat sand at the bottom and grass slopes on the sides. The land has tons of movement and the course makes great use of it. Trust me this is fun to play, but tough, especially playing it for the first time.”