Muskegon

“The fact is, you have the most wonderful piece of property for a golf course I have ever seen...the topography of your property is unexcelled anywhere.” Bold praise, especially coming from the lips of Donald Ross!

No doubt the Scot was eager to get his hands on the layout, which had been created by Tom Bendelow a few years earlier. Ross took it upon himself to redesign the course to take advantage of such bounty, routing this 6,700 yard course over foothills set above Muskegon Lake. Ross, for all the supposed trends noted across his 400-plus courses, has never been one to shy away from defying his own conventions. One such example is the No. 17 green at Muskegon Country Club, where a long, thin green wraps around a horseshoe bunker in an almost MacKenzie-an style.

Interestingly, three generations of the Matthews family revised the course at Muskegon. First Wallace Bruce Matthews updated three holes with son Jerry in 1979, then Jerry remodeled two holes in 1989 with his nephew Wallace Bruce Matthews III.

Intrepid golf travelers can attempt an impressive 36-hole day if they play Muskegon in the morning and then catch the Lake Express Ferry, which will transport them across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee in just 2.5 hours for a tee time at one of that Wisconsin city’s fine courses.