Pilgrim's Run Golf Club

Laid out on a naturally wooded landscape, the par 73 course at Pilgrim’s Run Golf Club has been entertaining golfers in the Grand Rapids area ever since the layout first opened for play in 1997.

“The program for this course sounds like a complete disaster,” remarked Tom Doak in The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses, “six of the developer’s friends were entrusted to design three holes each, with the help of a young architect and superintendent to build them. Fortunately, most of the committee leaned heavily on the talents of their helpers, resulting in the best course we’ve seen in the Grand Rapids area.”

DeVries Designs commented as follows: “Set on a large tract of land 30 minutes north of a large city, Pilgrim’s Run is a lush parkland course with an interesting history.

The challenge was to take the six different philosophies and blend them into a whole course. Superintendent Kris Shumaker and Mike DeVries did just that, with the result an amazing golf course that is affordable and fun for the public to play. Mike was able to work with the co-designers to adopt their ideas into golf holes and a routing that flows across the land. Then he built rolling greens and beautiful bunkers that tie into the natural landscape, accenting the ridges, rolls, woodlands, and beauty of the site. The bentgrass greens, tees, and fairways give the public golfer a rich playing surface and allow the feature shaping to stand out in this natural playland.”