The Kingsley Club
Golf Clubs in the infancy of the sport were formed as groups of like-minded men bound by their love and devotion and perhaps addiction to golf. Golf and Country Clubs when first thrust upon the American scene as retreats in the country offering social and sporting activities other than Golf - and often as a primary reason for the clubs’ existence. This helped define the terminology of the country club as it is known today; often looked upon by the regular fellow as a place where the well-to-do congregate to be among their own. This falsely perpetuates the thought of the game of golf as a rich man’s pastime. Originally these clubs were located outside of major American cities and therein were thought to be in the country. “In the country” has surely changed!
The new clubs way out in the country are defining “Country” to a whole new degree and are often purely in existence for the celebration of this great game. They are then being called Golf Clubs or just Clubs not Country Clubs. Some are so out of the way that even though the courses are among the best that modern architecture has to offer each of us has his limit to just how far out in the country we really want to go. The Country Club was a day trip in the old days, now – not so.
Having lived in the Mountain West for a number of years I witnessed the origin of the new outlying club, now up to hundreds of miles away from a population center and transportation hub. Certainly Sand Hills is the prototypic club of this kind. The Kingsley Club is one of America’s most interesting, challenging, strategic and indeed truly best modern courses and is thankfully less isolated from a day visit.
The magnificent Kingsley Club is the effort of Mike DeVries. Mike prior to building Kingsley had quite a bit of experience, but it was indeed his first solo job. Being the first effort by architect Mike DeVries makes this even more impressive but not unique as there are a few instances in the annals of American Golf Architecture in which the first effort from an architect is absolutely first-rate most notably Charles Blair Macdonald with the National Golf Links of America. Mike is a member of the nearby Crystal Downs Mackenzie masterpiece with greens from both Mackenzie and Perry Maxwell. DeVries was on the maintenance crew at Crystal Downs for a number of years and also boasts Tom Fazio and Tom Doak as former employers on his resume. Working on the Downs course for years gaining an intimate knowledge of the magnificent green complexes found there provided him with quite an invaluable experience when it comes to the design process. It would not be fair in any way to say that The Kingsley Club is borne out of Crystal Downs however the flair and thrill of Crystal Downs is echoed throughout Kingsley. Kingsley does indeed boast the largest and most complex modern green of which I am aware - the green at the potentially drivable thirteenth.
Kingsley Club exists as a somewhat hidden club that is near several other high quality clubs, but it is certainly the hardest to find of them in the golf-rich “little fingertips” that are the northwest corner of the lower peninsula of Michigan. In addition to Crystal Downs within an hour’s drive is Arcadia Bluffs with its spectacular Lake Michigan setting, Steve Smyers’ Lochenheath, Tom Doak’s Black Forest, Tom Weiskopf’s Forest Dunes just to name a few. Kingsley, Michigan is a sneeze-you-miss-it sort of town and the main drag does not lead you to the club, so you had better know where you are going in advance. Golf is all that matters here and it is all that you will find.
At once the player is struck with the intimacy of the routing and the proximity of the holes to each other. Few courses are routed so intimately - even classical courses. Kingsley is blessed with a fine piece of land that kind with plenty of elevation changes to make the golf interesting but not so as to completely wear out the walker or require automotive transportation. In fact, the walk from nine green to ten tee is perhaps the longest on the course, and it’s not very far. The first nine perhaps seems a little more intimate because you can see so many other holes from so many points. The holes are superbly crafted on a gently rolling piece of land with great long views and several very deceptive greensites. A clever little loop in holes 2-6 routing keeps groups in touch with each other if a larger get-together is on the site. It can be a little unnerving for the unsure, but I personally really enjoy this kind of intimacy seen way too seldom in American golf.
The second nine is routed through a little more forested land and has a little more elevation change to it. A small bluff on which thirteen is laid overlooks number 12.
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