Detroit-area's Dunham Hills Golf Club to undergo revision by world-class designer
Golf fans in metro Detroit, get excited: A world-class name in golf course architecture is bringing his talents to southeast Michigan.
Mike DeVries, based in Traverse City and best known in these parts for crafting Kingsley Club and Greywalls at Marquette Golf Club, is the designer tabbed for a project at Dunham Hills in Hartland, Michigan.
The redesigned course, if all the money is raised, will be rebranded as Proving Ground Golf Club, a nod to Detroit's historic automotive industry (the new logo is a sports car with a flag in the back seat). It could open by 2027.
The property was purchased in December 2024 by a group of investors who are "passionate, like-minded golfers," including Michigan Golf Hall of Famer Brian Cairns. DeVries' new routing was revealed May 31 after more than a year of planning.
Proving Ground wants to offer something different, something rarely seen in golf clubs in America. The club will offer public play, but its grand vision will be modeled after clubs in the United Kingdom, where a robust annual season pass membership base takes a block of play in part to lower fees and hopefully take better care of the golf course. There will still be plenty of tee times available for the public. It's a setup used by the acclaimed Belvedere in Charlevoix, Michigan.
"The plan was simple, start with great land and a top-tier architect," the club said in a statement. "With Dunham Hills and Mike DeVries we found both."
"From scouting and acquiring the property, walking the land with Mike, and watching his sketches evolve into a world-class design, this journey has been nothing short of extraordinary. Mike's vision is now taking shape, and we couldn't be more excited about what's ahead."
Dunham Hills is a tree-lined routing with up-and-back holes, allowing shorter walks between greens and tees, with plenty of movement in the land — a nod to its name. DeVries' style is to let the natural property determine the golf, and he has a good canvas to work with at the par-71, 6,758-yard course opened in 1967. Dunham Hills remains open for public play this season.
DeVries' reimagined layout and routing is set at 6,859 yards from the tips playing as a par-70 layout. It has two par-5s and three par 3s on the front nine, including a short 137-yard sixth hole, and takes out the back-to-back par 5s on Nos. 12-13 and instead has a par-5 14th.
"Really, when you start to look at a piece of property, I respond to what's inherently there," he recently told Michigan Golf Journal. "Asking, how do we build good, fun golf that's engaging for every level of player for that property, and not just try to drop a template in there, or this idea or that idea, and try to reproduce it.
'For me, it's sculpture with a 20,000-pound piece of equipment. To me, that's all part of the creative process and figuring out the right puzzle and how we solve that.'
DeVries, now known worldwide for his course designs, has three other Michigan layouts to his name besides Kingsley (2001) and Greywalls (2005), each in west Michigan and well-regarded by golfers: Pilgrim's Run (Pierson), Diamond Springs (Hamilton) and the Mines (just outside Grand Rapids).
Proving Ground would be the second high-end, newly constructed public 18-hole golf course in southeast Michigan, after a two-decade period without one. The Cardinal at St. John's opened in 2024.
Marlowe Alter is an assistant sports editor at the Detroit Free Press and spraying golf aficionado. You can reach him by email: malter@freepress.com.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
2 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Bayer reaches deal over Seattle-area school PCB cases
Bayer AG agreed to settle cases related to a Seattle-area school where more than 200 people were exposed to toxic chemicals made by the company's Monsanto unit. Bayer didn't disclose the financial terms of the accord, but said the cost was covered by a $618.1 million provision taken this month to deal with the company's liabilities for polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, once manufactured by Monsanto. The company's shares rose 2.3% in Germany. Ex-students and teachers at the Sky Valley School outside Seattle sued Bayer and Monsanto over injuries tied to PCBs contained in aging fluorescent-light fixtures. The deal announced by Bayer - already enmeshed in multiyear litigation over its herbicide Roundup - is seen as a positive development in its handling of a wave of PCB lawsuits over Monsanto building materials made half a century ago. "This development suggests progress toward containing PCB liabilities and reducing the risk of swelling," analysts at Jefferies wrote in a note. Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion, already has agreed to pay almost $2 billion in settlements in PCB cases brought by states, cities and counties. Separate litigation over Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller has created a drag on the German conglomerate's shares. The company has reserved more than $17 billion for U.S. Roundup suits. Monsanto stopped using PCBs in its products in 1977. Analysts have cast a wary eye on Bayer's burgeoning PCB problem. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Holly Froum has projected it may cost Monsanto and two other companies embroiled in PCBs litigation - Eastman Chemical's Solutia and Pfizer's Pharmacia - as much as $3.9 billion to settle the remaining cases. The settlement announced Monday covers more than 200 plaintiffs with ties to the Sky Valley School, Bayer said. It doesn't wipe out the 10 verdicts in which juries in Washington State already have awarded a total of more than $1 billion, the company said. Those awards are under appeal. Bayer is asking the Washington Supreme Court to throw out the PCB verdicts based on its legal defenses. The court heard arguments in February, but has yet to hand down a ruling. An intermediate appellate court's backing of Bayer's position on the PCB cases prompted the review by the state's highest court. "While the company remains confident in its legal strategy and defenses, and is fully prepared to defend cases at trial, it has maintained it will consider resolving cases on appropriate terms when it is strategically advantageous to help mitigate the risks and uncertainties of this litigation," Bayer officials said in a release. Washington verdict Earlier this year, state-court jurors in Washington ordered Bayer to pay $100 million to students and teachers exposed to PCBs, which were used used in electrical transformers, paints and sealants for their fire-resistant properties. The compounds were banned in the U.S. in 1979 after researchers found they posed a cancer risk. The company still faces dozens of PCB suits by school districts, states and cities over health exposure and environmental contamination in buildings, landfills and waterways, according to Bayer's 2023 annual report. The case before the Washington Supreme Court is Erickson v. Pharmacia LLC, No. 103135-1, Washington Supreme Court (Olympia) (With assistance from Sonja Wind.) Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
EV Pickups Are a Bust for US Carmakers
It's not just Tesla struggling to sell its Cybertruck. Ford, General Motors and Rivian have had a hard time convincing US customers to buy electric pick-up trucks. Bloomberg's Detroit Bureau Chief David Welch explains why. Sign in to access your portfolio
Axios
10 hours ago
- Axios
Mega-landlord settles with DOJ for Mass. price fixing claims
The U.S. Department of Justice and the landlord Greystar Management Services reached a deal to settle their legal fight over claims that the company used an algorithmic software to fix rental prices. Why it matters: Greystar, the nation's largest landlord, runs apartment complexes across Massachusetts, including in Brighton, Revere and East Boston. The big picture: The price fixing allegations come as the state grapples with a worsening housing crisis, partly due to limited housing supply. Catch up quick: Six states and the DOJ sued the company behind the rent-setting software, Texas-based RealPage, last year, accusing the company of illegal price fixing and monopolization. Massachusetts and Illinois then joined an amended version of the lawsuit that named South Carolina-based Greystar and five other landlords. They accused the six landlords of colluding to raise rents across their properties, relying on RealPage's software. State of play: Greystar agreed in the settlement to stop using any "anticompetitive algorithm" that sets rental prices using competitors' sensitive pricing data, per the settlement. The company also agreed to stop sharing its own sensitive information with competitors, stop attending RealPage's meetings convening competing landlords, accept a court-appointed monitor and cooperate with part of the federal legal fight against RealPage. By the numbers: A White House report estimates that renters whose landlords used RealPage's algorithm paid an additional $70 a month on average in 2023. For Boston-area renters, the cost was $79 a month, per the analysis. The report happened independently of the multi-state lawsuit. That lawsuit didn't specify which Greystar properties used the algorithm. What they're saying: Greystar didn't admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement. The company said in a statement that it "firmly believes that its use of RealPage's revenue management software complies with all applicable laws." "We entered into these settlements to make clear the government's interpretation of the law and to ensure we continue to do things the right way," the company wrote. Flashback: A 2022 ProPublica story revealed that RealPage worked with landlords to set rents nationwide in what legal experts said "may be artificially inflating rents and stifling competition." When the multi-state lawsuit began, RealPage refuted the allegations about its software with a six-page statement, saying landlords set their own prices and that RealPage "helps ensure that prospective residents have access to the best pricing available." One other landlord, Cortland, agreed to a settlement after being named in the amended lawsuit earlier this year.
