Here's more on the Michigan golf club that caused a national championship nightmare
Here's more on the Michigan golf club that caused a national championship nightmare
Really unfortunate situation happening at the @NAIA women's golf championship in MI
The hole on #5 has caused serious issues. There has been multiple 10s, 9s, and 8s. A lot of teams scorecards look like the one below
(And this girl handled it so well)
pic.twitter.com/FBkOdAyRkx — Monday Q Info (@acaseofthegolf1) May 13, 2025
How much damage can a badly placed cup cause in a golf tournament? As the competitors at the 2025 NAIA Women's Championship found out May 13, quite a bit.
In what was such a challenging hole that some golfers were reportedly "reduced to tears," the fifth hole at Eagle Crest Golf Club in Ypsilanti overshadowed everything else that happened at the tournament, causing more than half the players to shoot double or worse on the hole.
Only three of the 156 players made birdie, with some of the top-ranked players in the field seven-putting the hole.
Here's what happened:
The putting problem with Eagle Crest's fifth hole
According to NAIA officials, the hole placement on the fifth hole was off by 9 feet, and no one from the tournament committee checked the hole locations before play started.
With the hole in such a challenging position, just about every player in the field struggled to sink putts, with many shots rolling back to where they started:
Worst nightmare for tournament director. I know I have spent close to 15 minutes on one green to make sure this does not happen. Have to be very careful at Red Sky, but can happen anywhere. pic.twitter.com/GpQYNBVWOc — Lance Ringler (@GolfweekRingler) May 13, 2025
Southeastern's coach, whose players penciled in scores of nine, eight, seven, seven and six on the par 5 hole, explained it like this:
"If you got lucky and putted it a foot past the hole, a perfect putt, it had a chance to stay ... if it wasn't in that perfect spot, it rolled back down to your feet."
Videos from the tournament went viral, with legendary golfer Phil Mickelson even chiming in with a tongue-in-cheek "suggestion" — a callback to his disaster in the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in New York.
I have a suggestion 🙋♂️
😂😂 — Phil Mickelson (@PhilMickelson) May 14, 2025
In that tournament, Mickelson ran after his own putt and hit it while it was still moving, resulting in a penalty.
The effects of the wrong hole placement at Eagle Crest
The difficulty of the fifth hole didn't just frustrate players, it also altered the course of the tournament.
As players spent more time than usual on the fifth hole, other teams found themselves backed up on the course, waiting more than an hour to tee off. According to Golfweek, some coaches were worried about the lack of available bathrooms with their players waiting so long.
EAGLE CREST: Rare golf resort in metro Detroit makes our Top 10 Public Golf Courses ranking
Players took so long on the fifth hole that six teams couldn't finish their first-round play on May 13 due to darkness.
The situation was so disruptive that the NAIA released a statement after the first day was completed, apologizing for the embarrassment:
"We regret to confirm that an unfortunate situation occurred at the NAIA Women's Golf National Championship. The hole on No. 5 was incorrectly placed in a challenging position. We take this matter seriously and have taken immediate steps to ensure this type of situation will not happen again. The NAIA is committed to the student-athlete experience."
That reaction may have been insufficient for Marian (Indiana) coach Dan Stanjevich, whose team was participating in the tournament:
"I feel like we have talented players that are Division I athletes, but choose their path to come our way," he told Golfweek. "When this stuff happens and we get negative attention, I feel like it sets us back again."
Eagle Crest ranked top-10 public golf course in metro Detroit
Eagle Crest is Eastern Michigan's home course and one of the most beloved public courses in metro Detroit. In a 2022 review of the course, the Free Press' Carlos Monarrez wrote this:
"While no one would ever describe Eagle Crest as an easy course, it's a reasonable course and offers seven sets of tees that play as short as 5,031 yards, plus another two shorter tees that can be used for U.S. Kids tournaments, to accommodate almost any age or skill level."
That year, the Free Press ranked Eagle Crest the fifth-best public course in southeast Michigan.
Now, unfortunately, there are nearly 200 college golfers who would disagree with that assessment, even if the blame may lie more with tournament officials than the course itself.
You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com
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