Michigan Golf Journal September 2019

The Bear is on the prowl again, along the shores of Lake Michigan. Not Sleeping Bear Dunes in northwest Michigan, but another Dunes that could become just as popular among golfers nationwide. The Golden Bear, Jack Nicklaus, is busy designing the new American Dunes Golf Club along with his associate Chris Cochran by totally revamping the former Grand Haven Golf Club, birthplace of the Folds of Honor Foundation that was started at the site by Maj. Dan Rooney in 2006. “The theme is developed off the name, which is American Dunes,” Nicklaus said at a mid-August site visit regarding the fact the course near the edge of Lake Michigan used to be smothered by trees tightly enclosing every fairway. “We’re trying to create a golf course that utilizes the dunes as part of the strategy, part of the aesthetics, and make it fit around its name – American Dunes.” Topsoil from off site was brought in when Grand Haven Golf Club was first built in the 1960s by the Matthews family, covering all the rolling, sandy terrain cut through the trees; a common American Dunes is Taking Shape Latest Jack Nicklaus design in Michigan By Tom Lang Michigan Golf Journal American Dunes