Michigan Golf Journal March 2020

19 March 2020 www.michigangolfjournal.com if they needed me to then I’d buy another one. I was so surprised and thrilled that they managed to make it happen.” The late Gordie Wyns was another charter member of OGC. He once told me the front nine was designed by local residents Herbert Shinn and Earl Danville. “They never had a real plan or anything,” Wyns said. “They just strolled through the property and Shinn would outline hole by hole on a small scratch paper. He had a knack for seeing something that wasn’t there and draw up fairways and greens.” It took several months to turn Shinn’s rough design into reality. Local farmers, excavation, trucking, and landscaping companies donated time and equipment. Men and women volunteers put in hundreds of hours of sweat equity. “We had drainage problems on some holes,” recalled Wyns. “We had to clear a lot of grapevines, and we had to clear some of the biggest elm trees I ever saw. And snakes! I mean lots of snakes. Claude Ferris hated ‘em, and sometimes he’d skip the second hold just to avoid them.” The front nine opened in late 1962. There have been a few changes, but if Shinn and Danville were alive today, they would still see the integrity of their original hand-drawn design. “Remember, that was everybody’s first try at Continues on next page >>