Michigan Golf Journal October 2020

Michigan Golf Journal Kingsley Club Revisited Kingsley Club: Our Bandon Dunes By Tom Lang When I play and rate or write about golf courses, it’s fairly standard for me to pick my three favorite consecutive holes and focus the story on what that particular trio provides as a microcosm of the overall design and experience. In the case of Kingsley Club, that 3-hole writing format is not feasible. I love all 18 holes – and was reminded of it in a late August visit. Michigan born-and-raised course designer Mike DeVries created a masterful layout on beautiful rolling hills. The perfect routing and a focus on shaping green complexes makes for one of the top courses in the Midwest. If the course could be picked up out of the remote countryside near Kingsley, Michigan, and be transplanted along the Oregon-Pacific Ocean coastline, many believe it would fit right in with the multiple courses of Bandon Dunes. Like so many course designs which at first look appear difficult or overpowering, if golfers keep their ball in the fairway, Kingsley Club is very playable. This fairly typical recreational golfer was able to shoot my lowest score of the summer and play with only one ball all day. Several greens are elevated tabletops with nasty run offs, yet the design is balanced with a number of greens that are bowl shaped as to push shots that are well offline back onto the green. The first and fourth greens show off this bowl feature the most