warehouses and vast piles of scrap metal littered the area, making it nearly inhabitable. The Whirlpool Corporation has been proud to call Benton Harbor home and still maintains its headquarters here. The company was appalled at the wasteland left behind by more than 20 manufacturers that had left the area and provided seed capital to clear the desolation and build Harbor Shores Golf Club. More than 140,000 tons of debris were removed, and immaculate fairways designed by the legendary Jack Nicklaus replaced the waste. The course proved to be a cornerstone on which the surrounding community transformed into a lakeside real estate haven. KerryWright, Harbor Shores’ director of real estate sales, described the unlikely chain of events that brought Mr. Nicklaus to Michigan. “Whirlpool’s nonprofit division saw this land on thewater that it wanted to transform. It was the idea of the company’s former CEO David Whitwam to build a golf course. Former board chairman Jeff Fettig had a friend from his alma mater of Indiana University who knew Jack Nicklaus. The only Michigan Golf Journal
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