Pilgrim's Run Golf Club

Top 100 Courses You Can Play (98th), September 2002 Golf
Best New Affordable Courses of 1999 (4th), December, 1999 Golf Digest

Pilgrim’s Run emphasizes the natural qualities of the land as much as possible and provides strategic golf to offer every level of player an opportunity to play a golf hole to his strengths. The beautiful rolling, sandy terrain is forested by mature oaks, pines, and maples, with an understory of blueberry and Pennsylvania sedge.  The undulations of the site are not too severe, and combined with the tranquility of the site, makes for a great setting and golf course.

“But the ultimate committee project may be fourth-place Pilgrim’s Run Golf Club, north of Grand Rapids, Mich. After former superintendent Kris Shumaker drew up a routing, owner Bob Van Kampen (of Chicago’s Van Kampen Mutual Funds) invited six employees to design three holes apiece. Young golf architect Mike DeVries then designed the greens and bunkers and consulted on the building of the course.”
America’s Best New Courses, Golf Digest, December 1999, pg. 130.


Pilgrim's Run Golf Club: Mike DeVries Builds Them by Hand
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Originally created as a private course for the staff and friends of wealthy investor Bob Van Kampen, Pilgrim's Run outside of Grand Rapids has to be one of the most unusual projects ever undertaken by any architect. However, Mike DeVries, who has worked for Tom Fazio, Tom Doak and others has managed to handle the project with grace, and on top of that, he has shaped some downright amazing hazards.

DeVries was brought into the Pilgrim's Run project after clearing and construction had begun on the first nine holes in 1996. The task: make the bunkers and overall design possess some uniformity. Big deal right? It's done every day in golf course construction, so why would the challenge be any different at Pilgrim's Run? Well the problem was, six different employees of Van Kampen were designing three holes each - the ultimate design by committee. It also could have been the ultimate nightmare.

However, what DeVries has done (with help from course superintendent Kris Shumaker who has overseen the rough grading and some bunker work) is build a set of bunkers that reflect the style of several master architects as well as a touch of his own originality.

DeVries' secret? Simple: spending time on site and crafting each bunker by hand. And after the surrounds of the bunker are seeded, DeVries paints the final lines of the bunkers and cuts the edges himself. Billy Bell, who was largely responsible for the dynamic bunkers of Riviera and Bel-Air, used the same process when building those hazards.

Several bunkers at Pilgrim's Run hint of Alister MacKenzie's dramatic Cypress Point bunkering style, while others could be compared to the flowing look of George Thomas and Billy Bell's boldly fingered sand pits. The Pilgrim's Run style also reflects MacKenzie's slightly different "Michigan" approach, as supervised by Perry Maxwell. The "MacKenzie-Michigan" look was a somewhat larger bunker with more sand and softer edges with fewer capes and bays. But they certainly were not boring by any means, as Maxwell frequently placed small islands of turf in the middle of the broader expanses of sand. It is no coincidence that DeVries may have picked up on the "MacKenzie-Michigan" style of bunker construction: DeVries grew up playing Crystal Downs, MacKenzie and Maxwell's 1929 design two hours north of Pilgrim’s Run.

One has to guess that if MacKenzie and Maxwell came back today to see the deteriorated state of their bunkers at Crystal and at their underrated University of Michigan design, Mike DeVries might just be at the top of their list to restore them to their original splendor.
Excerpt from GolfWeb, Artistic bunkering makes a comeback by Geoff Shackelford

NEXT