Marquette Golf Club (Greywalls)

Favorite Hole

No. 6, par 3, 188 yards

While Greywalls is filled with unforgettable golf holes, the most jaw-dropping is the par-3 sixth. Teeing off from a rock outcropping, you play over a chasm to a green perched on another rock outcropping. The rocks surrounding the green create a bit of a punchbowl effect. It’s utterly stunning, and a hole you won’t see anywhere else.

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Overall Thoughts

Ground Control to Major Tom
Ground Control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on

Whenever I think of Greywalls, the opening lyrics of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” run through my head. A trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and this Mike DeVries design feels like a journey to golf on a different planet. The long trip up to Marquette reveals a stunning part of the country. Greywalls sits above the town, on a severe property offering gorgeous vistas of Lake Superior, jagged granite rock outcroppings, and a few extraordinary, unique golf holes.

While the property has its sublime moments, it certainly presented DeVries with some obstacles. Most great courses have less than 80 feet of elevation change from the low point to the high point; Greywalls features 200 feet. Massive elevation changes create difficult situations for architects trying to build quality golf holes. At Greywalls, DeVries chose to navigate the elevation on two holes, No. 1 and No. 18.

The first tee at Greywalls is in an interesting spot. Golfers take a cart ride from the clubhouse through a forest, popping out in the middle of the golf course. From there you drive to the first tee, which sits atop the central hill of the property. It’s an epic opener, playing severely downhill to the first green. It’s a neat design, dramatically navigating a ton of elevation right off the bat. By starting with a cart ride to a point up high in the middle of the property, DeVries removed one of the steepest potential climbs a walking player would have to make.

After the first, players spend the front nine methodically climbing their way back up to the original high ridge to play 9 and 10. After that it’s another dive into the lower parts of the property, before players make a final trip up the ridge for 17 and 18. The 18th is a par 5 that plays from the ridge down to a low meadow, also the site of the 15th green. Once again, DeVries placed a dramatic downhill shot on a long hole, mitigating the impact of the elevation. Some might find it weird to have the first and last holes finish as far apart from each other as they do at Greywalls. But by having No. 1 start high and No. 18 finish low, DeVries was able to make a severe plot of land walkable while limiting negative design impact from the massive elevation shifts.

A casual onlooker may view the stunning granite outcroppings as a wonderful asset, but they also presented quite the challenge to the architect. They’re immovable hard edges that DeVries had to work up, over, and around. Sure, if handled right, these features could make for incredible holes, but used incorrectly, they could cause long-term safety and playability issues. The outcroppings factor into play mainly on the front nine, which traverses the property’s most severe terrain. (The back nine plays into a sandy pines area, reminiscent of the topographical features of Kingsley Club.)

On the front, holes 4-8 presented DeVries with numerous large-scale rock outcroppings to deal with. For example, on the fifth hole, a visually stunning short par 4, the green location was fixed as it’s pressed up against a near 40-foot wall of rock. But between a property line and other rocks, there was only one place that the tee could be: a spot that would mean an awkward walk back from the fourth green. The fifth tee sits well below the fairway, with a tee shot that is taxing for an average player. It’s blind, and requires a high ball to clear the granite rocks that sit in front of the fairway. This shot would have worked better with a slightly lower ridge in front of the tee. The problem: it would have cost a fortune to blast granite out of the way, money a modest club in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan didn’t have. Because of those massive rock features, though, the fifth is one of the more provocative and memorable holes on the course.

DeVries also incorporated the rock outcroppings well on the seventh, an epic downhill par 4 that features a literal granite cliff in the middle of the fairway. Off the tee, longer players have to choose whether to lay back short of the cliff or try to bomb it over. It’s an exhilarating shot.

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With a site this severe and with features this difficult, it would have been easy to build an over-the-top golf course that ended up too extreme. I do think that some people might feel that way about Greywalls. Yet I also think DeVries should be commended for not over-manipulating the natural topography, which is what gives the entire course a sense of place. He also found a variety of ways to navigate difficult features, and despite the extreme nature of the property, DeVries created enough width and helping contours to give golfers a fighting chance against the course’s main obstacle: visual intimidation. The more you play Greywalls, the more you discover the opportunities to play away from certain features and use the ground to your advantage.

Greywalls is a fight against nature, and the best route is rarely a straight line.

1 Egg

Greywalls is absolutely a course that everyone should visit. Superb playing conditions tended to by superintendent Craig Moore, stunning visuals, and a strategic design with a number of unforgettable holes all work in its favor. That said, I do not know how often I would want to play Greywalls. Its extreme nature makes it a special-occasion course instead of an everyday one. The land is simply too wild for Greywalls to be considered among the greatest courses in America, but as an example of an architect dealing intelligently with a severe piece of land, it is truly outstanding.

Course Tour

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Additional Content

Into the Wild: Greywalls (article)

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