A Family Affair
By Tom Lang
I love stories about families banding together and tackling a project or need head on – especially in the golf industry.
This is one of those truthful tales.
On a small dairy farm in west Michigan, about halfway between Grand Rapids and Grand Haven – with a West Olive address – brothers John and Philip Kuyers were feeling the challenges facing most farms in the late 1990s.
So, they pivoted, and with the help of family and friends, they turned much of the land into Pigeon Creek Golf Course.
A little more than 25 years later, Pigeon Creek has been named the 2026 Michigan Golf Course of the Year.
“They built the course from the ground up, doing everything beside the excavating,” said Mike Kuyers, the son of John. “They seeded, planted all the trees, laid all the piping, and even built the clubhouse.”
Mike is a co-owner today, along with his cousin Chase, who is Philip’s son. Mike also serves as the head superintendent, while Chase’s day-to-day role is certified PGA professional. The cousins purchased the course from their fathers in 2018.
Chase Kuyers, a graduate of Ferris State University’s Professional Golf Management Program, made early career-building stops at three famous destination resorts: Pinehurst in North Carolina, Bandon Dunes in Oregon and Mission Hills in California, before returning home to work once again at Pigeon Creek.
“I knew we needed to grow the game and develop golf for women and for kids here,” Chase said. “I created programs to reach women and juniors each summer, and they’re sold out, 250 participants in each one, each year.”
MGCA Executive Director Jada Paisley said Pigeon Creek exemplifies the qualities the MGCA seeks in selecting Michigan’s Golf Course of the Year.
“This year, MGCA revised its selection process to evaluate courses across five key areas: quality of ownership and management, course character and unique attributes, facility investment and improvements, community engagement, and contribution to the game of golf. Pigeon Creek’s excellence in each of these areas and its commitment to creating an outstanding experience for golfers and the surrounding community make it a deserving recipient of this prestigious recognition.”
Pigeon Creek’s course, designed by the late Mark DeVries and who Mike Kuyers worked with from the beginning, offers well-conditioned bluegrass fairways with generous landing areas and bentgrass rolling greens on natural terrain. It was designed with golfers of every skill level in mind and is challenging with some links-style features but allows a relaxing round of golf in a picturesque setting amid West Michigan farms.
Playing the Course:
I played the course in mid-September with a father and son from Norton Shores. All three of us were first timers at the MI Course of the Year. The land was in wonderful shape.
“It’s a very open course; it seems playable for all skill levels,” said son, Ryan Opsommer. “It’s family friendly here. Just a good environment out here. I like that you can see all the holes. I like that there aren’t any houses. You feel pretty secluded out here.”
Holes 1 and 2 open with a fairly standard par four and par 3. But then hole 3 is a good test. It’s a 550-yard (from the tips) par five with a pond on the left side of the fairway near where many tee shots will land, then there’s more water behind and slightly right of the green that your ball will find of you go long. A sand trap about 20 yards ahead of the green is also an obstacle that might not look too bad on your approach but could cause trouble.
The green on hole 4 was my favorite early in the round. It’s long shape measures at apx. 50 yards deep and maybe 15 yards wide, making it very long and skinny with multiple pin placement options, all of which is designed to mess with your depth of field when selecting the right club.
Holes 6, 7 and 8 are a favorite stretch of many players. Hole 6 is a medium length par 4 hard 90 degree dog leg left wrapping around a pond the entire way. Ownership says that too many people try to cut over the water from the tee box and fail.
Hole 7 is a straight up par three medium range. Hole 8 is very interesting however and might be the signature hole. It’s a dog leg right wrapping around another pond. Aiming left of the water with a short drive and then a short iron 90-degree turn into the green is the safer play, while also trying to stay out of the bunkers placed at the end of the fairway before it turns right. My two playing partners went for the green off the tee. Not a successful risk in their case.
The back nine closes with a par 5 (16th), medium length par 3, and a challenging par 4. What I liked about the 17th is the par three has an attractive and challenging turtle back green. Then at the 18th tee, golfers see water down most of the right side, opening up at the end to a large green with part of the pond extending closer to the right front edge.
There’s no doubt that water is one of the biggest obstacles to avoid on this course, but it’s not over-done. You can definitely play your way around the course unless you get truly wild. Only the 11th hole, a par three, has a full carry over a small creek for every player from any tee box.
While the overall land is of course more flat in general being not that far from Lake Michigan, and surrounded by farmland, DeVries put in several small, mounded areas that help create very slight blind spots on some holes – some that turn a little bit and mess with your eye. So, golfers definitely would benefit by using their very nice in-cart GPS system for best yardages. Another beautification element is almost no cart paths.
“The water features were all there when the land was farmed, all-natural spring fed,” Mike said. “We did some digging and widening of the former wet spots to create today’s water hazards.”
Serving the Community:
“We sponsor all kinds of things; three high school golf programs use our facilities, we serve families and we are the working person’s golf course with all of our leagues through the week,” Chase said. “Honestly, those are the things, I feel, that really make us a strong operation.
“We like to work with local businesses to keep things local. Whether it’s printing our scorecards or the products we get here at the pro shop. That’s very important to us.
“And the consistency of the course. It’s a very public-friendly course. Mike and his crew work very hard at keeping the course consistent and in great shape for public play. Not everyone does that.”
About winning the statewide award, Chase added:
“I was surprised I think because most of the courses that usually get nominated are the bigger golf resorts. I saw this as the chance to highlight what I call the mom-and-pop courses – and what we’re doing to grow the game and what we’re doing to provide a course for the community.”
A major investment at the course to serve the community came in late 2023 when the cousins built a large Events Center to house indoor activities, but also weddings and other gatherings.
“Everywhere we go, people would consistently say we need more places for events, so we were listening to that and decided that golf was doing good and we had some funds to hopefully go on that venture – and it’s the biggest venture we’ve every decided to do,” Mike said. “So far, it’s been a great success.
“We are very blessed to be continuing the tradition of owning and growing a family business in West Michigan,” stated Chase. “Our family has always had a strong work ethic. For generations, we have worked hard. We used to say, ‘there is always something to done on the farm’ and now ‘there is always something to do on the course.’”
Not long after the cousins bought out their dads in 2018, the Covid pandemic came along. Talk about the epitome of ups and downs in the industry.
“Of course, at first Covid scared us to death as we thought we were pretty much toast then,” Chase said. “But since then, golf has boomed and we are working to handle that capacity. We continually talk with our team, train our team and I think that’s led to all the success.”
For more information: https://www.golfpigeoncreek.com/
