Golf’s Best Kept Value

By Jason Manshum

    There are golf towns with one course everybody talks about – or some with a famous resort, a celebrated architect, maybe a famed 19th hole.

    And then there is the distinction of Grand Rapids.

    For a city of its size, Grand Rapids has an almost absurd amount of good public golf – which I know from over three decades playing here.

    It’s not that there are a few good courses around Grand Rapids. It's that the quality doesn't seem to stop. You can build a week around it. Or a summer. Or, if you're like me, a rotation.

    At the top of that rotation are two courses I think belong in the conversation for the best daily-fee golf in all of Michigan: Diamond Springs and Pilgrim's Run. The pair are found on opposite ends of the metro area, yet they are connected by something more important. Mike DeVries.

The DeVries connection

    DeVries, a Grand Rapids native, now lives in northern Michigan. Golfers who pay attention to architecture have increasingly taken notice of his courses.

    That's especially true around Grand Rapids, where his fingerprints are on three courses: Diamond Springs, Pilgrim's Run and The Mines.

    It's a remarkable trio. Three different courses, each shaped by its own piece of Michigan land, but sharing a philosophy: use what's there. Don't manufacture a golf course when the land has already given you one.

Diamond Springs

    Diamond Springs is my personal blueprint for what great, affordable public daily-fee golf should be. One cut. Centerline irrigation. No unnecessary frills. Just a really good golf course.

    The remarkable thing is that the value isn't what you notice first. You don't finish a round thinking, “That was pretty good for the price.”

    You finish thinking, “That was really good.”

    The course has variety without feeling disjointed, making use of the natural land and ground movement in a way that feels both intentional and completely natural.

    No. 15 is the hole I think about most. Every time I get there, I have the same reaction: This is really good golf.

   It's a terrific risk-reward hole with multiple options off the tee. There isn't one prescribed way to play it. You make your decision, then live with it. That's the kind of golf I love.

    This summer, I experienced Diamond Springs in an entirely different way during a Fried Egg Golf Summer Solstice event. We played from sunrise to sundown, turning one round into an entire day.

    By the time we reached our final hole, the sun was dropping behind the trees. The green was sitting in the setting sun. After all those hours, all those holes, all that golf, it felt like the appropriate way to finish.

Pilgrim's Run

    If Diamond Springs is my blueprint, Pilgrim's Run is right there beside it.

    The course sits north of Grand Rapids, and the approach is part of its charm. Agricultural land gives way to woods, and then, almost suddenly, you're somewhere else.

    The golf matches the setting. There is enormous variety, plenty of strategic interest and a constant feeling that the course is working with the land rather than against it.

    That's the DeVries magic.

    It's also one reason the three Grand Rapids-area courses have begun attracting national attention from places like Fried Egg Golf, No Laying Up and others.

    But you don't need a national ranking to understand what's happening here. You just need to play them.

    Then there's everything else

    This is where Grand Rapids really separates itself.

    The Meadows at Grand Valley State University is open and heathland-like, with long, wispy grasses that seem to reach back toward golf's origins. It is one of the best college courses in Michigan.

    The Mines gives you the third piece of the DeVries trio, and another distinctive experience. Built over the top of old gypsum mines, it’s next to downtown, yet you feel like you’re nowhere near a city.

    Thornapple Pointe brings the Thornapple River into the backdrop while providing a stout test.

    Quail Ridge moves through woodlands, marshes and natural landscapes, using those features as part of the routing.

    Boulder Creek almost feels like two courses. The front nine is tighter and more wooded; the back nine opens up dramatically.

    And then there is Kaufman. Municipal golf doesn't always get enough credit for what it represents. Kaufman is a reminder that public golf can be serious golf. It hosts the Kent County Amateur every year while remaining accessible to the golfer who simply wants to play 18 holes on a Saturday.

    That's important. Because affordable golf isn't simply about price. It's about access. It's where the junior golfer starts. Where the retiree plays three times a week. Where somebody brings a friend to the course for the first time.

    Grand Rapids has room for all of them. Maybe that's the point

    And these aren’t close to the entire list. Saskatoon, Scott Lake, The Falls at Barber Creek, The Links at Bowen Lake, Cedar Chase, and Indian Trails all add to the depth of the area's public golf scene. They're good enough to keep the rotation going.

    That's what makes this place special. You don't have to build your golf trip around one course. You can build it around a region.

    Golf has spent a lot of time teaching us that great golf and expensive golf are basically the same thing.

    Grand Rapids makes a pretty compelling argument otherwise. Here, good golf isn't some rare event. It's part of the landscape. You just need a tee time.

Jason Manshum has spent more than 30 years playing golf around metro Grand Rapids. He writes about the game he loves, the places it takes him and the people he meets along the way – and, occasionally, what golf has to teach us about life. Find him at https://substack.com/@jasonmanshum