Taking a trip down memory lane this evening and my attention turned to a course I played quite regularly in college while attending Michigan State University in East Lansing, MI. The course was College Fields and it opened ten holes in the fall of 2005, my first semester in school, with holes 11-17 opening in spring of '06. Located in Okemos, MI it sits across from the Michigan State University campus and is only a few miles from the Michigan Capital, Lansing, MI.
I played 50+ rounds there in five years, and while not that interested in GCA at the time, it was extremely fun to play, due to its great deal of birdies and bogeys. Looking back it has a great variety of half-par holes, par 3s, center-line hazards, and a good mix of risk-reward par 5s. By the looks of the double-wide trailer clubhouse, budgets are somewhat tight. That might of added to the charm, as the design and club featured a refreshing sense of understatedness. Firm and fast conditioning was commonplace, as were some wide fairways offering different angles of play to varying pins.
Now the history of the course that is less than ten years in age is a murky one. From what I understand, it was originally to be designed by Davis Love III and to be a private club under the name of The Governors Club (a play on the proximity to the capital in Lansing). The story goes it was stopped in started several times during the late 90s and early 2000s. A failed housing development, to say the least, as the last time I ventured to the property it has all of maybe ten houses built on 200-300 lots. The East Lansing/Lansing area may be the most over saturated in terms of affordable public, which most likely led to this project stopping and starting several times before 2005.
Just curious if anyone else has had the pleasure of playing the course or has knowledge on the club.