GCA Gathering - Greywalls @ Marquette GC (w/ pictures)

[George Freeman]

I had the great pleasure of being one of the "chosen 6" (not really) to make the trek up to the UP with Mike DeVries to play Greywalls prior to heading down to TC for the gathering at the Kingsley Club.  Mike, JC Jones, Tyler Kearns, Dave Neveux, Brian Cenci, Sir John Mayhugh and I enjoyed two rounds at the course followed by a great dinner accompanied by Bruce (sorry I have misplaced Bruce's last name).  Thanks again to Mike, Bruce, Craig and the rest of the Marquette GC staff for setting it up/accomodating us.

I'll put it to rest here: Greywalls is worth the drive from almost anywhere!  Not only is the course amazing, Marquette is a really neat town in the summer.  It's amazing what not being covered in 6 ft of snow will do for a town...

I had pretty high expectations for Greywalls due to Ran's course profile, trusted positive (!) opinions, Mike's work at Kingsley, etc.  Even with these expectations, I was still blown away by the courses scale, the property's severe-ness (while at the same time the course is very playable), the views, the intricacy of the design, the shear movement of the front nine, quality of golf holes, and the "just pure fun" factor the course holds in spaids.

The front nine is like nothing I have ever seen.  You feel like a mountain goat but are constantly conflicted by this notion b/c the course is so well routed and possesses a very unforced feel, which is an unbelievable feat given the property the front is laid out on.  There are just some incredibly fun holes out there: 1, 2, 4, 5!, 6!, 7!!, 9!

The back nine settles into the more benign (remember everything is relative) area of the property, with more hills and less cliffs.  And even though the two nines cross quite different peices of land, somehow Mike figured out how to make everything fit together fantastically.  

The quality and attention to detail in the shaping is very evident throughout the course (much like the Kingsley Club).  It would be very interesting to see what some other architects would have done with this property.  I can't imagine many would have been able to create a course as playable, fun, interesting and unique as the end product at Greywalls.  

1st hole - par 5 that tees off on top of the world.  Amazing views of Lake Superior in the distance although it's hard to keep your eyes off the ungulating fairway unfolding in front of you


Ahead of the landing zone showing the downhill view of a very well placed and well struck drive.  Notice the movement in the fairway even with the morning sun shining directly into my face


Movement in the 2nd fairway


Looking back at the humpback 2nd fairway from behind the kickboard left of the green


Standing atop the kickboard looking down the length of the 2nd green (perpendicular to the line of play)


4th par 4 - Much more room off the tee than this photo would suggest.  It seemed difficult to hold the upper lefthand side of the fairway, where an elevated (and clear) view of the green awaits


Slope leading up to the plateau on the left side of the fairway.  Double Barky Sparky stalking another "gross bogie-net par"


Rock outcropping separating the left (upper) from the right side of the fairway.  Green in background.


View from the left upper landing area


Looking back towards the tee.  Look at all that movement!!


4th green


Tee shot on the short par 4 5th - a wee bit discomforting for the first time player...


A blind shot awaits those who don't hit enough club to get to "position A"


Another 20 or so yards can give you a clean look at the green


The author hitting his second after what appeared to be a perfect drive (apparently not!).  Photo taken by the architect, loving every second of it.  I made par from there thank you very much.


From left of the green

[George Freeman]

The amazingly beautiful par 3 6th


Atop the rock wall behind the green looking back towards the tee


The out-of-this-world long par 4 7th.  View from the tee



Standing atop the rock cliff that bisects the fairway looking down at the green.  This would be the perfect spot for a drive, unless you can get it over the wall which would require a huge carry.  (go figure, Nev accomplished it).


Closer look at the green complex


Looking back up the fairway, er, mountain


And w/ better light


The devilishly trick and short par 4 8th.  Try to bomb it over the rocks on the right for a flat landing area or take your chances from the left side of the fairway/rough?


The "not just a knockout" par 4 9th.  This hole has it all, great looks and tons of strategy


Is this the best angle?


Or this?


It turns into a skyline green as you approach it


Tricky and short par 4 10th.  Risk going left for a view of the green and superior angle?  Or play out right safe leading to a blind approach from a difficult angle.


The awesome par 4 11th.  You could hide a pick-up in those fairway rolls.


Blind


Not so blind: take your pick


11th green with the 12th behind


The long par 4 12th


Par 5 13th


13th green perched atop a small hill


Very difficult "upside down bowl" green @ 14


Beautiful and long par 3 15th


Short par 3 17th.  What a fantastic green and green complex (sorry for the terrible picture, it does the hole zero justice)


17th from the left, attempting to capture some of the movement


Looking down at the 18th green


Movement in the 18th hole landing area (notice John M. in the background for some idea of the scale)


looking back up the 18th fairway



18th green viewed from near the 1st tee


One more looking back up #7

[Mike Sweeney]

While it obviously has some Yale on steroids terrain (a good thing), it looks completely unique too. Is it walkable?

[Brad Swanson]

George,
    Great overview.  I concur that it is worth the drive from about anywhere, and make the trip up several times a year from Madison, WI to play.  My "come join me at Greywalls" threads here go nearly completely unnoticed, but Eric T and his wife Laurie came up from Chicago to play last year and thought it was worth the effort.  There's even 9 interesting Langford holes on the Heritage course to study for the old school archie buffs.  One thing of note is the excellent firm presentation which accentuates the unique degree of movement experienced throughout the round.

Mike,
   In theory, the course is walkable, as I have done it a few times.  However, when I'm trying to cram 4 rounds into 48 hours, I typically ride.  Its a tough walk, especially the front 9.  The back 9 is pretty manageable though.

Cheers,
Brad

[Sean Leary]

Looks hard. Is it?

[George Freeman]

Looks hard. Is it?

Not nearly as difficult as the pictures suggest, or difficult in the sense that the pictures suggest...By that I mean there is less difficulty driving the ball than the pictures suggest, but more difficulty on and around the greens (i.e. tough up and downs, tough two-putts, tough angles from wrong sides of the fairway, etc).

Yes, if you're spraying the ball 40+ yds offline, you will have some trouble as once you get outside the maintained areas, it gets thick.  I was a little apprehensive about playing the tips @ 6,800 plus yds (I'm a 6), but I was surprised at how managable the course was from there.  I think almost any handicap male could play from the 6,114 yd white tees (69.2, 132) without much of a problem.  And the 6,600 yd grey tees would be managable IMO for anyone under a 15-16 handicap (depending on their game of course).  The course plays firm and the ball really rolls, so distance is negated on a lot of the longer holes.  And as stated earlier, there is much more width than appears in the pictures.

[Tyler Kearns]

George,

Thanks for posting those photos, a good time was had by all at Greywalls.

What impressed me most about the design, was the restraint Mike DeVries used in not over-bunkering the course. In fact, about half the holes are bunkerless, and 18/36 bunkers are featured on two holes (No. 11 & 13). Logical choices given the sandy base on this low piece of the property. The landscape certainly yielded infinite opportunities to liberally bunker the course (think Kingsley, where Mike did just that), but ultimately, I think that would have taken away from the dominant feature of the site, the rock. Further, just look at those natural fairway contours, they test the game in many more ways than bunker play.

I absolutely loved the 10th hole, a great example of sound strategy. It looks so harmless, and the expansive fairway lulls you into a false sense of security. The desired landing area for the best angle of approach is much narrower, you just need to be bold enough to find it. The fronting rock hazard is especially fearsome as the ricochet is the great unknown!! Fantastic green contours, awesome hole.

Still unsure about the second half of No. 18. A great tee shot, spectacular views, wild terrain. I wonder if a deep central hazard short of the green, anywhere in that great expanse would make players think a little harder on their second. From a precarious stance (there isn't a flat one to be had), you can bomb away without any fear of repercussion, although after playing 12, 14 & 15, perhaps no more repercussions are necessary. Even bad shots tumble down the fairway within easy reach of the green. However, after playing a second time and seeing my approach land on the green and carom happily towards the pin, I realize their is more contour in that green than meets the eye, perhaps the lack of relief surrounding helps fool the eye.

This course certainly opened my mind to the extent an architect can get away with BOLD green contours. The greens were imminently playable, with feeder slopes making the target area larger in many circumstances. Conversely, many hole locations could be scary with steep fall-aways and short grass to propel greedy approaches away from the hole, making recovery a difficult proposition.

TK

[George Freeman]

Cool photos from the website, with different angles and lighting:

1


2


3


6


7


8


9


10


14


15


16


17


18

[John Mayhugh]

Nice photo tour George, though the pics from the website don't appear correctly using Firefox.

Mike Devries & Bruce Roberts did a great job arranging the golf at Greywalls, tour of the old Langford holes, and dinner.  Though it's not the easiest place to get to from Kentucky, it won't be my last visit to Greywalls. 

Greywalls offers all sorts of interesting recovery options, as evidenced on the long par 3 15th.   

[JC Jones]

I knew you were going to post that John!!

Beware, the Mayhugh ass shot is being posted soon!!

[Tyler Kearns]

That's my partner. See how confident I was that he couldn't get a club on that ball. More funny was hitting his next shot from the rocks at the base of the hill. As Jason gingerly made his way down, he sent an avalanche of stones that pretty much covered up his ball. Talk about a severe buried lie!!

[John Mayhugh]

I knew you were going to post that John!!

Beware, the Mayhugh ass shot is being posted soon!!

Can you post widescreen pics?

[Adrian_Stiff]

That looks a fun course. nice pics.

[JC Jones]

As promised:

[JC Jones]

In short, Greywalls is unlike any course I've ever played in my life.  When one says a course is "on a grand scale," they must be talking about Greywalls.  Yet the course is as nuanced as any I've played.  In addition, I've never encountered fairways like these.  The undulation is beyond remarkable.  I had a blast there and could imagine that every time out on that course yields some new and fun adventure.  Kudos to Mike for a great design and great job to Craig and Bruce for their caretaking of such a wonderful course.

Here are some photos to supplement what has already been posted:

The approach on #1:




Looking back up #1 fairway:




The 4th green:




Looking back up #4 to the tee:




The tee shot on #5 (in case there is any question, send the ball out to the right and let the trees feed you back to the cart path...):




The approach to #7:




The approach on #9:




Tee shot on #10 (the fairway is wide open but placement is necessary to have a shot at the green):




#17 green from the back and side (respectively):





Looking back up #18:

[Kalen Braley]

This course looks no short of fantastic and gets higher and higher on my must play list every time I see it.

On a side note, they really need to get this website fixed so we can properly view photos.  Having to use the scroll button on the bottom of each post is beyond annoying and is really killing the photo reviews that are being done.  Ran I'm not trying to be a complainer on this one, but this really needs to get resolved.

[John Mayhugh]

Jason,
That pic of my swing/ass should be posted only as an example of what NOT to do.

[Jordan Wall]

As promised:

JC Jones,

Do you think if I printed a copy of this, and sent it to Mayhugh, he might autograph it for me?

I don't know how busy the life of a celeb gets, so I figure you might find some time to answer.

Great picture, btw.

Thanks,
Jordan

[Joe Hancock]

Must be somethng about that tee....

[JC Jones]

Jordan,

Im sure that he would but you might have to wait a while, he is likely off playing all of the top 25 courses in the world this summer.


Joe,

Never again post a picture of your ass.  I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

[Brian_Sleeman]

Looks like a little steering going on on the 7th tee...the tall stuff between 7 and 8 is not a bad miss, actually.  You can run it on landing it anywhere short right of the green from that angle.

Thanks for all the photos and comments.  As someone who got to witness the project progress from start to finish, I'm extremely satisfied to see more people making the trip to my old hometown and enjoying their experience.  I'm sure Mike feels the same way.

For me, it's always less than 24 hours in town on a lightning visit from Traverse City, and I can't wait to get back up again this year.  There are endless opportunities for fun shots at Greywalls, and that's all kudos to Mike.

Glad you all had fun.

[Michael Dugger]

Thanks so much for posting something on here that I actually give a damn about. 

Greywalls looks sick.  I gotta get there someday.

Some huge rollers out there.......I can already see my ball bouncing to and fro, sometimes going where I want it to, others not so much!

Mike Devries....you the man.  Looking forward to seeing your "lost Mackenzie" course. 

Damn good work.  Rees Jones can't hold yer jockstrap....

[Phil McDade]

George (and Brad -- I've really been trying -- really -- to take you up on the Greywalls trip, but stuff keeps getting in the way...):

Great photos -- wonderful tour of what looks to be a really dramatic course.

Questions:

-- Some of the fairways (2, 4, 7, 18) look, to be honest, just over-the-top with their contouring. Is it silly, or do the incredibly bold contours lend themselves to strategic choices? It looks to be a course that needs multiple plays to get a sense of really where to go (and here I'm channeling Mucci's thread on Pound Ridge, which does look over-the-top and one that I accept Patrick's view as being simply no fun to play). Yet most everyone here says this is a blast to play. I'm a lousy golfer, and my desire to play here gets checked by my desire not to be simply overwhelmed by a course that I couldn't handle.

-- Do the bunkers on 11 and 13 looks as jarring in person as they do in these pics? Those two holes just stick out as radically different than the rest, given how the severe natural landforms provide plenty of challenge. Fair characterization, or am I missing something?

-- Anyone have pics of the Langford nine there?

[Keith Buntrock]

This brings back memories as this is where my college competitive career took off last September. I was able to find the fairway on the number 1 tee at Greywalls which gave me a feeling of being on top of the world after the 2 mile drive to get up there. We also played the Heritage course as part of the tournament. Two rounds on Greywalls and one on the Heritage. MY score on the Heritage was higher than both my scores on Greywalls.

[John Mayhugh]

Phil
You have to get up there. 

I did take a few pics of some of the Langford greens.  Will try to post them sometime in the next few days.  These will require commentary from Mike D since we bounced around and I'm not sure of the hole numbers.  The photos won't really show as much as we would like and the existing greens are MUCH smaller than the originals.

Keith,
So what did you shoot?  Hopefully they shuttled you guys to the first tee!
Where do you play college golf?