The Reversible Golf Course

April 5, 2015

New Tom Doak Course Is First Of Its Kind

Forest Dunes Golf Club recently hired Traverse City’s Tom Doak, one of the world’s top golf course designers, to create a new course next to the Roscommon club’s existing U.S. top 100-ranked Tom Weiskopf course. As with many of Doak’s designs, this one is destined to generate worldwide attention.

Forest Dunes owner Lew Thompson, an Arkansas-based trucking magnate, was planning a second course on his property that would pair with the award-winning Weiskopf design and prompt golfers to stay overnight in order to play both courses. Having just one course, many golfing groups would visit on their way north to play resorts with multiple courses or on their way home. They weren’t spending the night and dining at the lodge’s fine restaurant.

Doak’s solution was to build the world’s first 18-hole reversible course, providing a double dose of Doak to keep golfers on site longer.

"The appeal of the reversible course is that golfers will want to play it both ways. You’re really getting two courses in one, and at a lesser cost to build. It will effectively give them three 18-hole courses," Doak explained.

The reversible golf course will feature two distinct layouts using the same greens, playing one direction one day and reversing the layout to play the opposite way the next. According to Doak, it will be the only 18-hole layout in the world that will be played on a reverse basis every other day.

"It’s not a new concept," Doak explained.

"I came across this concept in Scotland while I spent a summer during college working over there. They had a few reversible holes, not an entire golf course, but I found it fascinating and kept it in the back of my mind. It’s something I’ve always wanted to try to design, but never had the right opportunity until now.

"You need the right site, the right kind of terrain, and the right client that understands the appeal of the concept. At Forest Dunes, it finally came together. The land has small undulations, is not hilly, and not heavily forested. It really isn’t a dramatic site, which is perfect for this concept. Playing over ravines creates problems on the return route, and you can’t have woods behind the green or you’d have to play over trees from the other direction. The biggest difficulty is designing the greens, which have to work from both directions," added the 53-year-old golf course architect.

Thompson believes the reversible course may be the ultimate feather in Doak’s distinguished architectural cap.

"I chose Tom because he is very hands on with course design and building of the course," he elaborated. "This is a huge deal for him and Forest Dunes."

Doak’s firm, Renaissance Golf Design, began shaping holes last September and was able to shape six holes before the November snow. Work will start in earnest as soon as the snow melts. The course is slated to open in late 2016, depending on the weather.

Doak first came to Traverse City almost 30 years ago as a Cornell University student studying landscape architecture. He was visiting famous golf courses around the world each summer and, like an archeologist drawn to a legendary site, he came looking for Crystal Downs near Frankfort. It was designed by Alister MacKenzie, one of his heroes and considered one of golf ’s greatest architects.

Thanks to a scholarship, he was able to spend summers travelling and visiting golf courses and he spent a summer in Scotland where he worked as a caddy at St. Andrews, studying every course of note in that area.

"It was eye-opening and I loved the way they created courses in the British Isles with minimal disturbance to the land. They followed the lay of the land, were affordable to build, and created an exciting layout that was fun to play. It influenced my design decisions and, ever since, I’ve felt a responsibility to build courses reflecting the ideals of the game as the Scots play it," he enthused.

On his visit to Crystal Downs, he met and became friends with longtime golf professional Fred Muller, who later provided a referral that garnered Doak his first independent golf course design project at High Pointe in Williamsburg. He was 26 years old at the time.

After High Pointe opened to the public in 1989, Doak had worked for a couple of years building the course and decided that Traverse City, and northern Michigan, was home. He loved the summers, the long evenings and early mornings, which reminded him of Scotland.

Doak’s next job was designing Black Forest near Gaylord. It was also among the top 100 courses in the country when it first opened in 1991 and is still one of the Gaylord Golf Mecca’s most popular courses. Doak’s popularity as a golf course designer grew quickly and his design philosophy was credited with fueling a new minimalist movement in the world of golf course design – moving as little dirt as possible while building the course. Doak was becoming one of the most well known golf course architects in the world.

Over the next nearly 20 years, Doak travelled the globe designing golf courses. He worked in New Zealand, Scotland, Tasmania, China and the United States.

"I was going around the globe, wherever the latest job took me, but nothing was close to Michigan and home," he lamented. "The golf course boom in Michigan had started to slow down about the time I completed Black Forest. Nothing new was moving ahead very quickly and I was busy travelling around the world with projects.

"I always looked forward to getting back home to northern Michigan and family. I’m just tickled at the chance to work close to home and still be doing something so special," Doak said with a big smile. "I’ll finally be able to enjoy some northern Michigan summers again. It’s been a while since I was here for a whole summer."

Pacific Dunes, Branbougle Dunes, Ballyneal, Cape Kidnappers, Brandon Dunes and the Red Course at Dismal River Golf Club are a few of the Doak courses worldwide that are routinely found in the top of golf magazine course rankings. His new design at Forest Dunes will very likely be joining that list very soon.