New Links-style Golf Course Coming to Southwest Michigan

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A new 71-par golf course with more than 6,800 playing yards is coming next year to the Gull Lake View Golf Club, at one of the highest points in Kalamazoo County.

“The open, rolling terrain really lends itself to a course with very strong, links type characteristics” says Jon Scott, owner and operator of Gull Lake View Golf Club and Resort in Augusta, located midway between Battle Creek and Kalamazoo.

The Gull Lake View Golf Club currently has 90 holes of golf, practice facilities, restaurants, and overnight lodging. The new golf course — tentatively named Stoatin Brae (“Grand Hill” in Scottish) — is being designed by Tom Doak and his Renaissance Golf Design team in Traverse City.

Renaissance Golf Design has designed golf courses such as Black Forest at Wilderness Valley in Gaylord and the Lost Dunes Golf Club in Bridgman, along with many other golf courses across the United States and in Australia, Scotland, and New Zealand.

“The focus on golf being fun has become more mainstream in golf design, but it has been our focus all along,” says Eric Iverson, a senior associate at Renaissance Golf Design. “While part of the approach is to avoid having to manufacture any holes, it also means that we avoid undoing cool, unique features that nature provides, and navigating those holes is where the fun lies.”

Gull Lake View Golf Club has five, 18-hole golf courses. The last golf course at the resort was built in 1995, called Stonehedge North.

Construction on the course is scheduled to be completed by mid-2016.