Detroit Golf Club
Designed by Donald Ross
History
Detroit Golf Club opened its doors in 1899, born of a growing city’s appetite for the game that had, by then, taken firm hold across the American Midwest. The club’s founders sought a home suited to Detroit’s expanding fortunes, and in the years that followed, the membership rolls swelled alongside the automobile money reshaping the city itself.
The club turned to Donald Ross, who arrived to lay out two courses on the property in the early 1910s, work completed around 1916. Ross found in the rolling, tree-lined parcel a canvas well suited to his design philosophy, and the North and South courses that emerged bore his signature approach to green complexes and shot values, adapted to the specific contours of the land he’d been given. His involvement placed Detroit Golf Club among the notable commissions of his American career, at a time when his reputation was spreading rapidly from Pinehurst outward.
The club has hosted significant competitive golf over the decades, including PGA Tour events in more recent years, a role that has kept the Ross design relevant to the modern professional game even as it approaches its second century. Membership and club leadership have overseen periodic maintenance and restoration efforts to preserve the character of Ross’s original routing, ensuring that the layout golfers encounter today remains tethered to the vision established when the course first opened for play.
Playing Notes
With 36 holes on the property, first-time visitors should confirm which course they're booked on before arriving, since the two layouts play differently enough to change what's in the bag. Expect tree-lined corridors that put a premium on keeping the ball in the fairway off the tee — this isn't a course where a mis-hit driver gets bailed out by width. The greens are the real test here; come prepared for subtle breaks that aren't always visible from the fairway, and budget extra time on the practice putting green to get a feel for the speed before your round. Walking is possible but many members opt for carts given the layout's size and the distance between some greens and the next tee. Bring your full range of clubs for approach shots, since scoring depends more on hitting the correct quadrant of the green than on raw length, and pay attention to hole locations that tuck pins behind bunkers or slopes — a good yardage book or app will help more than it might elsewhere.