Belvedere Golf Club celebrates 100Th Anniversary
Northern Michigan Classic William Watson Design is a celebration of the golden age of golf course architecture.
(Photo above: golfers, caddies and onlookers climb up the hills near the clubhouse during the 1946 or 1948 championship game.)
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Chaliva, Michigan–Belvedere Golf Clubthe iconic Michigan Northern Golf Course is known for its 40-time reception of Michigan amateur services, celebrating its 100Th Anniversary of 2025. Designed by William Watson, this historic layout embodies the golden age of architecture.
“It’s a very exciting time for Belvedere Golf Club, once again this year with a 100-year-old and hosting the prestigious and historic Michigan Amateur Championship,” said Tom Folliard, president of Belvedere Golf Club. “We are very proud of the history of Belvedere and the history of this William Watson Classic, some of the greatest players in the game.
In the summer of 1925, 10 members of the Belvedere Club (formerly the Charlevoix Home Association, who escaped along the summer season at Charlevoix Lake in 1878, decided it was time for the club to build its own golf course. When the site and course architect William Watson was retained to design the course, he chose Supernaw and Hooker on Marion Center Road. Farms’ Heights. The club was established and the course construction began. By 1926, the course had entered membership in a short period of time, with all 18 holes fully opening in 1927. Since the club opened, Belvedere has operated in the tradition of large courses in the British Isles. It remains a private club, but guests are welcomed and encouraged to play at certain times.
Scottish genius and student of Tom Morris, Sr.
Watson was born in 1860, just eight miles from St. Andrews. He attended St Andrews University and won several golf games in St Andrews. At that time, four-time open champion and golf pioneer Tom Morris Sr. was a St. Andrews professional at the time. He spent a lot of time talking to Watson about golf and course design.
Watson moved to the United States in 1898 and designed his first course, the Minikahda Club in Minneapolis. He then moved to California where golf flourishes and started a golf accessories company while working as a course architect. During this time, he spent the summer in Charlevoix, where the Chicago Club hired him as a golf professional at Charlevoix Golf Club.
By 1925, Watson’s reputation as a course architect earned him a national excellence and, along with some of the best designers of the time, George C., carved over 100 dishes throughout the United States, including the Olympic Club, the Olympia Fields and Harding Park.
The greatest course in America
In 1927, published by George C. Thomas American golf architecture, its strategies and architecture – Considered as the authority in all aspects of course design, green placement, architecture and golf. Thomas obtained the best image of the work from Watson. The book has three drawings of Belvedere holes (numbers 1, 11 and 16), and Watson considers his best examples in the new course.
All three of these three holes are decorated with green green and come with perfectly placed bunkers that punish wrong shots – the greens are surrounded by grass, severe frontiers and bunkers that collect rolling shots. See how No. 11 in the book builds superb green in the miniature canyon.
For Watson, No. 16 may be his championship achievement. The little green on the elevated requires one of the most accurate approach shots of golf. Watson intends to punish players who missed the perfect shot by placing three bunkers on the hills below the green.
Belvedere’s lost drawings bring back Watson’s green complex
In 2016, Watson discovered the original 1925 plan during the demolition of local buildings. These plans reveal how the green complex is bigger with more slopes around the edges.
Since 2001, Hepner Golf Design’s course architect Bruce Hepner has worked with Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf for a subtle renovation of Belvedere, using long-term blueprints to restore the green to its original size and shape. Watson’s restoration green is the best in the country.
“The drawings verified the contents of the field,” Hepner said. “You can see the outline of the green or the actual shape – the plateau is already far away. You can also see the green has been greatly reduced.”
Hepner said the breed sets the green apart, citing Watson accomplished three key things at Belvedere. First, he found great green attractions, with many kinds – some high on the ridges, some low on the hills, some small hills. For example, the first hole falls on the left, 16 holes on the right, and the twelfth hole falls. Second, the shape surrounding each green location makes each location unique.
“It’s a wonderful part: When you have a hillside green, you don’t want water to flow out of the green hillside,” Hepner said. “So he created drainage gases around each green location and used them in different ways to create interest and diversity to transfer water from the vegetables while also creating interesting outlines in plastic surgery. Each green has a unique personality.”
Where to play with great people
For a century, golf’s greatest player has left his mark on this historic court. Walter Hagen won the Great Lakes Open, which opened in Belvedere in 1929, and said No. 16 was the best fourth shot in the United States. Hall of Fame golfer and broadcaster Ken Venturi walked down to Belvedere on the recommendation of his close friend Gene Sarazan, who told him he had to watch and play the 16-year-old. Other champions play Belvedere, including Bobby Jones, Bobby Armor, Ben Hogan, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson, who spent a lake with his family, where they spent a nearby lake. “I like that country,” said the fifth-time British Open Champion. “We’re going to go for two weeks, then three months, then a month. I’m in college every summer.” Watson is an honorary member and still shows up almost every summer.
Michigan Amateur Returns 41Yingshi During the Centennial Celebration from June 17 to 21
Belvedere has long been the amateur structure of Michigan, the most prestigious champion of golf in Michigan. The Prime Minister’s Championship was first held in Belvedere in 1930, and legendary Michigan golfer Chuck Kocsis won the first tournament and won two championships. Belvedere became the permanent host of the tournament from 1963 to 1988, where some of Michigan Golf’s top names were crowned, including legendary Michigan player Dan Pohl (member of PGA Tour and Ryder Cup), who won the game twice.
Belvedere is one of the top pecan golf club websites in the United States.
Belvedere has hosted the National Hickory Golf Tournament since 2006 and has become one of the top pecan courses in the United States. The club hosted the U.S. Hickory Open in 2019, attracting an international golfer who competed with the 1935 Hickory Shaft Shaft Shaft Shaft Shaft Golf Clubs or could also play the Replica Hickory Club. In 2023, Belvedere hosted one of the world’s premier pecan club events, namely Hickory Grail. The Holy Grail of Hickory is a Ryder Cup-style event in which 14 of the most enthusiastic hickory players from the United States and Britain/Europe compete in the oldest international hickory competition in golf. Belvedere is the only club in the United States that has 44 authentic Hickory Club players.
Belvedere is ranked among the 100 greatest public courses in the United States for golf abstracts, the top 100 courses that golf magazine can take in the United States, and the top 200 classic courses at Golfweek.
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