Greywalls - Marquette Golf Club (Marquette, MI) [revised]

#90 TOP 100 USA MODERN (GOLFWEEK)

#67 TOP 100 USA PUBLIC (GOLF DIGEST)

#65 TOP 100 USA PUBLIC (GOLF MAGAZINE)

#35 TOP 100 USA PUBLIC (GOLFWEEK)

I’d love to know who’s idea it was to build a golf course here. The property is so wild and rugged that only a visionary could see eighteen holes built on this land. There’s rock outcroppings, granite walls, box canyons, plunging drops, and a spectacular view that will take your breath away. I imagine it all started with a simple hike that turned into curiosity. That question turned into a resounding yes! And today, we play Greywalls! 

(The 579/545 yard par five opening hole has horizontal views that extend miles and miles across Lake Superior and it’s coastline. The tee shot is to a wide fairway that shouldn’t pose much trouble…

…things change starting on the second shot. A rock outcropping with a diving fairway play to a humpback green that is hard to hit in two shots. A reasonable second leaves a short pitch. A par is a fine start to the round.) 

(The 425/397 yard par four second hole crests over the hill and down to a green with a steep sideboard that will gather balls and send them onto the putting surface.)

When you pull into Marquette Golf Club, the Heritage course lines the road and plays alongside the clubhouse. It’s the par three course that plays over your head as you park in the back lot. After you pay for your round, the starter leads you to a shed and tells you to follow the green line on the path. It takes five minutes of driving to reach the first tee. It winds and twists it’s way past several holes, climbing up the escarpment with rocks and boulders all around. The excitement builds with every view, part astonishment, part fear. By time you reach the first tee, your neck is craning to take it all in. 

(The 425/379 yard par four fourth has a dramatic bilevel fairway. The upper left spills over to the lower right and it’s a blast watching your ball take the contours to see where it finishes up. An aggressive line down the far left side could propel to flip wedge range.) 

(The 312/290 yard par four fifth greets you with an uphill tee shot over a landscape of rock. The line of charm drags your eye to carry the outcropping…
…but it plays longer than it looks. (Thankfully my friend is left handed)…
…the green is nestled between rock outcroppings to the left and a sheer granite wall to the right. The back left corner is a prickly pin position that needs a spinning shot to hold the upper level…
…imagine a drive or even a pulled second shot finishing up here. Oh the mischievous spots one can find themselves in!) 

(The 188/178 yard par three sixth is awesome! Every publication has this view when describing Greywalls…

…the green slopes from back right to front left. The proper leave is below the hole. It is possible to putt off the green…
…looking back is just as spectacular as the view from the tee. Legend has it that there’s a secret tee atop the granite cliff on the right.)

(The 489/432 yard par four seventh has rock outcroppings, a bilevel fairway, and another great view. There’s room to drive it but the ball cannot carelessly wander or it can find itself in the rocks…
…the approach is to a humpback green with falloffs on every side. There’s a ramp short that will kick it on. It is very difficult to hit this in regulation…
…looking back reveals just how tumultuous the seventh is. Any short game shot is going to be difficult. A four is really a birdie in my opinion.) 

At Greywalls, it’s you verse the landscape. Mike Devries incorporated all the cool natural features in the design and it didn’t need many sand traps to challenge the player. In fact, eight holes are bunkerless. Many of the fairways are wide and the player has a lot of options to attack the hole. Most of the trouble revolves around the greens. There are no pedestrian recoveries and the greens have internal contouring that makes all the putts difficult. There are sideboards and backboards to use to your advantage but there are also crowned greens with false fronts to avoid. From the first tee shot on one to the last putt on eighteen, every shot is engaging. There is not one boring hole or a breather. Like a roller coaster at Cedar Point, every moment is a thrill! 

(The 389/360 yard par four ninth has the best view on the course, in my opinion. The green is slotted on a little ledge and the player who can turn his ball over off the tee will have just a pitch in.) 

(The 336/320 yard par four tenth has the niftiest green. The upper back right cascades a few levels to the front left. A bathtub feature in the middle right makes for an incredible pin position. Typically just a wedge, one must really visualize the shot he’s trying to hit.) 

(The 491/463 yard twelth is the longest par four on the course. The bunker in foreground is in play for those bouncing it on. This section is in a field and has traditional looking holes.) 

(The 240/202 yard par three fifteenth plays over a granite fissure to a green surrounded by rocks. The putting surface is angled with the green sloping high left to low right.)

(The 137/121 yard par three seventeenth has all sorts of ridges and bumps to tuck a pin position. A short iron penultimate hole is one of my favorites. Anything can happen!) 

(The 533 yard par five eighteenth is one of the coolest finishes you’ll play. It starts with a great view and plays to a plunging, bulbous fairway that gathers balls to the middle…
…the second shot can be any sort of lie to a wide field with a green in it. The hole plays 50-60 yards shorter than it’s listed yardage…

…this view looking back reveals the severity of the second shot. The green is like a pimple with the high point in the middle. Figuring out the slope and speed is the challenging part, especially from any significant distance. As you walk back to the cart, you’ll be chomping at the bit to go back to the first tee.) 

I’ve played Greywalls twice in the past three years, and it is such an amazing experience, just a unique golf course, that I’ve decided to bump it up one from my original write up in 2015. The Upper Peninsula, and Marquette in particular, takes a concerted effort to visit, but you’ll not be disappointed. I give Greywalls my first ever 9 (incredible)(plan a vacation around it). If Greywalls wasn’t so remote and had a longer golf season, it would be a top 20 public course in America.

 [Any trip to the Upper Peninsula would not be complete without kayaking the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. If you need to coax the wife or girlfriend to make the trip, this place will push her into your corner.]