Charlevoix, Mich. is blessed with many things – with the great blue waters of Lake Michigan and the equally blue, if not as “great” waters of sparkling Lake Charlevoix. The two are joined by the natural harbor of Round Lake. These form the life of Charlevoix, the center of its natural beauty that 3,000 year-round residents share with thousands more vacationers and summer residents who have are drawn to the area, its parks, beaches and boating. Six years after Charlevoix’s founding in 1871, the Belevedere Club was established as a private resort area whose wealthy residents decided in 1925 to hire Scotsman Willie Watson to build for them a golf course.
Watson, whose other creations include the Olympic Club and Harding Park, employed five teams of horses and 150 men to route 18 holes through valleys just south of town. The resulting 6,700 yards include lovely, albeit subtle, greens – many with slopes that fall away to chipping areas. The fairways are wide and generous, a creek traverses three holes on the front. Played from the white tees, for the hickory golfer, the course plays to just over 6,100 yards.
The course quickly became know for its challenges and its beauty and has been host to nearly 40 Michigan Amateurs, Chuck Kocsis winning at the club in 1938 at age 17. He still holds the course record of 64. All the greats have come here – Walter Hagen and Tommy Armour battling for the Great Lakes Open title; Bobby Jones, Gene Sarazen, Horton Smith, Leo Diegel, Denny Shute, Jock Hutchinson, Sam Snead and Ken Venturi have played here. Perhaps the most beloved figure here, though, is Tom Watson, whose family were summer residents at nearby Walloon Lake. Watson played the course nearly every summer through college, he recalls. Look down the row of lockers in the modest locker room and you will see one with a label for T. Watson, kept ever ready should the 5-time British Open winner decide on a trip to Charlevoix.
Hole 1 – Belvedere Golf Club
The first hole, a 354-yard (white tees) par 4, drops perhaps 100 feet or more to the valley floor, but from the tee, the highest point on the course, one can survey the tests to come as well as the matchless beauty into which he will descend in that lovely valley. The par 3 fourth, 190 yards, requires a precision shot to a green slightly raised and with undulations that demand a careful reading. The 6th, a dogleg right 354-yard par 4 will test you. Can you cut off a bit of the dogleg? It will require a long and accurate tee shot. You’ll want at least to be in the fairway because the second shot is uphill to one of the Belvedere’s most challenging greens. (One hopes that Marty is kind with his pin placements here.) The ninth hole brings you home with plenty of room for a heroic drive, but with fairway bunkers that will keep you honest.
Hole 6 – Belvedere Golf Club
The back nine opens with a 500-yard par 5 down a gently sloping fairway. The golfer who has warmed up into his game can place a good drive here, opening up a nice brassie for his second. The 11th comes back the other way, leading to a smallish green perched in a hillside that wants an accurate approach shot. The following stretch of holes lead one through rolling land and lovely holes to a very interesting par 5 15th.
Hole 15 – Belvedere Golf Club
Playing at 440 yards, the 15th demands an accurate tee shot that avoids a sentinel fairway bunker on the right, perched just in front of an 80-foot drop-off to the fairway below, a fairway that that angles nearly 90 degrees to the right below the hill. Long hitters with modern metal go for it. Hickory players are content to place a shot to the left of the bunker, leaving themselves a long iron or brassie to a green guarded by bunkers on either side. Having come away with a par, the hickory player faces one of the finest par 4s on any course. At 321 yards, the hole is straightforward to a hillside green with a severe drop off on the right. Careless putts to a right hand pin often wind up far below the green. Though not long, at 166 yard, the par-3 17th requires careful approach as anything to the left will wind up far below the sloping hill on that side. The 18th brings us home with well placed drives and seconds to a tricky green with large mounds and slopes.
All in all, the Belvedere is one of the most lovely of courses with honest golf challenges for golfers of all skills. The hickory player in particular will appreciate both the course and its history as it is near impossible to walk these valleys and not feel the presence of the past greats who came here to enjoy one of the most beautiful settings for golf in all of the U.S.
JD
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