Belvedere Golf Club, the iconic Northern Michigan golf course best known for hosting the Michigan Amateur 40 times, celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2025. Designed by William Watson, this historic layout exemplifies the golden age of architecture.
“This is a very exciting time for the Belvedere Golf Club, turning 100 and hosting the prestigious and historic Michigan Amateur Championship once again this year,” said Tom Folliard, Belvedere Golf Club President. “We are very proud of the history at Belvedere and how this William Watson classic has stood the test of time, hosting some of the greatest players in the game. From Hagen, Sarazen, and Jones to Hogan, Snead, Watson, and Nicklaus to everyday golfers, Belvedere has become a part of the fabric of Northern Michigan golf, attracting golf aficionados from all over the country.”
In the summer of 1925, 10 members of the Belvedere Club, formerly the Charlevoix Home Association, where six cottages were built in 1878 along Lake Charlevoix to serve as a summertime escape, decided it was time for the Club to build its own golf course. The highlands of the Supernaw and Hooker farms on Marion Center Road were selected as the site and course architect William Watson was retained to design the course. The club was formed, and course construction began. By 1926, the course was available for a short time to the membership, and all 18 holes were fully opened in 1927. Since the club’s opening, Belvedere has operated in the tradition of the great courses of the British Isles. It remains a private club but welcomes and encourages guests to play at select times.
The genius of the Scotsman and student of Old Tom Morris
Watson was born in 1860, just eight miles from St. Andrews. He attended St. Andrews University and won several golf tournaments at St. Andrews. Four-time Open Champion and golf pioneer Old Tom Morris was St. Andrews’ professional then. He spent a great deal of time talking golf and course design with Watson.
Watson moved to America in 1898 and designed his first course, the Minikahda Club, in Minneapolis. He then moved to California, where golf was booming, and started a golf accessories company while working as a course architect. During this time, he spent summers in Charlevoix, where the Chicago Club hired him to be the golf professional at Charlevoix Golf Club.
By 1925, Watson’s reputation as a course architect earned him national distinction, and some of the best designers of the time alongside George C. Thomas, Donald Ross, Bill Bell, Tom Bendelow. He had sculpted 100+ courses throughout America, including the Olympic Club, Olympia Fields, and Harding Park.
The Greatest Courses in America
In 1927, George C. Thomas published Golf Architecture in America, Its Strategy and Construction – and was considered the authority on course design, green placement, construction, and all aspects of golf. Thomas reached out to Watson for images of his best work. The book has three drawings of Belvedere holes— numbers 1, 11, and 16 — which Watson considered the finest examples of his work for the new course.
All three holes featured raised greens laced into hillsides with perfectly placed bunkers that penalized errant shots – with grassy hollows around the greens, severe fronts, and bunkers that collect roll-off shots. Number 11 is sighted in the book as how to build a masterful green in a miniature canyon.
For Watson, number 16 may have been his crowning achievement. A small, irregular green on a high shelf demanded one of golf’s most precise approach shots. Watson intended to double penalize the player who missed the perfect shot by placing three sand bunkers to the right and down the hill below the green.
The lost drawings of Belvedere bring back Watson’s green complexes
In 2016, Watson’s original 1925 plans were discovered during a local building demolition. The plans revealed how the green complexes used to be much larger with more slope around the edges.
Course architect Bruce Hepner of Hepner Golf Design, who had been working with Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf on subtle renovations of Belvedere since 2001, used the long-lost blueprints to restore the greens to their original size and shape. Watson’s restored greens are some of the finest in the country
“The drawings validated what was in the field,” says Hepner. “You could see the outlines or the actual shaping of the greens — the plateaus were out that far. You could also see that the greens had shrunk significantly.”
Hepner says the variety makes the greens unique, citing that Watson accomplished three key things at Belvedere. First, he found great green sites with plenty of variety—some are high up on ridges, some are low, and some are side hills. For instance, the first hole falls to the left, the 16th to the right, and the 12th falls away. Second, the shaping around each green site made each one unique.
“Here’s the brilliant part: When you have a hillside green, you don’t want the water coming off the hillside under the green,” says Hepner. “So, he created drainage swales around each green site and used them in different ways to create interest and variety to divert the water away from the greens while also creating interesting contours in the shaping. Every green has a distinctive personality.”
Where the greats have come to play
For a century, golf’s greatest players have left their mark on this historic course. Walter Hagen won the 1929 Great Lakes Open at Belvedere and said No. 16 was the best par 4 in America. Hall of Fame golfer and broadcaster Ken Venturi made his way to Belvedere on the recommendation of his close friend, Gene Sarazan, who told him he had to see and play 16. Other champions to play Belvedere included Bobby Jones, Tommy Armour, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson, who grew up vacationing with his family at nearby Walloon Lake. “I love that country up there,” says the five-time British Open champion. “We’d go for two weeks, then three, and then a month. I went up every summer through college.” An honorary member, Watson still shows up nearly every summer.
The Michigan Amateur returns for the 41st time during its centennial celebration June 17-21
Belvedere has long been part of the fabric of the Michigan Amateur, the most prestigious championship in Michigan golf. The premier tournament was first held at Belvedere in 1930, where legendary Michigan golfer Chuck Kocsis captured the inaugural event and won the championship two more times. Belvedere became the permanent host for the tournament from 1963 to 1988, where some of the top names in Michigan golf were crowned, including legendary Michigan player Dan Pohl (PGA Tour and Ryder Cup Member), who won the event twice.
Belvedere is one of the top hickory golf club sites in America.
Belvedere has hosted national hickory golf events since 2006 and has become one of America’s top hickory courses. The club hosted the U.S. Hickory Open in 2019, attracting an international field of golfers who play with authentic pre-1935 hickory shafted golf clubs or can also play replica hickory clubs. In 2023, Belvedere hosted one of the premier hickory club events in the world, The Hickory Grail. The Hickory Grail match is a Ryder Cup-style event in which 14 of the most passionate hickory players from the United States and Great Britain/Europe compete in the oldest international hickory match in golf. Belvedere is the only club in the U.S. to have 44 authentic hickory club players.
Belvedere is ranked among Golf Digest’s America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses, GOLF Magazine’s Top 100 Courses You Can Play in the U.S., and Golfweek’s Top 200 Classic Courses.
For more information, visit www.belvederegolfclub.com.
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