Drew Rogers to Renovate Pine Lake Country Club in Michigan


Architect Drew Rogers has just the luxury of viewing vintage aerial photography as he and course superintendent Terry Poley embark on the long-term improvement at Pine Lake Country Club in Orchard Lake, Mich.

Once known as the Automobile Club of Detroit. Willie Park Jr. laid out the original nine holes in 1919, the same year Edsel Ford was named president of Ford Motor Co., succeeding his father, Henry, one of the club's founding members.

"The story of this club is one of continual transformation and influence," said Rogers, who noted the club changed its name to Pine Lake CC in 1921; Park's back nine opened three years later. "To say the course has been 'tinkered with' since 1924 - well, that would be an understatement. Holes have been repositioned. Greens have radically changed shape. Holes have been re-bunkered and loads of trees planted. Today, it feels like you're playing three to four different golf courses out there.

"However, what the aerials make clear is that Pine Lake in the 1930s was still a superb, cohesive layout. My job is to refurbish the course to that high standard, while also creating a greater consistency of this vintage style and character. That's where the aerial photography is such a huge help.

"It gives me something to go on, in terms of hazard placement, for example. It confirms some of the observations I had already made about original shapes of certain greens, bunker placement, the alignment of fairways and the presence of vegetation, or lack thereof."

"I have a lot of respect for the knowledge Drew possesses on golf course architecture and design, and have much admired his work at Old Elm Club," said Poley, the superintendent at Pine Lake since 1996, having arrived from to two prestigious Michigan clubs, Oakland Hills and Point O'Woods. "With the leadership and vision Drew brings to this project, we will be able to restore Pine Lake's heritage as one of the finest golf courses in South East Michigan."

Originally founded by a group of like-minded automobile enthusiasts in 1902, the Automobile Club of Detroit included industry pioneers like John Dodge, Ransom Olds and Henry Ford. The friends and business competitors first encountered the property when they fled the city on weekends - in their cars, destined for an overnight camping spot on Pine Lake.

In 1905, the founders formally acquired the picturesque property. Eleven years later, the club changed its name to Automobile Country Club. By 1917, golf was introduced as Park had formally planned the course along the bluffs above Pine Lake.

Rogers has been studying the property and the aerial archives since 2012. He reports that the holes closest to the clubhouse today are not only Pine Lake's best, they are the ones which most resemble the Park holes featured in the old photos.

"That gives us a pretty good roadmap to follow, a solid base of understanding that we can use as a stylistic foundation," he said. "Our improvement plan at Pine Lake is more than mere design. We want to overcome challenges with drainage, bunker construction, turf health and address the clutter of trees that has grown up or been planted over the course of decades.

"Park was a master of the craft. His work here - in addition to places like Olympia Fields, Sunningdale and Maidstone - is worth preserving in any way we can. Our goal here is to mesh his legacy with the traditional design idiom in which I prefer to work."

Rogers' Toledo, Ohio-based JDR Design Group is also at work on a variety of other renovation projects:

• JDR is now directing comprehensive renovation programs at three modern clubs in Florida: Quail West and Royal Poinciana on the west coast, Mirasol on east coast.

• JDR's long association with the H.S. Colt-designed Old Elm Club in suburban Chicago continues in 2014 with completion of an extensive bunker restoration and a re-grassing of all 18 putting surfaces; at Spring Lake CC in Grand Haven, Mich., Rogers is plotting strategic improvements to a classic Tom Bendelow design.

For more information about Pine Lake, visit www.pinelakecc.com. For details about Drew Rogers, visit www.jdrewrogers.com.