Indianwood Golf and CC looking to host more big-time tournaments with PGA Pro Ryan Reynolds
Indianwood has long been a player in big-time golf in Lake Orion, Michigan. Host of the 1989 and 1994 Women’s US Opens and doing the same for the men in 2012, we have not heard a lot about big-time golf returning to the Scotish Old Course. PGA Pro. Ryan Reynolds said the club is largely the same as it was 100 years ago but has added some new tees and other amenities to keep up with the modern game. Reynolds said to look for some announcements in the future. The Double Eagle Podcast has plenty of video and archival footage to help inform this Zoom/podcast.
This is Roy J. Acres with you from the Double Eagle Golf podcast, also Sky Viewports.net studios. I’m with uh Ryan Reynolds. And Ryan, you are the head professional at Indianwood Golf and Country Club up there in Lake Orian, Michigan. You got yourself quite a gig, my friend. Oh, absolutely, man. We’ve got a great spot up here in Lake Oran. um one of the more unique spots here in Michigan. You know, uh I I would think that it’s just us and Oakland Hills that have hosted USGA Open Championships. So, I mean, that’s that’s pretty neat. Yeah, it is. It is pretty neat. And you have hosted some big-time tournaments. We’re going to kind of circle back to those uh pretty pretty soon. Um, yeah, Indianwood is uh obviously synonymous with great golf and of course with your the old, I guess, Scottish style course and that it’s it’s been quite a tournament uh tournaments that you’ve held up there in the past. Uh Ryan, uh you’re a PGA professional. You’ve been u at a couple different places before you found your dream job. Um what um what do you think prepared you to get this job at Lake Oran? Was there a certain experience, a certain place that you were at or I think it’s it I think it’s always always the experience and the um other golf professionals you’re able to work work with and work underneath. Um you know, I I did have a great great time working at Pine Lake with Paul Leonard. He was a great golf professional. um he really helped me out a lot and let me spread my wings and kind of uh kind of get going and and really take on some tasks and really show me the direction to go. Um also worked with a great prof he’s also a Michigan native uh Dennis Nickel at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club in Myrtle Beach. Oh yeah, he’s the director of golf down there and I worked under him for uh for quite some time when I was finishing up at Coastal Carolina and uh that was a great great opportunity as well and and kind of kind of showed me what to do at a facility that’s is busy and is uh is popular here like Indian what Dunes is doing a similar product you know two two double T’s a day so they were pushing them through there all the time um you know we’re a busy facility uh up here it’s fantastic all sorts of fun events Now we’ve got Matthew Burroughs who just came in from Wingedfoot. So I mean great things are happening up here. They’re going to continue to be just just pushing the envelope and and moving the needle up here. Well, that it sounds outstanding. You know, taking a look at this uh club. I mean, it’s not just a golf, but I mean, with all the swimming, with all the uh weddings and all that, everything that’s going on, a lot of country clubs do that, but you have a very unique property. I mean, this this club is just over 100 years old. I think it’s what, 1912 or 1918, I’m not sure. 1925. 1925. Oh, yep. We’re celebrating our centennial right now. Oh, well, there you have it. I thought I saw something else on the but you would know. And uh but anyway, it’s just a fantastic place. Uh the first time I had ever stepped foot at Indianwood was during the senior US Open. Uh and at that particular one, I believe it was Olan Brown. Uh he actually went out to the 18th hole and I got some video for the Oakland Press and when he showed how he played it and into that huge uh green that’s as big as a subdivision there. Oh yeah. And uh, of course he hit the green and uh, he uh, rolled in a power putt on that one and it was it was fantastic. And after going around and playing all 18 holes of that course, the old course, what a fantastic experience that your members have and of course uh, you know that, but u, what do you like so much about experiencing Indian wood so far? It’s one of those golf courses that just fits the land so well. Um, not that many golf courses are are just made for the land. We have a lot of great architects who are able to put golf courses in spots, but this one just fits the land so well. It’s just so unique. And I mean, everyone everyone talks about it. Everyone knows those feels. Um, we actually just had Roger Chapman back, the winner of the 2012 US Senior Open. he was here this year and just seeing similar things that there’s not, you know, a lot of people can design a great golf course, but something that fits the land so well, it doesn’t happen every day. One of the also unique things is we’ve never rebuilt these greens. These are the original 1925 greens here. Um, you know, that’s the new thing around uh all the clubs, at least here in Metro Detroit. I know in the Midwest, you got to blow them up. You got to put all these new greens in. You got to rip out all these trees. Uh we are pretty similar here to what you would have found back in 1925. Yeah, that uh is a unique experience. I know Oakland Hills in particular, I know that they want to be on the rotation for the USGAA for all their events. And I think one of the things that they had to do was that didn’t they had to put something to to get rid of the moisture under the greens and all that. So they kind of had to rip stuff out, get out the architecture from the Donald Ross and kind of build, you know, so that they could have the moisture, you know, go off the greens so if they had 30,000 fans there, they weren’t trampling mud all over the place and then they put everything back. But in your case, that hasn’t happened. You got the original ones. Yeah. Yeah. We don’t have to we don’t have to do things like that. It’s very, very cool. Um, like I said, the original 1925 green complexes are still here. A lot of the TE’s are in the same spots that they were, although we’re adding a bunch of new TE’s. Uh, adding some distance, taking away some distance for we’re adding some senior TE’s, some new ladies TE’s. Really making the golf course more playable for everyone. And, uh, still, it’s the old course. It’s challenging. If you don’t have a six or eight foot putt out here, you’re going to have you’re going to have trouble. and our new superintendent’s doing some really neat thing with things with the greens, some of the surrounding areas of the greens, uh shaving shaving them down, implementing some different areas. And then you’ll you’ll have to have some different shots around here. Yeah. Taking a look at some of the US Opens that were played for both the women uh and the men. Uh uh h how is the distance? Is it held up over this period of time or is it just the women that’ll come back and play US Open? I mean, are you are you guys ever going to bid on that again or We’ve got some we’ve got some things in the uh up our sleeves here, but uh the the distance on the old course, the beauty of it is, you know, uh the wind every day changes the golf course every day. So, sure, if it’s calm and it’s rained a little bit, it’s soft, it it’s it’s getable, but uh generally that is rarely the case. Um, we’re playing firm and fast. We’ve got some wind and with these small undulated greens, I mean, you plenty of a challenge for any any level of player. And yeah, so basically you’re uh you you’re uh saying, if I’m understanding you right, is that if you you’re not going to tell me what your plans are. I get that. I I but you it is possible that you could host a big men’s or women’s tournament whether a state level or PGA or LPGA type event. Oh, absolutely. Without a doubt. Well, I’m really glad to hear that and I think fans all over Oakland County and all over the Midwest and even all over the world would love to have that because when people come out and get that Scottish feel at a course and walk it and kind of imagine some of the greats in the game that have played it. I mean, even in Michigan, you had what Chick Harbert, El Wattress, um you all kinds of players have out there. some of the the who’s who and the great players that have been out to uh to play this course and of course amongst the women the same thing and uh what are uh some of the compliments you’ve heard you you heard we heard about what you said about Roger Chapman have you had any other professionals come out uh since you started and kind of bragging probably what’s that yeah absolutely this is this is a pretty big week coming up generally here with the allied challenge um we normally have some some players There are some senior tour players or champions tour players swing in. Um last year Woody Austin was out, John Dalyy’s been out here numerous times. You always have Gillis out here. Um and a lot of the ladies when they’re when they’re in the area for the Meyer or the DAO, uh they swing by. They they know Indianwood and they want to come and play it. So, uh Britney Lindicum’s been out here. We we see we see tour players all the time. Well, that’s fantastic. Yeah, I talked to Britney a few months ago before the Meyer tournament and uh they had a media day and she represented the LPGA. Yeah, that’s that’s great to hear. I will be covering the Ally Challenge next week and uh you know the players uh they love playing out there at Warwick Hills, but they also have a taste of a great golf course out in Indianwood and of course uh you and the staff and the Aldrich family are tremendous host. So that that’s a great thing to to have out there. Um, so we talked a little bit you are looking at doing some future tournaments and you’ve won all kinds of awards uh not only for the golf course but for being a great country club and so for um people that are look look you know country clubs are they do recruit people I think you can say here and there but what is a couple of the selling points for someone that wants to come out and say hey you know what Indianwood country club I’ve heard a lot of great things about that place why should I make that call or make that that introduction I would say well not we got great golf courses. Everyone knows that. Sure. But the Aldridge family and the membership here has made it somewhere that’s just different than everywhere else. It’s special. We are a golfer golf course and a golfers golf club. We have a high golfing IQ here with this membership. Everyone plays with everyone too. Many of the clubs that I’ve been at before, we would be sitting at a t-shirt to Bill can’t play with Jim. You know, Jim can’t play with Sam. Here we get, hey, I I play with these guys all the time. Can you put me up with someone else? It’s It’s just a different atmosphere here. It is very unique and very special. Um, high handicaps with low handicaps, and everyone’s out there heckling people on 9 and 18 from our great uh grill room down there. So, uh it’s a fantastic spot to be a member at and and just so many great friendships are are uh created here. Yeah, I think uh you you made a very valuable point about certain people can’t play with certain people or they always play with the same people all the time. They they have those two or three friends and they don’t want to change and it’s kind of shows you that you have a good healthy country club when u or club whatever you want to whatever you want to say uh and where people will play with other members and you can interchange and all that but you know that that’s a very healthy uh you know what you got going there. Um it’s fantastic. We get we have probably 20 plus membership 20 plus handicap members here at the club and they play with twelves, 15s, 20s just as much as they play with uh the other plus guys. So yeah, it’s a great group of uh great group of members out here. Uh I I’m going to finish up. I want to ask this particular question. I understand you played a little earlier this summer and you had a top uh finish. Was it at the Bushnell uh PGA event? Uh tell us a little bit about that because it sounds like you still like to swing them. You don’t just sit back in the pro shop. You get out there. Well, I think that was that must have been from a couple of years ago. I haven’t been able to get out too much too much this year. Um but I I try to get out as much as I can. Um I’ve got two little boys, Scotland and Palmer, and uh we get out there as much as we can and try to enjoy the golf course. Uh and uh I’ll I’ll be getting my my game back in order here. and hopefully put some nice uh finishes together in the coming years in the in some section events and see what I can do. All right. Uh I Well, I would like to come out and drone. We talked about that. We’re going to do a little feature, you know, so we can put some B-roll behind what we’ve just talked about. But what brag on a couple of the holes that you got and I’ll get you out there for the drone part later on, but just what is the quintessential golf hole that the you know, you want to talk signature hole. I guess if you want you can give us one or two holes that just blow people away when they play it. There’s just so many different spots out here. Um, I think the whole combination that 6, seven, and eight right now, uh, Matt’s doing a really neat job of of bringing all those holes together. So, there’s actually like a giant fairway out there. Um, so it’s very cool with just some bunkers that are in play for both holes. Uh, it’s it’s changing a lot. If you haven’t been out here lately, that’s that’s certainly one of the highlights and it’s just going to get even more and more interesting. And that the the thing that people don’t understand too about right right when you’re on the tea on number six 50 yards to the right of that is Lake Orient. Um so it’s really cool. Sometimes you can hear hear the water going and it’s you just don’t realize how truly close you are to the water there. And then of course we’ve got 18 uh the best natural amphitheater maybe in golf. um giant clubhouse behind there and as you stated before a a green the size of a subdivision. It’s there’s nothing like it when we do our um our big Piper Invitational here on the closing. We’re down there on the green doing the ceremony. There’s almost 800 people around you. Uh it’s just quite quite a special place. There’s nothing like it. That is awesome. We are am we are looking forward to coming out and droning three holes. We’ll let you make the choice on on on what you want to do, but we want to show off Indianwood Country Club as best as we can to let our audience know so that those that do watch some of the drone videos and go, “Wow, I we definitely got to uh figure out a way to get on that course.” I’ll let them deal with you on that one. But uh we have Ryan Reynolds, PGA Professional, Indianwood Country Club, the home of US Opens for both the women and the men and great amateur tournaments, great junior tournaments. You guys are really involved in the Michigan golf community. Thank you, Ryan. Hey, thank you.
