Crystal Mountain’s Mountain Ridge golf course is beautiful in the fall
Bill Campbell of Ann Arbor sinks a birdie putt on the par-5 sixth on the Mountain Ridge course at Crystal Mountain in Thompsonville on Sept. 27, 2023.
The Michigan golf community lost a legend when Dave Kendall died recently at age 70 after a short battle with cancer.
Kendall was a Michigan Hall of Fame PGA teaching pro who founded the Kendall Academy at Miles of Golf in Ypsilanti, where he instructed thousands of players over decades. He was an accomplished competitive player himself and simply one of the nicest people in the golf business.
It isn’t hard to find any of the countless testimonials that came flooding in after he died Sept. 15. Since then, I’ve been thinking about how to honor Kendall, whom I’d gotten to know better over the last two years while playing Washtenaw Golf Club often.
Kendall was part owner of the par-72 public course in Ypsilanti and was instrumental in hiring his friend and architect Raymond Hearn in 2020 to restore the 1899 course.
Kendall and Hearn worked as partners to modernize the once-private course that had evolved significantly since it was laid out by Herbert Way, an English architect who was the first designer of Detroit Golf Club and Country Club of Detroit.
Hearn’s “sympathetic restoration” brought back some of Way’s earlier intentions with improved grass lines, collars and greens. He dug through Michigan State’s archives and found aerial photos from the 1930s that gave him a roadmap.
Everything got better. Hearn also reformed greens to reclaim old pin locations that gave Kendall a thrill about new strategic opportunities.
“Dave would say, ‘Oh, Ray, you’re giving me goosebumps,’” Hearn said. “And I said, ‘Dave, I just love this.’”
It’s a wonderful course that Kendall adored and that every golfer can’t help but like. So it struck me that the best way to honor Kendall’s memory would be to honor his living legacy, Washtenaw Golf Club, with a review. Here it is.
A thing of genius
One mark of a great course is when nearly every hole stands out. That’s the case with Washtenaw. The routing is a thing of genius, especially the beginning.
A short par 4 starts you off and gets the traffic moving off the first tee. Then it’s a long par 4, followed by a par 5 to get those muscles pumping. Suddenly, you hit the brakes with a short but tricky par 3.
I could write something about every hole at Washtenaw. But that would turn this into a “Moby Dick” tome nobody asked for. So I’ll keep it short and sweet and pick out my three favorite holes on each nine.
The front nine
No. 4: The first par 3 on the course isn’t long. It plays 148 yards from the white tees, but it usually plays one club longer. You don’t want to be short and land in the two front bunkers. But you also don’t want to be long on the deep green if the pin is up. It’s a beguiling hole that requires a lot more strategy than you might assume.
No. 5: This is a love/hate hole for me. I love it’s challenge but I hate myself when I screw it up – which isn’t hard to do. The fairway on the par 4 slopes left to right, which means you’ve got to hit a dead straight ball that favors the left side or hit a draw for righties. Even then, you’ll have a tough approach with a side-hill lie to a narrow green that’s guarded like Fort Knox. Be proud of a par and happy with a bogey.
No. 7: One of favorite holes and one of the most memorable in metro Detroit. This short par 4 kicks off what I would call a thrilling three-hole roller-coaster that ends the front nine. From an elevated tee, you choose between driver, 3-wood or hybrid in order to lay up short of the stream and pond. The green waits beyond the water, angled to your right, which puts a premium on your tee shot. It’s scenic, subtle and scary.
Pro tip: The bunker behind the green is so shallow that you can putt out of it. I’ve actually seen one lunatic do this several times.
The back nine
No. 12: This short, downhill par 3 haunts my dreams. Take one less club to account for the elevated tee. Then factor in the wind, which usually comes in from the right. Then pay attention to the pin. If it’s up, aim for the middle and spin it back. If it’s deep, aim for the middle and hope it doesn’t spin back too much on the strongly sloped green. How can such a short hole be so hard? There aren’t even any bunkers.
No. 18: I hate this hole so much, I kind of love it. Reminds me of some college relationships. This short par 4 requires a tee shot that feels like a field goal between trees at the end of the fairway. Don’t go too far or you’ll catch the hidden downslope and roll into the water at the end of the fairway. A good tee shot leaves you a mid-to-long iron approach to a deep green that’s hard to hold.
No. 15: I’m listing this one last because it’s my favorite. This short par 4 features a scenic tee shot over water. If the drive is struck well, you have a short iron in. During one round last year, I didn’t strike my drive well or the approach.
Dave was following our group and we’d been chatting during my misadventure on the hole. Before I hit my third shot, a pitch from 30 yards, Dave gave me a little tip. I clipped it just right and the ball nestled up to the hole for a kick-in par.
“That’s Kendall Academy coaching right there!” I yelled at my partners on the green, as Dave and I laughed.
I always think of Dave when I play Washtenaw, but I never think of him more than when I’m on the 15th hole trying to make something happen that I know would make him smile.
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on X @cmonarrez.
