ROCHESTER HILLS – Award-winning golf course architect Raymond Hearn, ASGCA, has been selected by Oakland University Golf and Learning Center to create a long-range Master Plan for its highly regarded original Katke-Cousins course.
“I am thrilled to have been selected by Oakland University to create a Master Plan for their outstanding course,” said Hearn, founder and president of Michigan-based Raymond Hearn Golf Course Designs Inc. “The Master Plan will focus significantly on their bunkers. My aim is to increase each hole’s strategy, shot value, playability and beauty while also addressing all maintenance considerations.”
Nick Pumford, General Manager and Associate Athletic Director for External Operations, said Hearn was selected largely because of his body of work.
“His reputation in Michigan and world-wide is impeccable and we’re honored to have him touch up our classic golf course and make Katke even better than it is,” he said. “He’s the best fit for what we have here, and he understands what we want to accomplish.”
Pumford said once master planning is complete and progresses through university channels a likely start of the bunker renovation would be in October of 2027.
“We have bunkers on the Katke course that are 20-years-old with drainage issues that make them hard to maintain,” he said. “That kick-started our conversation. It was do we replace the drainage and keep the infrastructure? Or, while doing construction, enhance the bunkers and the golf course at the same time? Outside a full renovation, bunkers are the biggest way to enhance a golf course, and Ray has accomplished the kind of things we want here for a number of other great golf courses.”
Golf Course Superintendent Connor McBride, who is starting his third golf season after working previously at Medinah Country Club in suburban Chicago while it had a golf course being renovated, said he is a big fan of Hearn’s work on courses throughout the Midwest.
“Some of us who are in our leadership group here have played the courses where he has worked and we see why he has a great track record not only in Michigan, but in Illinois and the Midwest,” he said. “Also, him having a turfgrass background and understanding maintenance as part of his design work, is great on my end, especially at a facility where we have a large property with 36 holes that have to be maintained.”
The Katke-Cousins course, which plays to a maximum 7,211 yards, is a traditional tree-lined parkland course with a championship pedigree having hosted multiple collegiate and high school tournaments as well as Golf Association of Michigan and Michigan Section PGA championships and qualifiers.
Michigan-based designer Bill Newcomb and Indiana-based architect Robert Beard collaborated on the Katke-Cousins course, which opened in 1977 and was partially built on a site that in the early 1900s was home to a nine-hole course.
The Katke-Cousins course is named for Marvin Katke, a supporter of Oakland University, and Harold Cousins, his next-door neighbor, who each donated funds for the construction of the course. The R&S Sharf Course is the facility’s other acclaimed layout.
Hearn, whose company is based in Holland, Mich., is celebrating three decades of creative golf architecture at over 150 projects around the world. He has won numerous industry awards, especially for renovation and restoration.
He also continues to design courses that draw rave reviews. His latest short course, Doon Brea Golf Club at The Highlands in Harbor Springs, and the championship course, The Cardinal at the Saint John’s Resort in Southeast Michigan near Detroit, as well as his restoration/renovation at Metedeconk National Golf Club in New Jersey have added to his notoriety and reputation for award-winning work. Golf Inc. Magazine has recognized him as one of the Highest Valued Golf Course Architects in the U.S.
“As a company we practice sympathetic restoration with conventional renovation and that fits with the Katke-Cousins course, which has long been highly regarded,” Hearn said. “I’m excited to work with a talented group at a place where the ancient glacier did a beautiful job as the land is spectacular and perfectly suited for golf.”
