Corridor of Fame golfer and former KitchenAid Senior PGA Champion visits the resort for a groundbreaking occasion
Benton Harbor, Mich. – Harbor Shores Resort, the Lake Michigan shoreline golf vacation spot with its Jack Nicklaus Signature Design golf course, just lately welcomed Corridor of Fame golfer and 2014 and 2015 KitchenAid Senior PGA Champion Colin Montgomerie to stroll the location, finalize his design of the brand new Wee Course, assist a fundraising occasion, and participate within the groundbreaking ceremony.
The five-acre, nine-hole pitch-and-putt Wee Course will open in 2026. The design will encompass holes measuring 60 yards or much less modeled after the 9 most iconic holes of the present Jack Nicklaus structure. That is the newest neighborhood amenity at Harbor Shores Golf Membership, offering one other distinctive, enjoyable golf attraction on the in style resort. Youngsters will play totally free, and youth programming might be a precedence.
“I’m very excited to be part of such an exquisite mission with the Harbor Shores Resort, a spot and people who I’m very shut with, and to collaborate with them to create an exquisite golf amenity that may positively impression the neighborhood,” mentioned Montgomerie. “Golf is a sport for all ages and generations. Programs just like the Wee Course will entice dad and mom who play golf and need to introduce their kids to the sport, and grandparents who won’t be capable of play 18 however can deliver their grandchildren alongside for 9 holes. Youngsters might be launched to golf by way of associates and convey alongside their dad and mom, who’ve but to attempt the sport. From my private expertise around the globe and particularly in Scotland, brief wee programs can deliver collectively communities and type a basis for the entire space.”
Montgomerie and the Harbor Shores Resort group walked the course web site, which is situated adjoining to the golf villas alongside the primary gap. The world-class course designer and his group labored on concepts for the course routing, landscaping plans, and the eighteen-hole placing inexperienced that may complement the Wee Course.
Whereas addressing the Harbor Shores group in the course of the fundraising occasion, Montgomerie mentioned:
“The Wee Course is already exceeding my expectations with how it’s all coming collectively on the 5 acres of land alongside the primary entrance to the golf course. This piece of land deserves this. Will probably be one other nice asset to the neighborhood and convey a wonderful panorama alongside the roadway for the neighborhood to take pleasure in.” It is going to even be an important complement to the Harbor Shores Golf Course, which, hole-by-hole, is among the biggest programs in America.”
Jeff Fettig, former chairman and CEO of Whirlpool Company and a number one contributor by way of the Fettig Household Basis, and the visionary behind this Harbor Shores enlargement, sees this amenity having a significant impression on the youth locally.
“We’re so excited to work with Colin to create this new Wee Course to have an excellent larger optimistic impression on our space youth.,” mentioned Fettig, “Once we developed Harbor Shores, our mission was all about being a catalyst within the Benton Harbor neighborhood for financial growth, recreation and tourism. This mission is about seeding the long run.”
The Wee Course may also be a major a part of rising the annual Whirlpool Group Charity Golf Occasion, which gives $3M+ in funding to the neighborhood’s youth by elevating cash for the Boys and Women Golf equipment of Benton Harbor, First Tee of Benton Harbor, First Robotics and the three native public college foundations of Benton Harbor, St. Joseph and Lakeshore
“The Whirlpool Basis is proud to assist this new family-focused amenity at Harbor Shores,” mentioned Pam Klyn, president of Whirlpool Basis. ”The mission of Whirlpool Basis is to enhance the standard of life within the communities the place Whirlpool Company operates. We’re excited that our native youth is not going to solely profit from the continuing programming on the Wee Course but additionally from the expansion alternatives this gives for our annual charity golf occasion, which has raised over $34 million and positively impacted greater than 10,000 native youth over the past 21 years.”
This newest neighborhood attraction has robust assist from Benton Harbor Mayor Marcus Muhammad. “The Wee Course might be one other testomony of the continuing dedication and collaboration of Whirlpool Company, Harbor Shores, and the Metropolis of Benton Harbor,” mentioned Muhammad. “This new growth will bolster our First Tee program, youth participation, and neighborhood engagement. As Mayor of Benton Harbor, I sit up for contributing to the success of the Wee Course.”
The Wee Course may also be supported by way of donations from Corewell Well being, one in all Michigan’s largest non-profit healthcare programs.
“We at Corewell Well being are thrilled to accomplice with Harbor Shores, the Whirlpool Basis, and the Fettig Basis on this progressive mission,” mentioned Soroya Pierre-VanArtsen, President of Corewell Well being Basis Southwest Michigan. “By bettering the inexperienced house in our neighborhood and making golf extra accessible to everybody, we’re not solely enhancing the fantastic thing about our environment but additionally creating alternatives for people who might not usually have entry to play. This initiative embodies our dedication to fostering a more healthy, extra inclusive neighborhood the place everybody can take pleasure in the advantages of out of doors recreation.”
The Wee Course and the 18-hole placing course, impressed by comparable sights at St. Andrews and Pinehurst, can have lighting, music, and meals and beverage to make it an important neighborhood gathering house. The brand new golf amenity is only one of many thrilling developments locally, together with an outside park alongside the canal on Riverview Drive and the continued enlargement of strolling and bike trails.
About Harbor Shores Resort
Harbor Shores Resort, the long-time web site of the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship (2012-2024), is the premier golf, resort, seaside vacation spot, and waterfront neighborhood in Southwest Michigan situated simply 90 minutes east of Chicago in Benton Harbor/St. Joseph, Michigan. Greater than 75 years in the past, Benton Harbor grew to become a booming industrial city. Throughout World Conflict II, world residence equipment chief Whirlpool Company reworked its crops and factories into F.D.R.’s arsenal of democracy, manufacturing parts for fighter planes. The city then advanced right into a vibrant manufacturing middle within the Fifties and 60s solely to see all of it disappear over the subsequent 20 years.
Harbor Shores and the event of the Jack Nicklaus Signature Design signaled a turning level in Benton Harbor’s historical past. Golf was the core part of the event on the shores of Lake Michigan and the Paw Paw River and stands as a exceptional testomony to a imaginative and prescient made doable by $900 million in strategic investments, a collective set of initiatives with collaborating neighborhood leaders and organizations, all led by the Whirlpool Basis and its benefactor Whirlpool Company.
The award-winning golf course winds by way of quite a lot of terrain together with wetlands, riverside and hardwood forest and gives beautiful views of Lake Michigan from lakeside holes. The 550-acre residential, golf, leisure and waterfront neighborhood options world-class facilities, together with a marina village and river stroll, city middle with eating places and outlets, well being and health middle, deep water marina, the four-star Inn at Harbor Shores lodge and spa, golf villas, miles of leisure trails and rivers, and acres of parks and inexperienced house. Go to www.harborshoresresort.com.
Press launch by: Kevin Frisch PR
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