Distinctive pitch-and-putt course would be the newest golf attraction and amenity, positively impacting the subsequent era of golfers, resort friends, and the neighborhood
Benton Harbor, Mich. – Harbor Shores, the Lake Michigan shoreline golf vacation spot with its Jack Nicklaus Signature Design golf course, pronounces the opening of its subsequent golf attraction, the Wee Course. This new brief pitch-and-putt course, designed by Corridor of Fame golfer and 2014 and 2015 KitchenAid Senior PGA Champion, Colin Montgomerie, will open for restricted preview play Labor Day weekend. Youngsters will play free of charge, and youth programming will likely be a precedence.
“I’m thrilled to be a part of this particular venture with Harbor Shores, a spot and neighborhood I maintain near my coronary heart,” mentioned Montgomerie. “The Wee Course is greater than only a golf amenity—it’s a gathering place for each era. Having seen how brief programs carry individuals collectively all over the world, particularly in Scotland, I do know this course will create the identical sense of neighborhood right here. With 9 holes that may be performed in underneath an hour, resort friends, households, and youth will discover it a enjoyable, reasonably priced solution to spend time outdoor, away from screens, whereas studying the values and etiquette that make golf so particular. It’s an funding in each the sport and the neighborhood that may pay dividends for generations.”
Montgomerie designed the five-acre, nine-hole Wee Course with enjoyable in thoughts. The entire yardage ranges from simply 275 yards to 500 yards. It should encompass brief yardage holes from 20 yards as much as 80 yards or much less with inexperienced complexes modeled after the 9 most iconic holes of the present Jack Nicklaus format. This consists of the 7th gap that incorporates a miniature model of Nicklaus’s well-known 10th inexperienced, the positioning of one of many wildest putts ever made by him.
The Wee Course incorporates a mixture of two units of tee markers, permitting the choice to play 18 holes. The longer tees (blue) function extra angles and difficult pitch photographs or select the ahead tees (white) for shorter pitch photographs, excellent for teenagers and rookies. Golfers also can use a putter from the ahead tees on each gap, creating some thrilling photographs over slopes and hills on their solution to the flag. Taking part in a mixture of each units of tees also can supply a enjoyable {golfing} choice.
That is an thrilling new chapter for Harbor Shores and its continued dedication to the neighborhood, based on Joshua Doxtator, PGA Basic Supervisor for Harbor Shores.
“Rising the sport is on the coronary heart of what we do and making the sport reasonably priced and accessible for all is the true imaginative and prescient behind the Wee Course,” mentioned Doxtator. “The thrill and anticipation locally has been electrical. From novice to expert gamers, the Wee Course supplies leisure worth by no means seen earlier than in SW Michigan. Colin has been distinctive to work with, and his understanding of neighborhood influence has been designed into all the venture.”
The Wee Course can be complemented by the brand new 18-hole Highlands Greens Placing Course. Impressed by related sights at St. Andrews and Pinehurst, this enjoyable 15,000 sq. foot placing attraction and Wee Course can have lighting, music, and meals and beverage with Monty’s Place, the place hearth pits, and informal seating for as much as 60 make it a terrific neighborhood gathering house.
The Wee Course pricing will begin at $30 for 9 holes, $40 for 18 holes and $50 for all-day entry, which is able to embody the placing course. Youngsters underneath 12 with an grownup will likely be complimentary, and juniors ages 13-17 are $20 with an grownup. Season passes may also be obtainable.
Jeff Fettig, former chairman and CEO of Whirlpool Company and a number one contributor by the Fettig Household Basis, and the visionary behind this Harbor Shores enlargement, sees this amenity having a significant influence on the youth locally.
“The opening of the Wee Course is one other milestone in our mission to make Harbor Shores a real catalyst for neighborhood development,” mentioned Fettig. “This venture is about greater than golf—it’s about inspiring the subsequent era. With assist for applications like First Tee Benton Harbor and the Boys and Women Golf equipment, First Robotics, in addition to our three native public-school foundations, we’re creating a spot the place space youth can study, develop, and expertise the sport in a enjoyable and accessible manner. The design, with a number of tee choices and lighting for night play, ensures this course will likely be a gathering place for households, associates, resort friends, and all the neighborhood. We couldn’t be extra excited in regards to the influence it would have, each immediately and in seeding the long run.”
This new family-focused amenity at Harbor Shores obtained assist from a number of company sponsors, together with the Whirlpool Basis, Corewell Well being Lakeland Hospital, Indiana Michigan Energy’s Prepare dinner Plant Basis, and United Federal Credit score Union, in addition to quite a lot of particular person donors. The Wee Course emphasizes youth programming and builds on the success of the annual Whirlpool Neighborhood Charity Golf Occasion. This occasion supplies $3M+ in funding yearly to neighborhood youth. Over its 22-year historical past, this occasion has raised over $37 million and positively impacts greater than 10,000 native youth every year.
Doxtator has seen firsthand the unimaginable assist from the neighborhood and is happy to share the Wee Course with each golf lovers and non-players. “Our capability to proceed to develop the sport has expanded tenfold. Via progressive programming and particular occasions like placing leagues, junior leagues, blended and late-night leagues, the Wee Course can have one thing to supply everybody.”
This new golf amenity is only one of many thrilling developments locally, together with an out of doors park alongside the canal on Riverview Drive and the continued enlargement of strolling and bike trails
About Harbor Shores
Harbor Shores, the long-time website 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 turned a booming industrial city. Throughout World Struggle II, world house equipment chief Whirlpool Company remodeled its crops and factories into F.D.R.’s arsenal of democracy, manufacturing parts for fighter planes. The city then developed right into a vibrant manufacturing heart 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 and the brand new Wee Course continues to influence the Benton Harbor neighborhood. Golf has at all times been the core element of the event on the shores of Lake Michigan and the Paw Paw River and stands as a outstanding testomony to a imaginative and prescient made doable by $900 million in strategic investments, a collective set of tasks with collaborating neighborhood leaders and organizations, all led by the Whirlpool Basis and its benefactor Whirlpool Company.
The award-winning Harbor Shores golf course winds by quite a lot of terrain together with wetlands, riverside and hardwood forest and affords 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 heart with eating places and retailers, well being and health heart, deep water marina, the four-star Inn at Harbor Shores resort and spa, golf villas, miles of leisure trails and rivers, and acres of parks and inexperienced house. Go to www.harborshoresresort.com.
Media Contacts: Harbor Shores – Joshua Doxtator PGA, Basic Supervisor Ph# (269) 927-4653 e mail: jdoxtator@harborshoresresort.
Press launch by: Kevin Frisch PR
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