Barton Hills Country Club

Barton Hills grew out of a Detroit Edison Company project on the Huron River. The company built Barton Dam in 1913, and its president, Alex Dow, acquired the land around the new reservoir for a demonstration farm, a park and a residential development. Dow's land manager, William Underdown, brought in the Olmsted Brothers firm, whose agent George Gibbs Jr. visited in 1915; the firm went on consulting on the development through the 1920s. The country club, founded by Dow, dates from 1917 (the club's own homepage says "Since 1919"), and The Cultural Landscape Foundation records that its first holes opened in 1919, with an expansion following in 1922 to which Donald Ross contributed. The USGA's history of the club states it plainly: the course was designed by Ross and opened for play in 1922. Restoration architect Kris Spence, writing in 2017, refers to Ross's plan for Barton Hills. The sources found do not say whether Ross visited the site. The club sits on the high ground above Barton Pond, and the routing is two returning nines, with the back nine crossing the steeper land.

Holes to Know

From the men's Black tees (7,112 yards) the course is par 71: 36 out at 3,644 yards and 35 in at 3,468. There are four par 3s (the 5th, 8th, 11th and 16th), eleven par 4s and three par 5s, two of them back to back at the 9th and 10th. The women's card from the same tees is par 73, with the 15th and 17th played as par 5s.

The 479-yard 3rd from the Black tees, stroke index 1 on the men's card, is the longest par 4. Its tee shot carries a pond that covers the first 110 yards or so, and the hole then turns left about 70 degrees at a corner roughly 300 yards out, around a solid tree line on the inside of the dogleg. Bunkers sit short of the roughly round green on both sides, with two more at its right side and back.

The 181-yard 5th from the Black tees is the shortest par 3. Nothing lies between tee and green, but six bunkers ring a green about 40 yards deep and 25 wide: two at the back corners, one on each side and two across the front. A 2026 Top100GolfCourses review describes the green as falling sharply from back right to front left, set diagonally to the line of play.

The 571-yard 9th from the Black tees is the longest hole and the first of the back-to-back par 5s. Bunkers line the right of the fairway at about 220 and 280 yards, trees line the left, and two bunkers flank the approach 30 to 40 yards short of a green with a raised plateau in its centre, the "top hat" restored in 2012. Maria McBride chipped in for eagle here in the final round of the 2026 U.S. Senior Women's Open.

The 342-yard 12th from the Black tees is the shortest par 4 and stroke index 18. A pond on the left from about 200 to 255 yards cuts into the fairway where the hole bends left, and the green, about 20 yards wide and 40 deep, has three bunkers down each side. Mark Saltzman's 2013 Golf Club Atlas tour set out the choice from the tee: lay up away from the water and approach over sand, or carry it and leave a wedge.

The 431-yard 18th from the Black tees runs straight back to the clubhouse. Three bunkers lie in a row across the fairway at about 150 to 160 yards, the hazard Top100GolfCourses singles out as the hole's visual test from the tee. More bunkers sit on either side further on and around the approach, and the approach rises to a green about 40 yards deep with a long bunker down its right side.

Ross's Design Here

The surviving record of Ross's intent here is thin, and the course a player meets has been rebuilt toward it. Kris Spence, a restoration architect who has worked on many Ross courses, counted nine bunkers behind greens on the Barton Hills plan, far more than on most Ross plans he had seen; today's aerials still show sand behind several greens, including the 3rd and 18th. The sources found do not tie any individual hole to Ross's drawing.

What is on the ground today follows the 2012 restoration. The greens were expanded back from the small circles they had shrunk to, and Kirk Dodge, a member writing on Golf Club Atlas in 2014, wrote that the expansions mean the 1st, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 13th, 14th, 16th and 18th greens "can now provide very, very interesting first putts." Several greens narrow toward the back or throw out arms for hole locations; Saltzman picked the 14th as the clearest example. Forum accounts describe a false front on the 13th green and a front ledge on the 16th that stops weak tee shots short. The double loop has a further option: a short return to the clubhouse after the 13th.

Historical Significance

Barton Hills has hosted three USGA championships. Grace Park won the 1998 U.S. Women's Amateur here, beating Jenny Chuasiriporn 7 and 6 in the final. In 2008 Joan Higgins won the U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur, beating Lynn Simmons 1 up and becoming the championship's oldest winner at 52. In announcing the 2026 U.S. Senior Women's Open, the USGA cited the club's "comprehensive and recently renovated facilities." That championship was played from August 20 to 23, 2026, on a course set up at par 72 and about 6,240 yards, and Maria McBride of Sweden won at 282, six under par, two strokes ahead of Annika Sorenstam.

The club has also been a regular state venue. The USGA's fact sheet lists Michigan women's amateurs in 1968, 1995 and 2006, Golf Association of Michigan men's amateurs in 1996, 2011, 2016, 2017 and 2024, and the 1961 Coffey Cadillac Pro-Am, in which Arnold Palmer and Gary Player played.

Changes Since Ross

Top100GolfCourses names William Diddel, Bill Newcomb and Arthur Hills as later remodelers; Michigan State University's list of Hills's work dates his remodel to 1983. Forum accounts add that five greens were altered in the early 1960s and that tree lines were planted in the 1970s after Dutch elm disease struck the property. By the 2000s, Dodge wrote, the greens had shrunk to circles roughly 40 to 50 percent of their restored size.

Ron Prichard led the restoration. According to Dodge, the club's superintendent carried out the green expansions between 2007 and September 2012 following Prichard's sketches, and the five greens altered in the 1960s were fully restored in 2012; shaper Joe Hancock reported working on the 15th and 16th in 2010. The USGA records that the 2012 work also added length. Tree removal followed in stages over five years, along with the loss of trees to the herbicide Imprelis, for which the club settled with DuPont. A 2026 Top100GolfCourses review credits later work to Tyler Rae and most recently to Andrew Green; no published account of its scope was found.

Uncertainties

• Ross's 1925 return: the listing's 1925 redesign date rests on the Donald Ross Society directory's "Remodel 1925" entry, which could not be opened here; no other source mentions a second Ross visit.

• Restoration dates: the USGA and Top100GolfCourses date Prichard's restoration to 2012; forum accounts show the work running from 2007 to 2012 with tree removal after it, and one contributor dated it 2014. This listing uses completed in 2012.

Sources & Notes

1. USGA, 8th U.S. Senior Women's Open fact sheet (2026), https://mediacenter.usga.org/download/2026+US+Senior+Womens+Open+Fact+Sheet.pdf - Ross design, opened 1922, founded by Alex Dow; 2012 Prichard restoration and added length; 1998 and 2008 USGA results; state and pro-am events; 2026 set-up.

2. USGA, "Barton Hills Country Club will be the site of the 2026 U.S. Senior Women's Open," April 2, 2025, reprinted by First Call Golf, https://www.firstcallgolf.com/industry-news/release/2025-04-02/barton-hills-country-club-will-be-the-site-of-the-2026-u-s-senior-womens-open - location, history, "recently renovated facilities" quote, Higgins's age record.

3. Ron Sirak for USGA, "McBride wins U.S. Senior Women's Open," August 24, 2026, reprinted by the Ladies European Tour, https://live-let.ocs-software.com/?p=213902 - 2026 result and McBride's eagle at the 9th; Wikipedia, "U.S. Senior Women's Open," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Senior_Women%27s_Open - result.

4. The Cultural Landscape Foundation, "Barton Hills," https://tclf.org/barton-hills - Barton Dam, Dow, Underdown, Olmsted Brothers and Gibbs; 1919 first holes and 1922 expansion with Ross.

5. National Park Service, "Barton Hills Maintenance Corporation," https://www.nps.gov/places/barton-hills-maintenance-corporation.htm - Olmsted planning of the community.

6. Top100GolfCourses, "Barton Hills," https://www.top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/barton-hills - 1917 founding; Diddel, Newcomb, Hills; 2012 Prichard restoration; the 18th's cross bunkers; USGA results.

7. Aaron VanKempen, Top100GolfCourses review, July 30, 2026, https://www.top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/barton-hills/reviews/47763 - Prichard, Rae and Green; the 5th green.

8. Mark Saltzman and others, "Barton Hills CC, Ann Arbor, MI (Ross w/Prichard restoration) - A Photo Tour!!," Golf Club Atlas, 2013-15, https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,57076.0.html - top hat on the 9th; the 12th and 14th; Kirk Dodge on green expansions 2007-12, five 1960s greens, 1970s tree lines, Imprelis; double loop with a 13th-hole return.

9. Sean Arble, "Blessed Barton Hills CC," Golf Club Atlas, 2017, https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,65034.0.html - site above Barton Pond; back nine terrain; false front on the 13th; rising approach on the 18th.

10. Steve Salmen and Joe Hancock, "Barton Hills CC Ann Arbor, Mi Pics," Golf Club Atlas, 2010, https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,46366.0.html - Hancock's 2010 work on the 15th and 16th.

11. Kris Spence, "Bunkering behind greens," Golf Club Atlas, April 25, 2017, https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,64377.25.html - nine bunkers behind greens on the Ross plan.

12. Michigan State University Libraries, "Arthur Hills Courses Remodeled by Location," https://golfarchitects.lib.msu.edu/hillsa/hillscrloca - Barton Hills remodel, 1983.

13. Parrett Windows & Doors, "Barton Hills Country Club," https://www.parrettwindows.com/portfolio-item/barton-hills-country-club/ - 1971 clubhouse renovation; 2021 dining and pool renovation.

14. Greens Visited scorecard, course-tour geometry (OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL, https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright) and hole aerials (USDA NAIP via USGS The National Map) - all pars, yardages, stroke indexes, shapes, hazards and green sizes.