Belvedere Golf Club

Belvedere Golf Club was founded in 1925 by members of the local summer-resort community near Charlevoix and completed for play by 1927. The design fell to Scottish-born William Willie Watson, then head professional at the nearby Chicago Club, whose broader portfolio included Interlachen and Olympic Club; crews reportedly built the eighteen holes using teams of horses and scores of laborers through two breezy valleys just south of town. The course became a Northern Michigan proving ground, hosting the Michigan Amateur Championship for twenty-six straight years from 1963 to 1988, longer than any other club in the state. Walter Hagen won the 1929 Great Lakes Open here and is said to have called its sixteenth the finest par-4 in America. Its firm, classic contours still draw admirers of hickory-era architecture.