OU to consider updating Katke-Cousins golf course

ROCHESTER HILLS — One of Oakland University’s two championship golf courses may soon be getting a facelift.

Last summer, the university hired landscape architect Christopher Wilczynski, of C.W. Golf Architecture, to develop a golf course architectural master plan for the 18-hole Katke-Cousins golf course.

An architectural master plan, Wilczynski said, is a concept plan — a vision.

“I describe it as a star on the horizon we are working toward,” he said.

The Katke-Cousins golf course is part of the Meadow Brook estate and sits adjacent to the farmhouse and nine-hole course once owned and maintained by American automobile manufacturing pioneer, John Dodge. After Dodge’s nine-hole course closed in 1919, university officials said it was over 50 years later when supporters Marvin Katke and Harold Cousins donated funds for the construction of a new 18-hole course, designed by Robert Beard in 1976.

Named for its benefactors, the Katke-Cousins course opened to the public in 1977 and university officials said it remains a highly regarded, and top-ranked course in Michigan.

“I think it’s important for any organization to have a plan for how they want to conduct their organization, and golf courses aren’t any different,” OU Golf and Learning Center General Manager Nick Pumford said of the plan.

Pumford explained that over time, it’s only natural for courses to change, as bunker edges and greens grow in and sightlines change, along with tree growth.

“The game of golf has gotten longer as well, so you kind of have to keep up with the modern day game,” Pumford added.

The game of golf is growing, he said, for both elite and recreational golfers.

Over the years, the OU course has held numerous professional and amateur tournaments — including the Hall Financial Michigan Open in 2023 and 2024, the GAM Tournament of Champions and GAM Senior Tournament of Champions in 2020, The Summit League Women’s Golf Championship in April 2009, and the first Ryder Cup Champions Invitational in September 2004, among others.

One of the obstacles in creating the plan, according to Wilczynski, was to design the course to be a challenge for both elite and recreational golfers — at the request of Pumford.

“I come from a high-level golf background — I still try to play some high-level golf — but I also want the course to be fun for the recreational golfer, which is 95% of the people that play out there,” Pumford said. “It doesn’t make sense to me to make a course extremely difficult and for people not to have fun. So far, what I’ve seen with his plan, he’s done a great job of blending the two.”

Wilczynski’s plan — which is expected to be presented to OU on March 11, along with a projected cost estimate — expands green sizes, improves sight lines, repositions bunkers, and adds additional forward tees, allowing all skill levels to enjoy the course.

“It’s just kind of in general just a facelift of what’s there, an enhancement, to try to bring it into current technology, as well as meet the needs of today’s golfer and the future golfer,” explained Wilczynski.

Following the presentation, Pumford said OU officials will discuss the proposed plan and make a decision on whether to move forward.

“As of right now, we don’t know if we are even going to execute the plan, some of the plan, all of the plan, or what that looks like — we’re still in that discovery phase in getting the plan from Chris. Regardless, I think it’s important to have a plan if we do decide to move forward in the future,” Pumford explained. “We’re still under the university umbrella, so it would have to go to a Board of Trustee approval for a project this size, but I’m excited for what that future could look like.”

Timing for the course improvement work will be determined once the vision and master plan is approved.