Bloomfield Township — When you walk through the doors at the main entrance of Oakland Hills Country Club’s new clubhouse for the first time, you can’t shake the feeling that you’ve been here before.
What the membership at one of the most acclaimed golf clubs in the world has built is definitely a blast from the past, but also a clubhouse for the future. It’s a near-perfect replica of the 100-year-old clubhouse that was lost in the devastating February 2022 fire, but it’s also a clubhouse that’s been upgraded with modern amenities and infrastructure that beautifully and majestically anchors the vast, well-to-do hallowed grounds south of Maple and east of Telegraph, as they prepare to host a slew of the sport’s biggest championships over the coming decades.
Oakland Hills’ new clubhouse officially opened with three seatings for bunch on Easter Sunday — it has risen, as members promised before all of the smoke had even subsided four-plus years ago — and it was shown off to local and national press during a guided tour Monday evening.
“We didn’t just lose a building, we lost a familiar setting for life’s milestones. It was a backdrop of friendships, traditions, celebrations and quiet, everyday moments that made this club feel like home,” said Marc Ray, Oakland Hills’ general manager. “But what we did not lose and what could never be taken was the spirit of this club, the people, the community, the shared belief that Oakland Hills is something far greater than brick and stone.
“Today, what stands behind me is new,” Ray added Monday, “but what it represents is timeless.”
How much did the new Oakland Hills clubhouse cost?
Oakland Hills’ old clubhouse — which opened in 1922 and was 90,000 square feet of history that hosted some of the area and nation’s most influential movers and shakers, practically all of golf’s legends, celebrity members (and their celebrity non-member guests) and even multiple presidents of the United States — was destroyed in a Feb. 17, 2022, fire, caused by a propane torch being used by construction workers on a project on the veranda patio.
Ground was broken on the new clubhouse in December 2023, and building construction began in July 2024. The 110,000-square-foot project was completed on schedule and at a cost of more than $100 million being paid, over the original budget of about $80 million. It’s being paid in large part by an insurance payout and by increased dues approved by a majority vote of the private-club membership, which has more than 500 full stockholders.
The clubhouse opened after Oakland Hills hosted its last marquee championship, the 2024 U.S. Junior Amateur, which utilized a temporary tented clubhouse structure located north of the first tee. Oakland Hills was given a choice whether to back out of that tournament, but it went forward with the 264-player event, marked by the presence of Tiger Woods — son Charlie was playing in the event — and won by Trevor Gutschewski, whose celebratory shadow box of memorabilia in the hallway off the main foyer is one of few things that feels new.
The permanent clubhouse, occupying the same footprint as the old one, just behind the first and 10th tees and ninth and 18th greens, has opened before Oakland Hills hosts its next — and best — championships, including the United States Golf Association’s U.S. Open in 2034 and 2051 and U.S. Women’s Open in 2031 and 2042.
The USGA awarded Oakland Hills the U.S. Opens barely a month after the 2022 fire, during an announcement that had to be moved to the Detroit Athletic Club, where John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s chief championships officer, declared, “From ashes will come triumph.”
“This is truly a world-class facility,” said Mark Hill, managing director of championships for the USGA. “When we conduct our future championships here, certainly your golf course will be a key focus for the week, but what you’ve built here will enable us to celebrate our championships off the golf course and in exemplary ways.”
Oakland Hills’ relationship with the USGA dates to 1924, when the club hosted its first of six U.S. Opens. It also has hosted three PGA Championships, two U.S. Senior Opens, two U.S. Amateurs, a U.S. Women’s Amateur and a Ryder Cup. A trophy case at the top of the main staircase on the second floor displays the replica USGA trophies saved during the fire by quick-acting firefighters and club staff members, and since restored.
What was saved in the Oakland Hills clubhouse fire?
The club’s champions include the likes of Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Gene Littler, as well as Team Europe from the 2004 Ryder Cup. Each champion is celebrated in first- and second-floor hallways, with 24 shadowboxes, including one for each winner (as well as empty ones for future USGA championships), that feature memorabilia from the tournaments, including golf bags, golf clubs, golf balls and other mementos, including golf shoes from Palmer, Nicklaus, Player and Hogan. Hogan’s display case has his tie and signature cap.
Some of the memorabilia was salvaged during the fire; some of it was not. Michael G. Costello, the club’s president, said about 10 very important artifacts were lost in the fire, though he didn’t specify which items, other than to say they were located on the second floor. Costello said several of the club’s former champions reached out to provide replacement items, including Nicklaus, Player and the estates of Palmer and Littler. Additional replacements were found at auction by the club’s Heritage Committee.
There are golf pins from many of the championships, scorecards, ball markers, money clips, hats, player ID badges, tournament tickets, caddie bibs, Palmer’s honorary membership bag tag, and photos and artwork galore. There are more than 450 framed pieces, including clubhouse blueprints, new and old, and original stock certificates.
“There is no better single collection that captures the breadth and depth of American golf history,” said Dr. Andrew Mutch, who worked with the club’s Heritage Committee in building the display cases. (Curtis Luck’s case even has a University of Michigan putter cover, belonging to Nick Carlson, who made a Cinderella run to the semifinals of the 2016 U.S. Amateur, the last marquee championship hosted by the club prior to the fire.)
What’s new in the new Oakland Hills clubhouse?
Like the club has stayed true to original course architect Donald Ross’ vision — particularly with a massive, $12.1 million restoration projected on the famed South Course by Gil Hanse that was completed in 2021, months before the fire — the club, with its new clubhouse, stayed true to the original architect Howard C. Crane’s 1921 blueprints. It is not, however, an exact replica. The grand ballroom is now on the second floor, moved from the first. The women’s locker room has been expanded. The men’s locker room is two stores. There are four new second-floor balconies that provide panoramic views of the South Course. There’s more outdoor seating.
There’s even a reshaped pro shop, with merch that even got a reboot, with a slightly tweaked Oakland Hills logo, as well as new swag featuring a green dragon-like logo — a nod to an old New York World-Telegram cartoon that paid homage to the 1951 U.S. Open, when Hogan famously said he brought “this Monster to its knees.” This is the 75th anniversary of that championship. There also is a new maintenance facility, a new lifestyles building, more caddie and administrative space, additional kitchens and lounges, a cigar room and more.
But much of the clubhouse feels familiar, from the fixtures to the floorings. There is marble and mahogany and brass — and even some open steel — as far as the eyes can see. There’s even that traditional green wallpaper.
And on the east side of the building, facing the South Course, there is the most familiar site of all — the 10 tall, white, wood pillars off the veranda, visible from nearly everywhere on the property south of Maple. Each of them stand 30 feet tall or more, and once again are the defining features of one of golf’s great cathedrals, where there is so much history and there’s so much future — and, not by accident, it’s tough to tell the difference.
“Today is not just a reopening,” said Ray, general manager at Oakland Hills, which in Golf Digest’s latest rankings of the top 100 courses in America sees the South Course at No. 20 — second in the state, behind only Frankfort’s Crystal Downs at No. 15. “Today is a renewal — a renewal of purpose, a renewal of connection, a renewal of everything that makes this place so special.”
What championships has Oakland Hills hosted?
What championships will Oakland Hills host in the future?
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Oakland Hills’ clubhouse built with past in mind — and future in sight
Reporting by Tony Paul, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
