Detroit Golf Club celebrates its history while looking ahead to $16.1 million renovation

(CBS DETROIT) – This year marks the sixth year that the Detroit Golf Club hosted the Rocket Mortgage Classic, but the history of the course goes back much further than that.

We went behind the scenes to really see what 125 years in Detroit looks like.

The inside of the 125-year-old clubhouse is off-limits to most spectators during the tournament, but CBS News Detroit was able to get a closer look.

In the beginning, the course only had six holes.

When the club first opened, dues were only $10. The course added three more holes within a year, and by 1916, it had two 18-hole courses that we’re more familiar with today. That’s also around the time they finished construction on this historic clubhouse.

The club hosted several big names long before the Rocket Mortgage classic arrived, including Alec Ross, the U.S. Open Champion and one of the first club pros, and Horace Smith, the inaugural Master’s Champion. They also hosted the Wartime Ryder Cup in 1941 during World War II.

“When it first opened it was kind of the who’s who of Detroit. The Fords, Mr. Rackham, Fred Wardell who was the president of Eureka Vacuum. He’s done a lot here,” said club historian Keith Studinzki.

In its 125-year existence, the course has come a long way, and there are some big changes on the horizon. The club will start renovations for the course, which has remained relatively unchanged for more than a century, after the conclusion of the 2025 Rocket Mortgage Classic,

The club is dropping a $16 million investment to reshape and rebuild greens, modernize irrigation systems, and update everything else from tee boxes to bunkers to the layout of the trees.

It shared a rendering that shows what the course will look like once all that work is completed. That’s just for the north course, and it is expected to be ready for the 2026 Rocket Mortgage Classic.

When the club reshapes the greens, its goal is to restore them to their original state when Donald Ross, the original course architect, built them.

“The architect we engage with, Tyler Rae, he has done restorations on Donald Ross courses. He’s familiar with it, but this is a big endeavor given we’re doing tees, bunkers, greens, drainage, and irrigation in that short period of time but we’re confident we can get it done,” Studinzki said.

It’s good news for the Rocket Mortgage Classic as they’re still set to play this current course in 2025, but as soon as that last put goes down, it’s off to work.