The 2009 Arbuckle Invitational (the thirteenth in its storied history) will be held over three days in early July in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Play will be held on three courses including the world famous University of Michigan Golf Course. The UMGC was designed in the late 1920s by Alister MacKenzie, one of golf's all-time greatest architects. The course officially opened in the spring of 1931 and immediately drew praise as one of the finest in America. At the time of its opening, the University Golf Course became just the fourth course to be located on a college campus. The U-M Golf Course is one of only six MacKenzie-designed golf courses in the United States, including the famed Augusta National.
MacKenzie, Golf magazine's "Golf Architect of the Century" for the first 100 years of golf in America, brought his passion for the sport and of old St. Andrews, Scotland, to Ann Arbor. A multi-million dollar renovation completed in the spring of 1994 restored the grandeur of the University Golf Course to the ranks of MacKenzie's other classics. Orchestrating the restoration was Arthur Hills, a Michigan graduate and one of the foremost golf course architects in America. As an admirer of MacKenzie, Hills understood his focus was not a new course in Ann Arbor, but a return to MacKenzie's intent.
The renovation included the return of original bunkers, improved tree planting and placement, construction of stately tee areas and an improved irrigation system.
The other courses to be used will include Leslie Park, a public course opened in 1967 and Stonebridge GC, built in 1991, a demanding track filled with water hazards and other menaces to a golfer’s sanity.
Interestingly, Leslie Park and Stonebridge were also designed by Arthur Hills, a world renowned golf architect who has designed hundreds of legendary courses both in the U.S and abroad.
