The Belmont, Mich., property will break ground on October 25th for a project that is scheduled to be completed next April. The renovation, which was selected as a preferred option to a complete tear-down to better maintain the “culture and tradition” of the 88-year-old club, is designed to bring golf and social members together through the addition of outdoor patio space with fire pits and a “pub-like” dining atmosphere in the clubhouse.
Blythefield Country Club in Belmont, Mich., just north of Grand Rapids, is starting construction on a project designed to “bring its members together,” reported the Grand Rapids Business Journal.
An official groundbreaking will be held on October 25th, and construction is slated to wrap up next April, in time for the fourth-annual Meijer LPGA Classic, the Business Journal reported.
“With the great support and vision of our members, we will now have great dining and social facilities to match our world-class golf course,” said Blythefield’s President, Kim Gary.
The renovations will include consolidating dining options to the main clubhouse and increasing the space and offerings of the pro shop in the golf building, added Jaclyn DiPiazza, Blythefield’s Director of Events, Marketing and Membership.
The club’s last renovation was in 1991, DiPiazza noted.
The country club has focused on maintaining and upgrading the course since then, according to Tim Koster, a Blythefield member, but the time has come to update the facilities in line with the success of the course, the Business Journal reported.
Membership had discussed tearing down the existing buildings, but renovations were selected to “maintain culture and tradition,” Koster told the Business Journal.
Currently, DiPiazza said, the club has a dining area in the golf building where golf members often remain following a round of golf,
An expanded pro shop will now take the dining area’s space in the golf building, the Business Journal reported. “Right now, the way things work is not efficient,” DiPiazza explained.
Blythefield’s dining service will now feature a new, expanded patio that will be built as part of the renovation and will include fire pits, Koster told the Business Journal. In addition, the clubhouse’s interior
will be upgraded and made to feel more “pub-like,” Koster said.
In the current configuration, most golf members dine in the golf building, while social members remain in the clubhouse, DiPiazza told the Business Journal. “Right now, our social and golf members don’t interact that much,” she said. “We want to make it so everyone will come together.”
Dining hours and options will be expanded as a result of the renovation, DiPiazza noted.
Dan Henrickson is serving as the project’s architect, and Grand Rapids-based Wolverine Building Group is the project’s contractor, the Business Journal reported. Jennifer Butler is the project’s interior designer.
Blythefield CC, with an 18-hole, 6,838-yard golf course that opened in 1928 and was designed by William Langford, hosted the Meijer LPGA Classic in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and will host the 2017 tournament June 13-18, 2017, the Business Journal reported.
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