Golf had been a part of his life almost from the day Jerry Matthews was born. When he was just 12, he worked for his father on the maintenance crew at Green Ridge Country Club.

Besides designing courses, Matthews has taught course design and construction at Michigan State University where he earned two Bachelor’s Degrees and a Master’s in urban planning.

Jerry was elected to the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame in 2005 and in that same year received the W. Bruce Matthews Lifetime Achievement Award from the Michigan Golf Course Owners Association. He was elected as a Fellow to the American Society of Golf Course Architects in 2005 as well. He is also the author of numerous articles on course design and is renowned for his ability to blend beautiful natural surroundings with his layouts, as he did at St. Ives.

St. Ives, with its wild turkey, bald eagle, hawk and deer population, is a wildlife sanctuary as well as a golf course. As our Resort General Manager, Kevin O’Brien has noted about the site: “It is a very dramatic piece of land with elevation changes and wetlands meshed together. It is probably the finest piece of land to build a course on in the Midwest. We thought we had a pretty good location, but it turned out even better than we thought.”

Here are just some of the awards that Jerry Matthews has won:

2000 - St. Ives, Stanwood, MI, 5 Stars - Golf Digest
1997 - St. Ives, Stanwood, MI, No. 5 Best New Affordable Public Course - Golf Digest
1992 - Elk Ridge, Atlanta, MI, 2nd Best New Public Course - Golf Digest
1990 - Timber Ridge, East Lansing, MI, 4th Best New Public Course - Golf Digest
1988 - Lakes Course at Michewaye, 3rd Best New Public Course - Golf Digest