Without a golf course in sight from his bird's eye view, Poling was forced to imagine that landfill as a golf course. After the Ford Motor Company Land Development struck a deal with the PGA TOUR, Nicklaus and the bulldozers moved in, and his imaginative vision began to take shape. That's when Poling might have wished that curtains covered the bird's eye view from corporate headquarters. Our board members would look out of the window, see the construction activity, and say things like, 'Hmmmm. The wildlife is an integral part of the experience here.
Players truly feel like they are in a special place.
Golf combines with nature for 18 holes and you can really feel it. Along with golfers of varying skill, coyotes, turtles, ducks, muskrats, foxes and various species of birds and snakes inhabit the golf course. In 1992, the TPC of Michigan became the first golf course in Michigan to become fully certified in the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses, and in 1996, the club received the John James Environmental Stewardship Award in recognition of an ecological restoration project. The golf course receives its share of attention as well. Nicklaus' design has been highly rated by Golf Digest and other publications.