Mike Devries

Interview With Mike DeVries President DeVries Designs, Inc

A Light Hearted Golf Q & A Interview

By Brian Weis

Below is an interview with Mike DeVries, the President at DeVries Designs, Inc. The following are a few traditional and non traditional golf centric questions that I love to ask influential people in the golf industry.

Can you provide our readers a brief biography?
Golf architect Mike DeVries is a craftsman who insists on being personally involved with all aspects of golf course development, including feature shaping of the putting greens and bunkers.

By being on-site consistently throughout the construction process, DeVries also enables himself to continually study the land, reacting to newly revealed opportunities and improving upon his original design concepts. This evolutionary process inevitably results in a unique golf course of enduring quality.

A 1987 graduate of Lake Forest College in suburban Chicago (Business Administration), DeVries apprenticed with golf architect Tom Doak before going on to the University of Michigan where he earned his Masters degree in Landscape Architecture in 1994. Following a stint as an on-site design coordinator with golf architect Tom Fazio, DeVries has designed and constructed six new golf courses, as well as consulted with numerous established clubs about course renovations.

DeVries' grandfather introduced Mike to golf at Crystal Downs Country Club in Frankfort, Michigan, where he developed a deep respect and admiration for the work of legendary golf architects Dr. Alister MacKenzie and Perry Maxwell. DeVries continues to study the works and writings of the master golf architects of yesteryear in an effort to apply those design principles to his own work.

When did you start golfing and who introduced you to the game?
My grandfather got me into the game. When I was really little, I would whack balls with an old, sawed down club in the front yard. When I was about eight, I started visiting the golf course with my grandparents, hitting chips and puts. I remember going to my grandmother's golf lessons and the pro would let me hit and give me some pointers.

What is your current home course?
I'm a member at Crystal Downs (Frankfort, MI). I am also lucky that I can always go back and play the courses that I have built or redesigned.

To date, what is your proudest golf accomplishment?
I don't know. I've had a couple hole in ones but those are sort of a fluke. You hit the ball close and you think it's supposed to go in, and then it happens and it's like, "Wow, I just hit a hole in one!" That's pretty cool. But, what I really love is when I run into golfers and they talk about a course I built or worked on and how much fun they had there.

I love it when I run into golfers and they talk about the course i built or worked on.

What is your biggest golf pet peeve on or off the course?
The dependence on golf carts. There's a place for them, but, in a lot of ways, I think there's not. They destroy a lot of turf, visuals, and sightlines on a course. Number two on that list would be people more interested in talking on their cell phones than they are in playing the game. Talk to me, don't talk to your device. Maybe that's number one.

What is your favorite club in your bag and why?
That's a good question. In the Hickory set it's the Jigger, just cause it was really the first club that I had and you can play all kinds of different shots with it. It's sort of a sentimental thing with that. And then probably if you're talking about regular, modern sticks, it's probably got to be the putter because so much happens on greens. If you're on great greens and you make a long putt, that's just super fun.

What is your favorite golf destination?
Scotland

What course is on your bucket list that you have not played yet?
Cape Breton Highlands in Nova Scotia

If you woke up tomorrow and could play one course you played before, where would you play?
The Old Course (St Andrews)

If you could change one aspect, rule or thing about golf, what would it be and why?
My biggest problem would be with the rules regarding the technology of the ball. I'd like to see the ball dialed back because the balls are manufactured so well that they're just too good now and go too far, making great, old courses obsolete. I'd like to see the Tour have to play a 1985 Tour Balata. I think the pro game would be a lot more interesting with that scenario.

Dream foursome (living)?
Ben Crenshaw, an unbelievably nice guy, great putter, and an awesome passion for the game. My buddy Kerry Kotila, who I've probably played more golf with than anybody and we always have fun. And Fred Muller, my dear friend and the pro at Crystal Downs.

Dream foursome (living or dead)?
My Grandfather, he taught me the game. Bob Hope cause he loved golf and he's probably one of the funniest humans who has ever lived and my Grandfather and I used to love watching him do his TV programs and his golf tournaments and everything. And then I could do a whole foursome of golf architects, but I gotta go with Alister MacKenzie because he's the guy that probably had the most influence in why I do what I do because of Crystal Downs.

Favorite 19th hole drink?
A local beer.

18 Rapid Fire, Off The Cuff Questions

1) Hitting Long Drive OR Sinking Long Putt?
Long Putt

2) Having Round of Life OR Hole in One?
Round of your life

3) Golfing at the crack of dawn OR twilight?
Crack of Dawn

4) Hit a power fade OR power draw?
I'm hitting a power fade now so I gonna stick with that cause that's what Nicklaus did.

5) Beverage cart OR halfway house?
Half-way house

6) Bathroom OR bushes?
1 or 2? Bushes are fine for 1, otherwise the bathroom.

7) Hot dog OR wrap?
Oh hot dog definitely.

8) Around the green, being in sand OR thick rough?
I would rather be in bunker

9) Walking OR riding?
WALKING!!!

10) Do you carry traditional 3 iron OR hybrid?
Well it's not a 3 iron anymore but it's not a hybrid, either. It a driving iron, so it's a hybrid I guess.

11) Do you prefer long par 3 OR long par 5?
Long par 3!

12) Pants OR Shorts?
Shorts

13) Palmer OR Nicklaus?
I love them both.

14) Beatles OR Elvis?
Beatles. Huge Fab 4 fan.

15) Play for fun OR play for money?
Fun

16) Bump and run OR flop shot?
Bump and run

17) Lay up OR gamble?
I'm not a big hitter so I layup most of the time. However if I'm playing for fun I might gamble. It's about 50/50

18) 18 holes OR 36?
Oh 36 is a great day if we can do that. Walking all of them too.

Revised: 10/10/2017 - Article Viewed 13,508 Times

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.