An upcoming walkway that will serve as a memorial to military service members will be the entry from the parking lot onto the grounds of the recently redesigned American Dunes Golf Club in Grand Haven, Michigan. You will walk through an open-air tunnel with clear marks on your way as you follow it toward the clubhouse.
The otherwise smooth cement will have the bronzed boot prints of U.S. service members who passed away while doing their duties.
Consider the day’s appropriate start. U.S. Air Force Lt Col Dan Rooney explains, “The overall experience here is designed to be respectful.” We’ve clarified that everyone should enter and exit through that memorial to recognize those who made the ultimate sacrifice.”
Rooney is a critical character in the history of American Dunes, which gave a media sneak peek early this week and will formally open to the public in the spring. Rooney is an F-16 fighter pilot and a PGA golf professional.
Rooney was on a commercial aircraft from Chicago to Grand Rapids in 2007 when the captain announced that a hero was on board. Rooney had just returned from his second of three combat tours in Iraq. When the plane touched down, Rooney witnessed “the other side of the conflict.” He was on the tarmac watching passengers disembark when he caught sight of Bucklin’s family, particularly his son Jacob, who was four years old.
“At that moment, I knew with every fiber of my being what God was calling me to do,” Rooney says. Rooney founded Folds of Honor, a nonprofit that supports the families of fallen and disabled military personnel. As the first fundraiser for his organization, Rooney decided to hold a golf tournament that summer.
It so happened that he had the perfect venue for it: a course his parents owned along the eastern shores of Lake Michigan, known at the time as Grand Haven Golf Club. Folds of Honor has furnished over 44,000 scholarships to military families in the decade-plus since that inaugural fundraiser, totaling $200 million.
But Rooney is always looking to do more.
Nearly three years ago, with his parents at an age when they were ready to step back from running a golf course, he saw another chance to strengthen his cause. “The easy left would have been to sell the property as real estate,” Rooney says. “The hard right was to do something more ambitious and create a lasting legacy.”
A plan took shape in his mind to renovate Grand Haven and put it to a greater purpose: to commemorate the birthplace of Folds of Honor and as a tribute to the military on the very grounds where Folds of Honor was born. To execute that project, an architect was needed, and once again, Rooney knew where to turn.
In July 2018, he arranged a meeting with Jack and Barbara Nicklaus and described his vision. Moved by Rooney’s plan, the Nicklauses signed on. In addition to waving his design fee, Nicklaus, along with Rooney, helped round up private donors, who supplied much of the necessary funding to push the project toward the finish line.
In March 2019, the renovation began. Central to the work was to transform a tight, tree-lined layout into something more in keeping with the sandy, lake-side site: a dunes course that rollicked with the contours of the land; mission accomplished with the design.
Every cent of profit from American Dunes will go toward the Folds of Honor Foundation, which provides educational scholarships to spouses and children of deceased and disabled military personnel.
At $150, greens fees will go toward rounds that pay patriotic tribute almost everywhere you turn. Beside each tee box will stand three stone plaques, each conveying a different message: one will represent a Jack Nicklaus major championship victory; another will pay thanks to the private donor who sponsored that hole’s construction; and a third will tell the story of a Folds of Honor family.