When Don Hayden went looking for an architect in 1986, he did not want a big name. Fred Muller, the professional at Crystal Downs just to the west, pointed him toward a 26-year-old who had just visited. Tom Doak had been working with Pete Dye, and he would later call himself a novice. By 1988 he had his chance: a farm of old pasture, cherry orchard and wetland, plus 40 acres of sandy hills that put him in mind of the London heathlands and Pine Valley. Hayden let golf come first, ahead of housing plots and even a practice ground. Doak built it in 1987 and 1988 and shaped all 18 greens himself, something no other course of his can claim. His rule was to err toward moving too little earth. The most dirt moved was on the old 12th, where a small D3 dozer spent three days taking some of the blindness out of the two-shot hole. Faux links were fashionable in America then, and Doak went another way. He built a 14th fairway so broad it needed five rows of irrigation, and he sowed fescue while experts warned it would fail. It worked, though in later years it slipped away under less ambitious care. High Pointe opened in June 1989. The 13th green came to define it, the first green Doak ever built on his own. The steep bank behind it becomes a ramp to pins you could never reach directly, whether you play from the bunker, from the right side, or from the fairway. Doak called it a true original, and hitting away from the target became something of a hallmark in his later work. He was harder on his 18th, a strategic double dogleg on the lowest ground that wetland rules saddled with forced carries. He named it the course's Achilles heel. Hayden died in 2006. The course closed after the 2008 season and became a hop farm, and much of the front nine was bulldozed. Six holes on the back survived, overgrown and waiting. When the farm struggled and the land came free, Rod Trump, a Florida entrepreneur who had come to know Traverse City, secured it in 2022 and called Doak back. Doak still had his old routing, including a third nine he had laid out for the Haydens. He thought he might do something less up and down. "But when I walked the ground again - no, the old one's better." Nine of the new holes follow that old plan. The first tee opened on 19 July 2024, and all 18 holes were in play by 6 September. The seven opening holes are new. The 3rd has two greens, playing as a 130-yard or a 230-yard par 3. Then the old ground takes over. The former 10th, a dogleg that dips and climbs to a raised green, is now the 8th, and the old short 11th closes the front. After two sweeping new holes, the stretch from 12 to 15 plays in its original order, the 13th green still waiting. The 16th climbs to where the old clubhouse stood, new among the homeward holes yet reimagined from the closing hole Doak once regretted. The 17th and 18th return to the new land and finish at a clubhouse on the east side. The course plays to par 71 at just under 7,000 yards. Doak did the first pass on every new green, with help to finish them, including from Brian Slawnik, whom he calls one of the best people ever to run a bulldozer. The bunkers hold sand dug on site, the same ground you play from, minus the grass. Dan Lucas, a fescue specialist who made his name at nearby Kingsley Club, guided the grow-in toward firm ground and tight lies. 2025 was the first full season. Trump wants members with a high golf IQ who love walking with a caddie, play in four hours or less, and still have time to tell a joke or listen to a story.