GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — American Dunes Golf Course opened the Folds of Honor memorial on Sunday.
The course, which will raise money for scholarships that go to family members of fallen and injured soldiers, opens to the public on Monday and already has 11,000 tee times scheduled.
"It just speaks to the Patriotic nerve that we've touched with people that love the game and they love their country," Folds of Honor founder Lieutenant Colonel Dan Rooney said. "And they want to come someplace to celebrate both of those."
The course is Rooney's dream, it's completion comes thanks in large part to 18-time major champion Jack Nicklaus who waved his $3 million course design fee to make American Dunes.
"I don't have a lot of dreams of my own," Nicklaus said. "I enjoy helping other people's dreams."
"I'm not a big guy to say what have you accomplished? But what have you overcome?" Rooney added. "And I am so proud of what we overcame from that meeting at the Bears Club to getting to today. We have been flying into the wind and he would always tell me greatness doesn't come along very often and this place could be great, we've got to push."
Nicklaus won 18 major championships playing golf and has designed some of the best golf courses in the world, American Dunes gives him another thing that will leave a lasting legacy.
"You are taking away something that you are going to leave here long beyond my golf game, my lifetime, Dan's lifetime," Nicklaus said. "It will carry a theme and a purpose for many many years to come."
