About our course ....

Designed and built by George Vello Nickolaou and family, Oakland Hills Golf Club opened its first nine holes in July of 1973. A second nine (165 yards longer with water features on two out of every three holes like the front-nine) was added four years later cementing the course's growing reputation as being challenging but fair... and always offering a relaxed, friendly atmosphere. George, known to his customers and friends as "George Vello" immigrated to the United States from Neret, Macedonia in the early 1950's with only a 4th-grade education but huge ambition. He soon opened a small restaurant where clients he'd befriended invited him to their country club to "try golfing". That golf course looked like "paradise" to him and the seed was planted to someday have his own course. A scratch golfer most of his life, George held Oakland Hills' low-score record for many years... a course he self-built with only his green thumb, street smarts, a rented bulldozer, passion for the game and NO formal training whatsoever.  In 2004, his vision and effort in crafting Oakland's layout and operation was awarded "FOUR STARS" by Golf Digest's "Best Places To Play" and again in subsequent years.
Advertised as "The Best Greens Anywhere," Michigan State University's nationally-respected Turfgrass Program described our exceptionally pure and soft bentgrass greens as the best in the tri-state area.  The course, which has been featured on Fox Sports Television and M Live Radio offered gently rolling maple and fir-lined fairways winding past brooks, ponds and woods. The club house is an 1860's country mansion said to have been used during the Civil War as an Underground Railroad stop as well as a safe-house for Al Capone and his Chicago gang during the 1920's.  In the final years before construction of the golf club, the picturesque house, built in the Italianate style was home to a family of dairy farmers. Right up to our farewell, having the absolute best greens, fair prices and friendly customer service has been our hallmark... and has pridefully remained just as relevant and as important to George and his family as it was when we hit our first ball back in 1973! We are proud to have been able to serve our community for 50 golden years!