Detroit businessman Robert Noller engaged Donald Ross in 1922 to lay out a public golf facility on rolling ground along the Middle Rouge River west of Detroit; at the time the property and club were known as Hawthorne Valley.
On June 30, 1923, the Detroit Free Press announced that “18 holes of golf will be ready for play today,” referring to the first Ross course at Hawthorne Valley; nine holes opened that day and the second nine opened two days later, establishing what became Warren Valley’s West Course. Ross’s commission envisioned 36 holes from the start, and the second eighteen—what became the East Course—opened for public play on April 11, 1925. Ross’s original drawings for “Hawthorne Valley Golf Club” survive in the Tufts Archives; they have been positively identified by the Donald Ross Society as plans for the Michigan Hawthorne Valley (i.e., Warren Valley), clarifying past confusion with a similarly named Ohio club.
By 1929 Warren Valley was marketed as the “World’s Largest” public “pay-as-you-go” golf facility, logging more than 50,000 rounds that season at a $1.50 fee; the East course was briefly branded as Thorncliffe Country Club to subsidize the public West course. Warren Valley Golf Course The club’s own chronology records a course record 64 by professional Robert Gray Jr. on August 18, 1932, documenting early adoption and competitive play on the Ross layout.
The present-day complex went through municipal ownership changes and flood-related closures a century after opening. The City of Dearborn Heights acquired the property in 2018 to prevent redevelopment, and after a 2022 closure Revive Golf Management (Jason Pearsall) and Issa Brothers were awarded a contract in August 2022 to revive the courses and banquet center. The renovated West Course reopened to the public on April 28–29, 2023, with local officials and high-school teams christening the first tee. Documentation to date does not show Ross returning after the 1925 opening; his role is best understood as the 1922 planner of both eighteens with construction realized in 1923 (West) and 1925 (East).
Unique design characteristics
The defining decision of Ross’s Warren Valley routing was to work with the Middle Rouge River as a strategic line rather than an out-of-bounds edge. Contemporary and tourism sources consistently note that the river “comes into play on seven holes” on the West Course and four on the East, a pattern that still governs play. On the West Course today, Ross’s river use is most evident at the mid- and late-round crossings and flankings: the par-4 fifth reveals the first river interaction via a dogleg right shaped by the stream and treeline; the sixth echoes it on a slightly longer line; and the par-3 seventh plays from an elevated tee down to a green set beyond low ground—an early sequence that shows Ross alternating direction and target profiles to avoid sameness.
The back nine preserves the clearest stretch of Ross’s “river as diagonal hazard” idea. The approach at the long par-4 eleventh must carry the river into a small, round green, a classic second-shot test predicated on angle from the tee. The par-3 twelfth immediately reverses the line, firing back across the river to a target fronted by a primary bunker with two flanking pits, demonstrating Ross’s habit here of pairing a forced carry with tight short-grass surrounds that exaggerate misses. The fourteenth and fifteenth continue along the stream to the player’s right, both dogleg rights that tighten at the turn and ask for controlled tee balls rather than raw distance—holes whose planform closely matches the property’s hydrology and reflect Ross’s original site-led routing.
Elevation is used sparingly but decisively: the tenth climbs into a “well-elevated green” that adds at least a club; the seventh’s elevated tee provides the outward nine’s most pronounced vertical moment. Bunkering on the West Course is notably restrained (“minimal bunkering”), with hazards concentrated at green fronts or guarding the inside of doglegs; the renewed bunker at front-left of the seventeenth green exemplifies the present presentation of Ross’s original placements. The Golfing Guy The greens—compact targets now resurfaced in 007XL bent—remain small and exacting, reading as “postage-stamp” in scale compared to modern publics, which accentuates the intended premium on precise approaches on a modest-length card (6,126 yards).
The holes that serve as the clearest surviving expressions of Ross’s work are 11–12–14–15 on the West. Each forces either a bold line over water or a positional tee ball to open a favorable angle, a sequence that still plays off the river corridors that Ross plotted in 1922 and that opened in 1923–25.
Historical significance
Within Ross’s Michigan portfolio, Warren Valley stood out in the 1920s as a rare 36-hole public complex planned as such from inception, rather than a private-to-public conversion. The club’s 1929 self-description as the “World’s Largest” public “pay-as-you-go” course, and its documented 50,000-round season, underscore its civic role in making championship-caliber golf broadly accessible in metro Detroit. Warren Valley Golf Course The presence at Tufts of a complete Ross hole-drawing set for “Hawthorne Valley Golf Club” (Michigan) confirms the depth of Ross’s planning for this site and has helped correct a longstanding bibliographic error that attributed an unrelated Ohio course to him; Ross Society correspondence explicitly ties the drawings to the Michigan property that evolved into Warren Valley.
While Warren Valley did not emerge as a venue for national championships, the 1932 course record by professional Robert Gray Jr. attests to the golf quality locals found on Ross’s layout, and the complex has been a locus for community and scholastic golf—status evidenced again when Dearborn Heights’ mayor and high-school teams reopened the course in April 2023 after renovation.
Recent trade and local coverage of the 2023 reopening has repeatedly framed the project as a revival of a Ross public course dating to 1922–23, situating Warren Valley as a historically important public Ross in southeast Michigan rather than a trophy-event venue.
Current condition & integrity
Flooding from the Middle Rouge has been the modern maintenance challenge; following the 2022 shutdown, the new operators undertook drainage upgrades (French drains and pump-station improvements) and built up banks to mitigate overflows, measures that protect the river-dependent Ross corridors without materially changing them. The Golfing Guy The West Course reopened in April 2023 after re-constructed and re-seeded greens, sand-trap and fairway improvements, and new cart paths; the greens were resurfaced with 007XL bentgrass.
The routing of the West remains in play substantially as laid out—the river crossings and flanking doglegs described in 1920s sources are the same holes now labeled 5, 6, 11, 12, 14 and 15—though green surfaces and bunker detailing reflect modern reconstruction and maintenance rather than untouched 1920s contours. (No published record of a wholesale rerouting has been found.)
The East Course is presently out of play. To enable its eventual return, a new driving-range project has been advanced while intentionally preserving the East’s green pads, bunker complexes, and fairway irrigation “to maintain the potential for complete restoration,” according to the club’s official communications. Facebook Public posts associated with the property have also floated a near-term goal of restoring at least a 12-hole loop of original Ross holes on the East once the range footprint is finalized. (This is aspirational rather than an adopted construction plan.)
Given the above, Warren Valley’s present Ross integrity resides primarily in the West Course’s routing and river-driven hole corridors. The green surfaces have new turf and some bunkers have been reshaped during the 2023 works; on the East, physical features have been mothballed to enable future restoration. A precise percentage of “original Ross” remaining is therefore difficult to assign responsibly: the corridor skeleton is intact on the West, while original micro-contours have been altered by resurfacing and decades of maintenance; the East’s Ross ground forms largely survive but are not currently playable.
Sources & Notes
1. “History,” Warren Valley Golf Course website (club chronology: 1922 commission; 1923 West opening; 1925 East opening; 1929 public marketing and play volume; 1932 course record).
2. David Theoret, “Warren Valley Golf Course – Resurrecting a Donald Ross Classic,” The Golfin’ Guy (hole-by-hole West Course descriptions: river at 5–6; elevated tee at 7; elevated green at 10; river-carry approach at 11; par-3 over river at 12 with front bunker; river right at 14–15; renovated bunker at 17; reopening date and civic ceremony; drainage/flooding works).
3. Michigan.org tourism listing, “Warren Valley Golf Course” (river affects seven West and four East holes).
4. Downriver Sunday Times/Times-Herald Newspapers, “Warren Valley GC ready for opening day April 29” (2023 improvements: re-constructed and re-seeded greens, sand trap and fairway work, cart paths; reopening timeline).
5. Club + Resort Business, “Warren Valley GC Reopens Following Renovation Work” (April 2023 reopening; summary of renovation and management structure).
6. Ohio.golf, “Donald Ross Society Confirms Likelihood of Hawthorne Valley Architect Error” (Ross Society letter noting complete set of 18 Ross hole drawings for Hawthorne Valley in Michigan held at Tufts Archives; resolves Michigan/Ohio attribution confusion).
7. Warren Valley official Facebook communication (statement that the new driving range was planned while deliberately preserving East-course greens, bunker complexes, and fairway irrigation to keep a full restoration possible).
8. Michigan Golf (syndicated David Theoret article) (confirms 1923 West opening and 1925 East opening context).
Uncertainties & disputed points.
• Ross’s onsite return after 1925. The club timeline documents the 1922 engagement and the 1923/1925 openings but does not show subsequent visits from Ross; absent club minutes or correspondence, any claim of later phases by Ross should be treated as unproven.
• Hawthorne Valley attribution. Some reference works historically credited Hawthorne Valley (Solon, OH) to Ross. The Ross Society now points to Tufts’ Michigan drawings for “Hawthorne Valley” (the Warren Valley property) and notes no Ross evidence for the Ohio course. One line in the Society’s note says the Michigan course “no longer exists,” which conflicts with the present operating status of Warren Valley; that sentence should be read as referring to the Hawthorne Valley name rather than the physical course.
• Percentage of original features. No published technical audit quantifies surviving Ross greens’ micro-contours post-2023 resurfacing. Given the modern turfing and bunker work, assigning a numeric “percent original” would be speculative; evidence supports continuity of river-based routing on the West and preservation (but inactivity) of East greens and bunkers for future restoration.