Eastern Hills Golf Club

Eastern Hills Golf Club is a public, city-owned golf facility on the northeast side of Kalamazoo, Michigan. OpenStreetMap, the Kalamazoo Municipal Golf Association (KMGA) and the main golf directories give its address as 6075 East G Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI 49004, at the corner of G Avenue and 27th Street. It has 27 holes: an original 18-hole course, dedicated in May 1959, and a third nine added later. The 18-hole course is a par 72 that measures 6,711 yards from the Blue tees on the scorecard published by GolfingRecord and 18Birdies, with shorter sets of White, Gold and Red tees.

The land belongs to the City of Kalamazoo; the golf is run by the KMGA, the body that also manages the city’s other two municipal courses, Milham Park and Red Arrow. OpenStreetMap names the facility Eastern Hills Golf Club, which is the name we use on this page. Directories also call it Eastern Hills Golf Course or Eastern Hills Municipal Golf Club. This page is about the whole 27-hole facility, with most of the detail on the original 18, the course for which a full scorecard exists. It is a portrait built from public sources, not the account of a round: nobody from Panxis has played the course.

A city course since 1959

The KMGA is older than the course. Its own history page says the association was created in 1924 to run the Gateway Golf Course, a property that was sold to Western Michigan University in 1944 for the expansion of its campus. Milham Park followed, with a first nine in 1931 and a second in 1936, and the city built Red Arrow, a nine-hole pitch-and-putt, in 1937.

Eastern Hills came next. According to a 1997 opinion of the Michigan Court of Appeals in a tax case between the City of Kalamazoo and Richland Township, the city acquired the land that became the course in April 1957. The KMGA writes that the original 18 holes were completed and formally dedicated in May 1959, and that the third nine was added later. We found no source that dates the third nine or names the architect of either part of the course, so we leave both open. The same applies to any later redesign: no source we could read describes one.

For its first decades the course was run directly by the city. The KMGA says it took over operation and maintenance of Eastern Hills in 1986, two years after it took over Red Arrow. The court opinion is more precise: it cites management contracts between the city and the KMGA dated February 3, 1986 and November 18, 1991, and states that the city “has used Eastern Hills exclusively as a municipal golf course” open to the public without restriction other than payment of green fees or an annual membership fee.

That arrangement was tested in court in the 1990s. The opinion explains that the township had treated the course as tax exempt until it reassessed the property and sent a tax bill to the KMGA for the 1992 tax year. The city appealed to the township’s board of review, then to the Michigan Tax Tribunal, which ordered a refund. On February 14, 1997, the Court of Appeals upheld the result in the city’s favor, finding that the property was exempt as public property owned by the city and noting that “Kalamazoo did not simply privatize the operation of Eastern Hills.” The opinion does not say in which township the course lies; it only shows that Richland Township was the one that levied the tax.

The course came close to disappearing in 2015. On June 16, 2015, the Kalamazoo television station WWMT reported that city commissioners had approved the sale of Eastern Hills to a company called JTM Management, which planned to develop the site into commercial and residential properties, with the proceeds going to the KMGA to pay off debt and improve Milham Park and Red Arrow. A July 2015 roundup on the World Golf Report blog, citing the Kalamazoo Gazette and MLive, added that the complex was losing money, that the city faced a budget deficit and “reluctantly agreed,” and that the course was expected to stay open at least through the 2016 season. The sale did not go through: the course is still listed by the KMGA today, and the association’s board met at Eastern Hills in March 2025. We did not find a news report explaining why the deal ended; a comment on a golf forum claims the buyer never had the money to close, but that is an anonymous post and we do not rely on it.

The recent record is of a working municipal course. In February 2020, WOOD TV reported that First Tee of West Michigan, a youth program for children aged 7 to 17, would start programs at Eastern Hills, Milham Park and Red Arrow in the spring of 2021, with the Kalamazoo Junior Golf Association and the city as partners. The minutes of the KMGA board meeting of March 20, 2025 record that Eastern Hills had received two new greens mowers and a used sprayer, that it opened for play on March 10 that year, walking only at first, and that a First Tee event was scheduled there on June 20. The KMGA’s course page says renovations of the bar have been completed and its liquor license approved, and names Paul Simonds as PGA golf professional and Brian Morgan as superintendent.

What the course asks of you

The KMGA describes Eastern Hills as a well-maintained 27-hole layout with three distinct nines, which regularly hosts city and county tournaments as well as league play. The size of the property varies with the source: 220 acres for the KMGA and Hole19, 194 acres for GolfNow, and 230 acres in the 2015 World Golf Report item.

The 18-hole course is a classic par 72 with four par 3s, ten par 4s and four par 5s, each nine a par 36. The scorecard published by GolfingRecord lists four sets of tees:

• Blue: 6,711 yards, course rating 70.9, slope 119.
• White: 6,325 yards, rating 69.2, slope 115.
• Gold: 5,826 yards, rating 67.0, slope 109.
• Red: 5,162 yards, rating 68.4, slope 109.

Hole by hole from the Blue tees, the same card reads as follows:

• Front nine: 1st, par 5, 525 yards; 2nd, par 4, 385; 3rd, par 4, 389; 4th, par 3, 180; 5th, par 5, 512; 6th, par 4, 380; 7th, par 4, 387; 8th, par 3, 208; 9th, par 4, 371. Out: 3,337 yards, par 36.
• Back nine: 10th, par 5, 543; 11th, par 3, 198; 12th, par 4, 401; 13th, par 3, 174; 14th, par 4, 402; 15th, par 4, 366; 16th, par 4, 376; 17th, par 4, 389; 18th, par 5, 525. In: 3,374 yards, par 36.

Other directories give different totals, a point we return to in the method box. What they agree on is the shape of the card: no par 4 longer than about 400 yards from the back tees, four par 5s of more than 500 yards, and par 3s of 174 to 208 yards. The difficulty comes less from length than from accuracy and the greens.

A few holes stand out on the card itself:

• The 1st, a par 5 of 525 yards from the Blue tees, opens the round with one of the four longest holes on the course.
• The 3rd, a par 4 of 389 yards, is the number one stroke-index hole for the Blue, White and Gold tees, the hardest hole on the card for most players.
• The 8th, at 208 yards, is the longest par 3 on the course.
• The 10th, a par 5 of 543 yards and stroke index 2, is the longest hole on the course and starts the back nine with the second hardest hole.
• The 11th and 13th are the two par 3s of the back nine, of 198 and 174 yards.
• The 18th, a par 5 of 525 yards and stroke index 4, gives a last chance at a birdie.

For players from the Red tees, the stroke index changes: the 5th, a par 5 of 428 yards from those tees, becomes the hardest hole, and the 11th, at 95 yards, the easiest.

The name promises hills, and not everyone finds them. A June 2026 account on GolfBlogger, a Michigan golf blog whose author played the original eighteen, says he was “not at all sure where the ‘Hills’ were”: apart from “three and a half holes,” he found the course “very flat,” with prominent mounding around most greens that gives approach shots a look of elevation. A 2025 review on Hole19 warns that a slice can end up in the next fairway, a sign of holes running side by side. GolfN, a golf app, records an average pace of play of 3 hours 57 minutes over 21 rounds logged on the original 18.

The third nine is harder to describe. The directories do not agree on its name: GolfN calls it “West,” Hole19 “West 9,” and GolfPass sells the facility as three 18-hole combinations named White/Blue, White/Red and Red/Blue. GolfingRecord publishes a nine-hole card of par 35, but it does not say which nine it describes and some of its figures, such as a 73-yard par 4, are not credible, so we do not reproduce it. In the reviews we could read, golfers who mention the West nine tend to prefer it, describing a few challenging holes.

What golfers say

Eastern Hills is a busy local course rather than a destination, and most public opinions about it are short. What follows summarizes recurring themes from the reviews we could read in October 2026: 18Birdies, which showed an average of 4.1 out of 5 from 219 ratings, with 4.0 for value and 3.8 for course condition, and written reviews from 2024 to 2026; Hole19, 3.9 out of 5 from 14 ratings, most of them without text; GolfN, 4.1 from 17 reviews for the original 18 and 4.4 from 7 for the West nine; the June 2026 GolfBlogger account; and the reviews on GolfPass and Tripadvisor, which refused our requests and which we could only read as excerpts in search results. GolfPass showed an average of about 4.0 from just over 100 reviews; Tripadvisor showed four. These are other people’s opinions, not ours, and we name no reviewer.

What comes up in its favor

• The greens: the most frequent praise. GolfPass excerpts describe them as very consistent and in very good condition, along with the sand traps, and 18Birdies users rate green speed as fast.
• The setting: a tree-lined course with old trees, described as pretty or beautiful in 2025 and 2026 reviews on Hole19 and 18Birdies, and quiet and rural for a course so close to the city.
• Value for a municipal course, the highest of the sub-scores on 18Birdies.
• Friendly staff, mentioned in GolfPass excerpts, and a course that one GolfPass summary calls worth returning to.
• Variety from having 27 holes, with the West nine singled out as the more fun to play.
• Conditions judged “decent” by GolfBlogger in 2026, whose author added that he would not mind playing it again.

What comes up against

• Pace of play: one GolfPass reviewer blames tee times spaced eight minutes apart, others mention groups starting on the back nine and slowing those making the turn, and a 2024 review on 18Birdies blames overbooking. 18Birdies users, on average, still rate pace as fast.
• Conditions away from the greens: worn tee boxes, hard and dry rough, bumps near the cart paths and fairways that are not always well kept. A 2019 Tripadvisor review reported pump failures that left the course dry.
• Long grass in which balls are hard to find, mentioned in an October 2026 review on 18Birdies.
• Behavior on the course: a September 2026 review on 18Birdies describes a confrontation with another group, and a GolfPass excerpt from a longtime regular complains about staff professionalism.
• A dated feel and the food, in the Tripadvisor excerpts.
• The terrain, flatter than the name suggests, for those who come looking for hills.

Getting there and playing

Eastern Hills is a public course. The court opinion describes it as open to the public on payment of green fees or an annual membership, and the KMGA’s booking page notes that non-members pay the full applicable rate at check-in. Rates vary and we do not report them. Tee times are booked through the KMGA’s Eastern Hills tee-time page, which uses the ForeUP system; the association says it charges no booking fee there, while tee times booked through other websites may carry one. The KMGA lists the pro shop telephone as (269) 385-8175.

The KMGA lists power golf carts and practice facilities, and warns that carts may be available at check-in but are not guaranteed, depending on course conditions. GolfNow lists walking as allowed, metal spikes not allowed, proper golf attire required, and club rental, a driving range, a chipping area, a putting green and a teaching professional; GolfN adds pull carts. The clubhouse has a pro shop, locker rooms according to GolfNow, and a full-service bar, and the KMGA caters golf outings and league banquets. The weekday tee sheet carries many leagues in the morning and late afternoon, which is worth knowing when booking.

GolfNow and GolfN give a season of April 1 to November 1. That is a guide rather than a rule: in 2025 the KMGA opened Eastern Hills on March 10, walking only until the carts arrived later that week. Check the KMGA’s website for the current status before going in early spring or late fall.

The course sits on the northeast edge of the Kalamazoo area. Measured on the map from the course’s coordinates, downtown Kalamazoo is about 5 miles to the southwest in a straight line, and Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport about 7.3 miles to the south. These are straight-line distances, not driving distances.

How we built this page

The factual frame comes from public sources: OpenStreetMap and Wikidata for the location, name and identifiers; the KMGA’s website, its about page, its Eastern Hills course page and its tee-time page; the minutes of the KMGA board meeting of March 20, 2025, published by the City of Kalamazoo; the Michigan Court of Appeals opinion in City of Kalamazoo v. Richland Township (1997) for the land purchase, the management contracts and the tax case; WWMT’s June 2015 report and the World Golf Report’s July 2015 roundup for the proposed sale; WOOD TV for First Tee; GolfingRecord, GolfNow, GolfN, Hole19 and Wander Golf for the scorecard and directory data; and 18Birdies, Hole19, GolfN, GolfBlogger, GolfPass and Tripadvisor for the reviews. GolfPass, Tripadvisor, Yelp, GolfLink and Teebly refused our requests or were unavailable, so we used them only through search-result excerpts or not at all. We could not open the original Kalamazoo Gazette and MLive articles of 2015.

Where sources disagree, we say so. The Blue-tee length of the 18-hole course is 6,711 yards on GolfingRecord and 18Birdies, 6,706 yards on Wander Golf and 6,626 yards on GolfNow, which also shows 6,448 yards in its summary. Hole19 shows 6,136 “yards,” which is exactly 6,711 yards converted into meters. Ratings vary as well: 70.9 and 119 from the Blue tees on GolfingRecord and GolfNow, 71.5 and 124 on 18Birdies, 71.4 and 125 on GolfN; the White tees are given as 6,325 yards on GolfingRecord and 6,439 or 5,965 yards in different tables on GolfNow. The acreage is 194, 220 or 230 depending on the source. The names of the nines differ from one directory to the next. We found no designer and no date for the third nine.

Some details will age: the reviews read in October 2026, tee ratings, which are revised periodically, the season, the staff, and the facility’s future, which the city once put up for sale. The opinion section reports recurring themes rather than individual voices. Nobody from Panxis has played or visited this course, and this page is no substitute for a round.

The course, the KMGA and the City of Kalamazoo have not paid for this page, have not seen it before publication and have no say over its content. This page contains no commercial link and earns us no commission. If you know the course and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it. The KMGA’s Eastern Hills page carries the official scorecard and course map, and its about page tells the story of Kalamazoo’s municipal golf.

Other courses nearby

Closest to this one in our United States directory:

• Point O’ Woods Golf & Country Club — 45 mi
• The Meadows at Grand Valley State University — 48 mi
• Eagle Crest Resort — 97 mi
• Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club — 105 mi