Written By: Greg Johnson
FARMINGTON HILLS – By any measure, Brian VanGeest is a valuable volunteer working with the course rating teams of the Golf Association of Michigan, and he has been named Course Rater of the Year.
“With the volume of rates that GAM completes in a season, our teams rely on volunteers dedicated to perfecting their skills, like Brian, to be successful, year after year,” Hunter Koch, director of course rating for the GAM said in announcing the award.
“Brian, known as a measuring expert to many, has uniquely characterized the consistent, accurate leadership that our rating teams rely on.”
The award is presented annually to the course rater who demonstrates outstanding proficiency with the Course Rating System™ and is committed to helping grow and develop the GAM Course Rating Program.
VanGeest, 67 and a Cascade Township resident near Grand Rapids, has been volunteering for the GAM for the last 15 years as a course rater and has been a part of almost 300 ratings, including 15 in 2025.
He especially enjoys working on the measurement portion of the course rating process.
“The measurements taken provide the critical information necessary to set the stage for every course rating,” Koch said. “It places consistent, accurate data prefilled on every form about the obstacles of the golf course that every golfer encounters, for example, the size of the green, the contour of the green and greenside bunkers.”
It’s the first part of the rating process and those are the days VanGeest enjoys.
“The rating half of the process allows for more subjective things, but I like the hard numbers,” he said. “The measurements have to be accurate for the rest of it to work. That’s what I enjoy doing.”
VanGeest retired in 2024 from a lengthy career in the printing industry with Dickinson Press which later became Sheridan of Grand Rapids. He was an estimator in that career and was charged with providing accurate estimations of paper, ink and press time for books and other publications.
“Our biggest item was bibles,” he said. “I liked doing it and I really like doing the course rating, too. It fits, at least the measuring part, with how my mind works.”
GAM Past President Mark Bultema, a veteran of course rating for the GAM, was a salesperson for Central Michigan Paper Company during his career and called on VanGeest as the client’s representative.
“He told me one day that he was starting up a crew rating golf courses for the GAM and asked if I would like to join,” VanGeest said. “That was 18 years ago. I did five ratings that first year and fell in love with it right off the bat. I’ve been doing it ever since.”
VanGeest has worked with the rating crews across the state and made several trips to the Upper Peninsula over the years, too.
He said there have been a lot of memorable ratings, including doing the South course at Arcadia Bluffs and The Loop reversible course at Forest Dunes Golf Club near Grayling.
One of his favorite ratings was on the American Dunes Golf Club on the site of the former Grand Haven Golf Club.
“I played it years ago when it was Grand Haven Golf Club, and then to see what Mr. Nicklaus did with it was fascinating,” he said. “Plus, what they do there for veterans adds to the experience.”
VanGeest is an avid golfer. He’s been in the same league at Saskatoon Golf Club near Grand Rapids for 40 years, and travels with a group of friends to other states on golf trips.
“I like to play everywhere, but right here in Michigan there are so many great courses,” he said.
He was surprised to be named rater of the year.
“It’s a nice surprise,” he said. “Mark (Bultema) did a wonderful thing for me, introducing me to this. I enjoy it and I enjoy working with all the other raters and training the new raters, too.”
