Oakland Hills Golf Club

About the club

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.