Bryan Harris, PGA, is the general manager of Forest Akers Golf Courses on the campus of Michigan State University. Harris has served at Forest Akers for nearly 22 years and has been the general manager since 2017. He is the 2025 Golf Association of Michigan Club Services Representative of the Year.
My love for golf took root as a child, learning the game with my grandfather, the only golfer in our family. Summer days on local courses and trips across the state forged a bond that made golf our shared joy. That passion, sparked in childhood, guided me to a 22-year career at Michigan State University’s Forest Akers Golf Courses, where I now serve as general manager.
As a teenager, I had big dreams of playing basketball, but by 18, I knew golf was my path. This realization led me to Ferris State University’s professional golf management program. An internship at Forest Akers in the early 2000s sharpened my career focus. Under mentor Ken Horvath, I learned to run a golf operation, working with MSU’s golf teams and community events. The campus’s energy and the courses’ Spartan spirit convinced me to build my career here, leading a facility that serves a greater purpose.
This choice, and the ensuing experiences gained over two decades, shape my role as general manager, overseeing two 18-hole courses and practice facilities. As I reflect on those experiences, I think the deepest reward lies in the relationships that I have been fortunate to build. For example, a regular player who visits from Detroit, and whose father coached with former MSU football coach Duffy Daugherty, visits twice yearly, making him feel like family, while former student staff, like a nurse practitioner at McLaren, stop by to reconnect. Early challenges from the job, like managing employees of a similar age, taught me patience and professional boundaries. In more recent times, hosting all four Michigan High School Athletic Association state championships over two days during COVID tested my resilience but now serves as a career highlight.
That experience underscores a big part of Forest Akers’ role – hosting big events. We’ve been privileged to welcome Big Ten tournaments, NCAA regionals, and even the 2021 women’s Division III national championship, which was the first championship level tournament held here in decades. Transforming the property for these events, with signs and a championship atmosphere, energizes me personally and professionally, in part because it’s a great way to introduce visitors to MSU. Beyond hosting events, which also includes cross country meets, balancing the Spartan golf teams’ needs with access for students, staff, and residents is a puzzle, but we keep one course open for public play despite 1,100 league participants and events.
Forest Akers is a special place that carries history. The West Course, built in 1958, boasts a legend: The most accomplished golfer in the world, Jack Nicklaus, who as a student-athlete at Ohio State University, never broke par here. The course’s tree-lined fairways, part of an arboretum with native Michigan trees, frame Hole 16, my favorite, with its elevated tee shot and no bunkers. The East Course, flatter and friendlier, welcomes beginners, while the West demands precision. Both have hosted 20 professionals who won major tours, inspiring us to adapt to golf’s changing landscape.
To engage new players, we offer programs like PGA Junior League, where kids can play with their friends and wear team jerseys, and SnagGolf for four-to-seven-year-olds, using age-appropriate clubs, balls and holes. Additionally, ladies-only clinics create a welcoming space for women to learn and grow in the game of golf in a setting specifically tailored for them. The work we accomplish at Forest Akers earned me the Golf Association of Michigan’s 2025 Club Services Representative award, which is presented annually to a club representative who demonstrates outstanding service to golf in Michigan. It was truly an honor I view more as a tribute to our team. It’s been hard to accept this as an individual recognition, wishing it bore Forest Akers’ name, but it reflects our commitment to junior and amateur events that bring potential future Spartans to campus. This commitment informs my hope for whatever legacy I leave: to lead with integrity, and to ensure Forest Akers is in a position of strength for the next leader. I urge young professionals I work with to embrace every experience, from budgeting to club fitting, to grow their careers.
Even though I spend much of my time on the business side of golf, I still play and compete as much as I am able. If I could play a round with MSU legends, I’d choose Shawn Respert, Magic Johnson and Kirk Gibson to round out my foursome. And for as much fun as it would be to play alongside them, I’d look forward most to the conversation. I’d ask Respert about lighting up the Breslin Center, Magic about the Dream Team, and Gibson what it felt like to hit his World Series homer while injured, sharing our Spartan pride along the way.
Forest Akers is my life’s work, where childhood swings became a career serving MSU. It’s a home for every Spartan — past, current or future — and we welcome all to come out and discover, or rediscover, these majestic fairways, and the unique connection it makes, both to campus and nature, that I’ve cherished for decades.
For more information about Forest Akers Golf Courses and its programs and services, visit https://golf.msu.edu.
