Michigan is hot with great public golf. After having played five courses that have been previously ranked and four courses that are currently ranked, and I thought that our travels to Michigan may be complete. But “not so fast” says Golf Digest. Since my last trip up north, they added three additional courses; Grand Traverse The Bear (#81 on Current List), Boyne Highlands Heather (#73 last ranked 2013) and Elk Ridge (#95 last ranked 2013). It was time for my wife and I to head north and see what these three courses were like.
Our first stop was in Atlanta, Michigan to play Elk Ridge which was built in 1991 by Jerry Mathews. This course is located quite a distance from the interstates and larger cities but certainly worth the drive. The first impression was the beautiful clubhouse which was not overly large but quite attractive, especially the interior. It had a large dining area that overlooked the 10th hole which is a gorgeous par 3 that plays from an elevated tee. All the holes wind through a hilly forested area in which each hole is isolated from the others. During our round, we saw and heard only one other group. It was a very quiet and peaceful round on a very special layout. We were impressed with the variety of holes; a nice mixture of long and short, straight, doglegs right and left. The two short par fours were special as were the quartet of par threes. The conditioning is very good and at $45, the value is hard to beat. I could play this course every day and not tire of it. It was built by the family that owns Honey Baked Hams and they have a bunker shaped as a pig on number 10 to preserve this link to the company. On a side note, if you go through the small town of Mio on the way to Elk Ridge, be sure to try the Au Sable River Restaurant. They serve a terrific breakfast.
Day two led us to Boyne Highlands in Harbor Springs to play one of the four courses on sight called The Heather. This is a 50 year old course that was designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr. Heather turned out to be a nice surprise as the last Trent Jones, Sr. course I played, Tanglewood Championship (#65 last ranked 2003), was certainly not one of my favorites. In my opinion, some of his courses are overly bunkered, have forced carries to elevated greens and have long runway teeing areas. This course has to be my favorite Trent Jones, Sr. to date along with Golden Horseshoe Gold (#62 on Current List). You are given several teeing areas to meet your favorite yardage, most greens have at least a small run up area and great variety in the hole designs. The 5th and the 9th are especially great par fives and although the 18th is a long difficult par 4, I thought it was an outstanding and beautiful finishing hole. Even though the slope rating is a high 139 from the orange tees which play at 6,200 yards, it was a very enjoyable test of golf. Could I play this course every day and be happy? Absolutely!!
It was on to Grand Traverse Bay Resort to play the Jack Nicklaus designed The Bear. I knew from playing previous Nicklaus courses that this could be a challenge and the scorecard verified this even before teeing off for this round. It played just 6,122 yards from the white tees but had a hefty slope rating of 140. Because of this, we went into the round just trying to enjoy the challenge of each hole without worrying about our scores. It is a great course but it is a real grind to play. The Bear is a bear! It has a links like look and feel with a lot of mounding, high grassy areas in addition to many ditches and water hazards. Many of the pins are tucked behind deep bunkers and the greens themselves are large and very undulated. Other than that, it was a walk in the park. I personally would not rank it in my Top 100 but would enjoy the challenge of playing it once or twice a year, certainly not on a regular basis. Because there are so many great courses in northern Michigan that are more enjoyable and more scenic than The Bear, I would not include it in any of my future northern Michigan trip itineraries.
Not only does Michigan have 12 courses on the Golf Digest Top 100 lists, I would like to give a shout out to a few other courses that have never been in their rankings. The Upper Peninsula has three outstanding courses in Sweetgrass, Timber Stone and Greywalls. According to Golf Week, Greywalls is the number two course in the entire state trailing only Arcadia Bluffs (#13 on Current List). This is a special course and well worth the drive to Marquette, Michigan. Be sure to play Sweetgrass and Timber Stone as well and you can get a very good package through the Island Resort Casino located at Sweetgrass. Another course well worth the effort to play that has not been in the Top 100 is located in Charlevoix. It is a classic designed by Willie Watson called Belvedere. Golf Week has this course ranked as the fourth best public course in the state. I know you will enjoy the experience. Also in the northern part of the state is a wonderful Tom Doak design called Black Forest, and don’t forget to check out all the courses at TreeTops Resort. There you have courses designed by Rick Smith, Tom Fazio and Robert Trent Jones, Sr. to enjoy, in addition to one of the best par 3 courses in the country, ThreeTops, that you will have a blast playing. As you can see, there are many great choices and I have not even discussed the nine terrific courses that I have previously played that are Top 100 worthy. Tune in for future posts regarding these ranked courses.
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