DESTINATION GOLF 2024
Northern Michigan had never been on my radar as a golf destination – until I visited it for the first time a few months ago .
Yet , having teed it up in more than 30 US states on visits across the pond over the past 40 years , I would now rank it as one of my favourite places to play golf in America as well as being a wonderfully enchanting area to explore .
Even getting there is something of a magical mystery tour . Arriving at Chicago ’ s O ’ Hare Airport , I switch from my wide-bodied transatlantic aerial steed to a tiny pond-hopper for the 70-minute flight to Traverse City ’ s Cherry Capital Airport , so named because Traverse City is known as the “ Cherry Capital of the World ”.
It ’ s over another hour and a half transfer by road north to my final destination , a resort called The Highlands , in Harbor Springs , near the town of Petoskey near the top of Michigan ’ s Lower Peninsula . I don ’ t see any of the cherry orchards that apparently provide 75 % of the world ’ s tart cherries , but along the way I ’ m driven through an idyllic rural landscape that epitomises Small Town America , passing by fields dotted with traditional red , hipped-roof barns , through sleepy , timeless communities and stretches of forest with occasional , tantalising glimpses of Lake Michigan shimmering in the golden reflections of the setting sun .
What I hadn ’ t appreciated beforehand was the smorgasbord of golfing magnificence that is on offer in this otherwise sleepy corner of the Midwest . Some of golf ’ s finest architects – among them Jack Nickaus , Arnold Palmer , Gary Player , Arthur Hills , Tom Fazio and Robert Trent Jones Sr – have helped transform it into nirvana for golfers , designing courses laid out over rolling terrain carved by ancient glaciers , cut through dense forest , set below winter ski slopes and alongside bodies of water including Lake Michigan ’ s Little Traverse Bay .
Long , sunny and warm summer days enhance its appeal . So much so , a collective of eight resorts with 26 golf courses between them style the region as “ America ’ s Summer Golf Capital ”.
GOLF COURSES Boyne Golf alone boasts a magnificent 10 championship courses across three resorts , two of which transform into winter sports meccas when the snow arrives . Parent company Boyne Resorts was founded in 1947 by Studebaker car dealership owner Everett Kircher and is now the third-largest mountain resort company in North America , with all-season resorts from Maine to Canada ’ s British Columbia .
The Highland is my base for the first few days . At the heart of a resort with four courses is its ivy-covered , alpine-style lodge that could have been transported straight from Austria . Sandwiched between three small lakes , it has a replica water wheel outside the front and grassy corridors cut through pine trees on the hill behind complete with chairlifts and snow cannons ready for the winter season .
The Heather was the first Boyne course and northern Michigan ’ s first resort course , opening in 1966 with a design by Robert Trent Jones Sr . It has stood the test of time well , being named 2018 Golf Course of the Year by the Michigan Golf Course Association and 2019 National Golf Course of the Year by the National Golf Course Owners Association .
The course is also my first experience of playing golf in Michigan and it is a wonderful introduction , its two manicured nine-hole loops starting and finishing by the lodge , with slick greens a delight to putt on . The holes are mostly doglegs that scythe through mature woodland .
At 617 yards , the par-5 9th is the longest of Boyne Golf ’ s holes , sweeping around a small pond to an elevated green in front of the clubhouse . But it ’ s the par-4 18th that sticks in the memory . You tee off downhill to a wide fairway that narrows and skirts around a lake to a large green with bunkers behind next to the lodge .
A bench to the left of the tee box bears a message that the distance to the lake is 258 yards . Before teeing off , tip the bench forward and you see another message underneath , saying “ tee shot in lake – free
Horse & carriage , Mackinac Island
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