I've Got Information, Man
New golf stuff has come to light
This is my 50th post at Great Lakes Loops, but somehow my first Big Lebowski reference during that time. Is the title too ambiguous? Should I just name the article after the topic I’m writing about? I don’t know, sometimes when all of the golf news tidbits pile up, it becomes a lot of strands to keep in my head. You know, a lot of ins, a lot of outs, a lot of what-have-yous. So let’s just get on with two pieces of news from the early part of 2025, and see if we can make some sense of them.
Bay Valley Resort
I found out about this one a few weeks ago. Through a source on the township planning committee, they let me know that a plan had been approved for a buyer to renovate both the hotel as well as the golf course at the resort. The news officially dropped about a week and a half ago, as both WNEM TV5 and MLive covered the Bay County Board of Commissioners’ decision to approve a brownfield plan for the site.
I want to talk about the complicated history at Bay Valley in just a minute, but first, some details from the release:
The organization behind the purchase and renovation plan is Storie Co., an Indianapolis-based hotel investment, asset management, and development firm. The resort rehabilitation plus amenities package seems to be a common target for Storie Co. to pursue, and they do have one other Michigan resort currently in their portfolio at Pine Mountain Resort in Iron Mountain.
The renovation plan amounts to $15 million, with $5 million dedicated to renovating the 147 rooms at the resort. Upgrades are also intended for the event spaces and golf course. No further details are available yet on what this entails for the course, but I’ve reached out to Storie Co. for more info.
With the approval of the brownfield plan, the company will receive certain tax reimbursements for revitalizing the property.
“We think that the original business plan for Bay Valley of being a 147-room resort with an incredible championship golf course, 14,000 square feet of meeting space, and two restaurants - that’s the right business plan.” - Nathan Nichols, CEO of Storie Co.1
History
It’s so hard to keep track of how many times Bay Valley has changed hands. I tried to come up with a timeline of every report in the past few decades of the resort being bought, sold, auctioned, renovated, or reported to have plans for renovation. Here’s my best condensed timeline:
1998 - The resort undergoes a $10 million renovation following a large fire.
During this time, I believe the owner is Anthony Barclae, a metro Detroit auto executive who once bought the Kimberley Oaks golf course in St. Charles out of foreclosure in 19692. He would later in 2010 attempt to purchase the now-defunct Ann Arbor Country Club.
His thoughts in 2010: “The golf course business - particularly in Michigan - is difficult. I’m not really optimistic that the golfing industry is profitable these days.”
2007 - Toledo-based RMC Realty Co., a real estate holding company with primary holdings in residential real estate, buys the property from Barclae. The deal marks the company’s first commercial real estate holding.
The new owners contracted SJA Inc., a Georgia-based hotel management consulting company, to perform the day-to-day management. SJA specializes in new acquisitions and turning around "distressed" hotels, according to their president.
"Its been distressed from the standpoint that it needs a new spark in terms of management direction," he said of Bay Valley. "There is some renovation that needs to take place." They ultimately achieve their goal of making the resort a part of the Clarion brand of hotels.
2008 - A year after purchasing Bay Valley, RMC Realty defaults on it’s $6.3 million mortgage, according to the new owner and operator, Ambit Funding. Although it was expected to go to auction after foreclosure proceedings, Ambit eventually took control of the property and continued to operate it. Ambit hires Horizon Hotels Limited of Eatontown, N.J., to manage the resort.
2011- Bay Valley is put up for auction by its owner, a company called Bay Valley Mortgage Lender. I’m not sure what has happened in the transition from Ambit to Bay Valley Mortgage Lender, perhaps they are the same entity.
Doug Johnson, managing director of CBRE Auction Services, said the owner is a lender and not in the business of owning and operating resorts.
“They elected to sell the property at auction, so they can find a sale and ensure a date-certain sale,” he said.
The winning bidder, a quiet man who sat in the front row during the auction, declined to comment following the auction. Officials with CBRE Auction Services, which handled the sale of the facility, would not release the man’s name.
2021 - Newly-remodeled rooms, a new menu, and re-surfaced pool all await guests at Bay Valley. The hotel, conference center, and golf course all closed in March 2020 as the pandemic ramped up in this area, says General Manager Elizabeth Clay.
While the doors were closed, the staff worked to improve the facility. They finished renovating rooms and a unique indoor-outdoor heated pool that’s open year-round.
The resort welcomed golfers back in April 2021 while the restaurant, conference rooms, and hotel rooms gradually re-opened. A few months later, the facility is completely open and the management team is excited about the future.
2022 - That excitement is short-lived, as the hotel seemingly closes. The resort later clarifies that they are enduring a “hiatus”, but that the resort is still operational.
“There is a purchase agreement in the works, I believe,” Clay said. “I know that the potential owner, he does not intend on keeping it a hotel. He is looking at making it a medical facility.”
Clay said that purchase agreement should be finalized in August. She wants everyone to know closing was never the plan, it was something that became necessary.
“He [the current owner] is at a point where he doesn’t know what to do,” Clay said. “He is 74 years old. He’s lost a lot of money. He just wants somebody to buy the business.”
Clay said the golf course will remain open for this year at least.
Today - I could not find any details of the transition from the previous owner to Storie Co. The medical facility idea, as well as a potential plan for turning the resort into a senior living facility, were both floated during planning committee meetings. Ultimately the main hurdle was always the need to rezone the area to turn it into anything other than a resort.
The Course
During all of the ownership changes and uncertainty over the future of the resort, the one constant that always remained was the golf course. There was no media coverage, obviously, of how the general manager, superintendent, and other workers managed to keep everything afloat during these tumultuous times. I can tell you what I know, but it’s important to note that all of this should fall under the unsubstantiated rumors category.
I don’t know the last time that the hotel at Bay Valley has been profitable, but the golf course has always been able to manage a steady stream of business. In many cases when the hotel was suffering, the golf course was used as the main source of income for the resort, and funds were funneled directly from the golf operation to the hotel, almost always at the expense of the course’s upkeep. The superintendents at Bay Valley unfortunately have had to continually keep the course presentable using increasingly limited funds.
As expected, a steady stream of superintendents have been in and out through the revolving door at Bay Valley. Again, we are talking about highly unsubstantiated feedback from various individuals here, but the analysis appears to be mostly consistent. There have been some good, ambitious young supers to come through who were intent on doing their best. But when their budget is limited and their ability to find good workers is minuscule, they generally don’t stick around for long. Other hires have barely shown a passing interest in doing anything other than cutting the grass, given what the resort was offering them. At one point, members of the club were taking on maintenance projects of their own, such as clearing overgrown areas along the creek that were impeding play.
Challenges
Speaking of the creek, one of the main challenges for the resort going forward will be how to deal with water on the course, especially on those holes surrounding the creek, such as holes 2, 3, 4, and 8. Flooding from the creek is an almost annual occurrence now, especially during the spring months. On more than one occasion, the 4th hole has had to either be fully closed, or reduced from a par 4 to a par 3.
Where water hasn’t transformed the course, trees have. When my father was a ranger at the course, he found an old poster from the opening days of the course. It depicted what might be Jack Nicklaus (more on that later) on the tee of the par-3 5th hole, with nothing but flowing grass in the frame between the golfer and the green, a lone pine tree along the left, and a title at the bottom - “The Heather Hole”.
That hole today:
It’s remarkable to look at a 1973 aerial of a course mostly built on farmland, and then see what it looks like today.
The course was designed in 1973 by English-born Desmond Muirhead, an architect with a reputation for planning courses around residential communities, and for being rather eccentric. Muirhead was best known for his Mission Hills Country Club design, along with co-designing the original Muirfield Village with Jack Nicklaus. His partnership with Nicklaus, which is suggested to have lasted about 3 years until their fractious split during the Muirfield Village project in 1976, often leads many sources to list Bay Valley as a Desmond Muirhead and Jack Nicklaus design. More zealous sources simply list it as a Jack Nicklaus design. I’ve never found any actual evidence that Jack Nicklaus was involved at Bay Valley at all. There is a chance that the golfer depicted in my dad’s poster is Jack Nicklaus (I keep meaning to take a picture of the poster - someday I will), but that wouldn’t confirm much more than him visiting the site at least one time.
So where can this course honestly position itself in today’s game? Despite what Storie Co. insists, this is not a “championship course”. It has bunkers and water hazards, sure, which maybe some people equate with championship golf, but it tips out at just over 6600 yards. It’s such an outdated term, and frankly, Bay Valley feels just as outdated, like a 1970’s country club in the middle of a housing development.
Any attempts to revive the course should start with the things I’ve mentioned:
How to manage water on the course.
How to salvage the original playing corridors from the encroaching plant life.
How to effectively restore a proper maintenance plan and long-term vision for the course .
What to do with this:
14th hole. Any angle of approach benefits to driving the island are now negated by modern distances. A drive today will more likely be between the two carts.
One More Idea
I pitched this in one of my early newsletters. In front of the hotel there is a large grass area that the resort maintains as mown grass, but serves absolutely no purpose.3
It’s not nearly big enough for any kind of short course, which would greatly enhance a resort stay. But it is large enough for a putting course, and accompanying outdoor bar area. The proximity to housing might prove to be a challenge to any bar idea, but it’s worth exploring. Both for resort guests and locals, a fun outdoor putting area could be a great attraction, and good use for land that already needs to be maintained.
An ideal model for this would be at Journeyman Distillery in Three Oaks, where their putting course, Welter’s Folly, allows patrons to grab a drink inside, and then head out to the green. It keeps both adults and kids busy, and in the case of Journeyman’s business, helps facilitate traffic into their dining rooms. Traffic is exactly what the hotel, restaurants, and event spaces need at Bay Valley. That it’s appealing to golfers is just an added bonus.
Shorter News - Boulder Pointe
This is a little older than the Bay Valley news, but back in February it was announced that Metamora Golf & Country Club was acquiring nearby Boulder Pointe Golf Club. I wanted to parse out some of the quotes from the releases to see if we can find some clues as to what was behind this move.
“The addition of Boulder Pointe Golf Club combines two exceptional facilities under one ownership umbrella, allowing our teams to increase the quality of the grounds, events and service at both locations,” said Rick Fleming, club manager and co-owner. “We look forward to welcoming members and non-members at both locations and increasing the number of events we host for families, businesses and community organizations at Boulder Pointe’s beautiful banquet facility.”
“Metamora Golf & Country Club is home to a number of golf outings each year, including many that raise money for worthy causes in our community. Adding the courses at Boulder Pointe gives those currently hosting outings at Metamora the opportunity to expand their outing,” said Fleming. “In addition, we’re proud of the number of events we host each year at Metamora Golf & Country Club from weddings, to graduation parties to member events and more, but square footage is limited, even with the availability of our pavilion tent in the warmer months. Adding the award-winning banquet facility at Boulder Pointe to the line-up of options that we can offer the community year-round is a huge benefit. An expansion was also necessary for those who simply love the game of golf. The demand for member and open play rounds have increased in recent years creating the need for more golf holes. Bringing Boulder Pointe into our family of golf facilities allows us to offer more tee time to our members, guests and the community.”
“With our close proximity… you go from a 27-hole facility to a 45-hole facility,” Boulder Pointe Director of Golf Eric Suran said. “It’s very easy to have that … especially from people in our community.”
“At Boulder… if you join the platinum membership, now you have access to the pool at Metamora,” Suran explained. “It’s close enough where that can be feasibly done.”
The unsubstantiated rumors that I’ve heard is that this move was done mostly with the private membership in mind. The quotes add some weight to that, as Metamora gains access to the larger facilities at Boulder Pointe for events, while Boulder Pointe members gain access to the Metamora pool.
What I don’t know is how the local public golfer is affected by this. Boulder Pointe was a good option when I lived in Auburn Hills, where the 27-holes made for a good amount of tee time availability and the occasional Golfnow discount. Albeit this was over ten years ago. Metamora describes itself as semi-private, although I don’t see a tee time booking option on their website. Will the addition of 18 more holes open up the flow of public golfer access to Metamora? Or is this mostly designed to increase member traffic from Metamora to Boulder Pointe?
Only time, and people with more information than I have, will tell.
“Championship golf course” means so many different things to different people. Maybe this was a championship golf course in 1973, but it’s not today, and doesn’t have the capacity to be one going forward. This term needs to be removed from their lexicon so they can focus on what the course has the potential to be.
It’s unclear to me whether he bought the golf course or just the property out of foreclosure, as my notes say the course was designed in 1970. Either way, he later sold the course, and it ultimately became a Covid casualty in 2020.
This mown area has poor drainage, like many parts of the course, and is often underwater. This can’t be helpful for keeping it mown. One additional benefit of developing this area into a putting course would be both the aesthetic and practical upgrades that would come from building it up and adding proper drainage.