Loop Links, No. 1
Some Michigan and Michigan-adjacent golf stuff that I'm thinking about, delivered whenever I feel like it.
I’ve wanted a place to read about and discuss golf happenings in the state, and nothing has satisfied what I’m looking for. Some monthly publications deliver some golf news, but it’s mostly interspersed with paid fluff pieces on Boyne, or the Robert Trent Jones Trail, or French Lick. It’s one of those situations where if you can’t read what you want, then create it yourself. That’s what I’m doing here.
I will openly admit that I’m brazenly stealing the format and general style of the Normal Sport newsletter by Kyle Porter, but without any (or at least very little) interest in pro golf. And at this stage, the newsletter will only happen when conditions come together for me to produce it - namely time, motivation, and stuff to talk about. Here is the first edition.
The Short Course Boom -
I grew up playing the par 3 course at Currie in Midland. It was a great option for when a full round wasn’t in the cards, or when my game and attitude didn’t earn me the privilege to play a full round with the adults. But it’s easy to see now in hindsight that - no, actually I knew it then, too - it wasn’t a great course. Very bland.
Fast forward to today, and I’m currently a member at Georgetown in Ann Arbor. We are mostly there for family pool time, but the 9-hole executive course there is a great option for me to get in an hour or so of golf in the middle of the workday. The course, in general, is not bad for what it is. Kind of small greens, a few bunkers that vary in upkeep, and a par 4 with one of the most severely sloped greens I’ve played. If it didn’t run slow, it would be outright unplayable.
The course serves its purpose for club members and people in the community, mostly on the older end, but any time I’m there I wonder if it could be more. In the middle of a town like Ann Arbor?
Today’s newer short courses tend to look more like the Bootlegger at Forest Dunes. There is always music playing, and it’s a place for the adults to hang before or after the serious rounds. That may or may not appeal to everyone, but the bland design of places like Currie (to be fair, I am not saying it’s like that today, because I haven’t been there in over 20 years) and questionable upkeep of some short courses are tough introductions to the game for new players that aren’t ready for full courses yet. Like Andy Johnson of The Fried Egg often says, just because a course is for beginners doesn’t mean it needs to be bland. You don’t entice people to the game by showing them your lowest version of the product.
I don’t know where the short course trend will go in Michigan, but we certainly have some new options coming our way to check out. Let’s see how these courses shape up, and then I think we can all formulate our opinions accordingly.
Manistee National - Built in-house by the owner and staff of Manistee National, a teaser video surfaced last year (see below) that looked promising. The website also features the concept drawing (below.) In a February interview, the GM mentioned that the course was built and grassed, but had a few infrastructure things left to complete. A soft opening was scheduled for mid-summer. Did it happen? I have yet to come across someone who has seen it or played it. Much like Forest Dunes, or Bandon Dunes, short courses are great add-ons for resorts with multiple courses, and I have to imagine this one will be successful.
Doon Brae, Boyne Highlands - Designed by the ubiquitous Ray Hearn, this course replaces the old Cuff Links executive course at the base of the ski hill at the Highlands. It’s described as having a “slight flavor of some of the favorite greens Ray Hearn has played in the British Isles.” One look at the concept drawing and hole names and it’s clear that this means template greens, even though the Boyne PR release steers way clear of using the “template” term anywhere. While the overall design philosophy of the course sounds appealing, I’ll wait and see to make sure these don’t turn out to be Template-Lite greens before I shell out Boyne money for a round.
Other Doon Brae features are to include a putting course, lights for evening play, fire pits, music, food, and more. The timeline appears to be for an opening some time in 2024. More info here from Max White.
The Homestead - Owned by the owners of nearby Manitou Passage, the Mountain Flowers par 3 course plays up and down the hillside at The Homestead resort. I was of the impression that the course had closed for business, but the Homestead site says it was merely closed for 2023 for “continued maintenance”. I’ve played the course, and it’s on an interesting piece of land in one of the coolest parts of the state, but it’s an odd course that doesn’t know what it wants to be.
It was rumored that the owners were in talks with Mike DeVries for a full overhaul, but that is not the case, according to DeVries. He has looked at the course and offered some recommendations, but is not slated to do work on the course, and the owners appear to be sticking with the existing routing while making some upgrades. Hopefully they figure it out, because it’s an area of the state that is begging for some good golf.
Putting course at Wolf River - As part of my recent profile of the renovation at Wolf River Golf Park, Course Manager Steven Biehl detailed plans for a putting course to be added in 2024. The course website has been updated with details on the progress of the 1.5-acre green, so it appears that it is still on track to debut some time this summer. Plans to add bathrooms with a rooftop bar and space for musical guests seem to still be a in a preliminary phase, however.
I’d consider myself a fan of putting courses these days, mostly due to my experience at Journeyman Distillery. Whenever we visit the Southwest side of the state, we try to make a stop at Journeymen and their 30,000 square foot green, named Welter’s Folly. The kids can run wild and hit some balls around, mom can grab a drink, and dad can secretly try to work on his putting while also getting time in with kids. It’s great as a standalone visit, or combined with a meal at the restaurant.
Paired with a destination like Journeyman, a course like this is able to work even in a small town like Three Oaks. Why couldn’t it work as a standalone feature in a larger town?
I think about this often as I pass by the entrance to Bay Valley Resort to visit family. There they have a large open space, built up with containment mounding and maintained as rough, but nothing has ever existed there, other than standing water.
For a place that has gone through many ownership changes, and has opened and closed the hotel and bar/lounge multiple times, this could be a unique draw. Where else in the Tri-Cities can adults and kids come together to enjoy the game, without fear of rankling the regulars? I think a place like this would be a hit in any of the major cities in the state.
2023 First-time Plays -
The reality of life with kids, unfortunately, made my 2023 list of courses I’ve played for the first time exceedingly short. All in all, I played 45 new-to-me holes on the year. Nine of those holes were the Preserve nine at Bay Harbor (I’d already played the other 18 in the past). I can keep this review real short. If you dropped me on that course with a blindfold and had me play all but the last hole (for obvious reasons), I likely could have been convinced that I was playing an Arthur Hills course anywhere in the state. The only tell would be the greens fees, as you’d be paying 3 times as much for the same Art Hills experience you can get at multiple places across the Mitten.
The highlight of 2023 was a round at Barton Hills Country Club, a place I’ve wanted to see for many years now. It feels like a big ballpark, no doubt due to views opened up across the course in the past decade or so, and when looking back on each hole, at least, it proved to be a course that offered a lot of space. It didn’t always feel that way at ground level, though, as the deception techniques that Donald Ross is known for, mostly through bunker placement, had me missing all day in places that I absolutely should not have. The steep green edges paired with deep bunkers, in particular, put me in a few sideways lies. Having checked the course off of my list, do I immediately want to get back and play it again, or does the single play satisfy my need to have seen the course? I’d say that reflecting on the round about 6 months later, I’m not dying to get back immediately. I would happily enjoy a round there every few years, however, if I am lucky enough to be invited back.
Last on the list is Eldorado in Cadillac, the only true public course on my 2023 list. While in an entirely different category as Barton, I think I would give it the same treatment. I don’t feel like I need to go out of my way to play it again, but I would be content any time I found myself on the first tee again. Mostly it didn’t wow me too much from tee to green, and it was a little soggy in places, even during an exceptionally dry period in June. But what blew me away was the size of the greens. You just don’t see greens that big in most places, let alone at a public course. It feels good to hit greens, and attempting 100 foot putts is surprisingly fun. I would come back just to experience that again. And I feel good patronizing a place run by someone like Don Smith.
Staying on Brand(el) -
Like I said, I try to limit my discussion of pro golf. Mostly because there are too many people doing it, and also because I’ve been pretty open about my disgust for men’s pro golf at the moment, from the players to the tours to the coverage, you name it. But this dust up between No Laying Up and Brandel Chamblee came on my radar and it was just dumb enough that I felt the need to comment on what it means.
First of all, every once in awhile I agree with a take from Brandel, and when I do I find that he can provide a very thorough and fair argument. More often than not he plays the contrarian, however, picking a stance first and finding his argument for it second. I don’t want to call too much attention to the stupidity here, where Brandel compares a podcast to a golf broadcast, receives pushback in the replies, says the comparison is not fair because of the costs and rights fees that are part of a broadcast, and then continues to compare a podcast and a golf broadcast despite saying you can’t.
Hidden under the drama is his overall message, that it’s not fair to criticize the amount of ads in a golf broadcast because it’s an expensive production. We must seemingly have to grin and bear it, because that’s the only way to do golf coverage.
Look, I’m just an idiot here who knows nothing about putting on a broadcast, but as a fan of F1, I can’t fathom how this argument would only apply to golf. Sure, a golf broadcast has to have multiple cameras on 18 golf holes, and figure out which shots to show. Comparatively, an F1 broadcast has cameras on 20 cars going 200+ mph, and you can choose which driver you want to ride on board with. More cameras live at a dozen or more corners where the car will be in sight for fractions of a second, plus cameras in the pit lane and radio feeds for each team. The crew, meanwhile, has tire allotments to track and decisions to make regarding which battles in the race receive air time. And I can watch this for up to 2 hours straight with no commercial interruptions.
But golf… GOLF… can’t do better than 18 minutes of commercials out of every hour of coverage, sometimes showing as little as 3 shots between commercial breaks?! I can’t follow whoever I want to see and have to settle for whatever the broadcast chooses to give me, because why? It’s too difficult? Again, I’m an idiot, but I simply refuse to believe that the current golf product is as good as it can be and that we have to accept it.
Unsubstantiated rumors -
I have yet to find official word anywhere, but rumors say Devil’s Ridge in Oxford has been sold, and will be used as hunting grounds for the new owner. If true, it will be missed. It wasn’t a great course, far from my favorite, but it had its moments. There was a funky ridge through the middle of the property that almost certainly could have been used better in the design, but it created some unique, almost Gaylord-like downhill shots, that you don’t often find around the Detroit metro area.
Have any topics you would like to see discussed here, or rumors (substantiated or un-) to share? Send me feedback at my socials or e-mail:
@greatlakesloops (X/IG/Threads)/craig.levasseur@gmail.com
The Short Course at Manistee National did open, and it was a lot of fun to play. A really cool piece of property.
The putting course at Wolf River Golf Park is still on-track for 2024. Irrigation has been tapped into the main line, and most of the rough grading on nearly 2 acres of surface is complete. Plan to start irrigation soon after the ground thaws, with seeding happening by Memorial Day.
Glad you were able to join us at bay harbor