Lake effect: Northern Michigan's natural surroundings create spectacular scenery—and even better golf

Golf Digest, Sept, 2001 by Matthew Rudy

As a ski mecca, Northern Michigan has its limitations.

It snows here, and snows a lot, but the region doesn't have much of what resort managers longingly refer to as "vertical"--mountain peaks steep enough to satisfy even the most experienced black-diamond veterans.

The hard truth for the Northern Michigan ski resorts like Boyne, Crystal Mountain and Treetops was evident. Without the verticals of Vail or Park City, they could never develop into anything more than regional, half-year ski destinations. To grow, they needed to attract tourists during the region's mild summer.

For the bean counters who approve spending for things like new lodges, restaurants and spas, signature golf courses from prominent designers have proved to be a perfect way to use the exposed land adjacent to the ski slopes, fill the hotel rooms and condos, and keep valuable staff members employed year-round.

But it has only been since the course-construction boom in the 1990s that modern architects have discovered the things Alister Mackenzie knew well when he built his under-publicized masterpiece, Crystal Downs, on the Lake Michigan shore west of Traverse City in 1933. The crescent of land that crowns Michigan's lower peninsula offers perfect topography, soil, views and weather. In other words, this is a perfect place to build a golf course.

Or a hundred of them.

It might have taken a half-century for them to catch on, but developers needed only a decade to catch up. Michigan had more new course openings than any other state every year from 1994 to 1998. Even with a softening economy and a glut of premium daily-fee courses around Gaylord (the epicenter of Northern Michigan golf) that has inspired predatory price-slashing, more than 75 new courses opened in the state from 1998 to 2000, the last years measured by the National Golf Foundation. Now you can find a memorable golf course at every point in the price spectrum, from $50 at The Gailes to $250 at Bay Harbor. And with the variety of views and terrain, you can play something that reminds you of Scottish links in the morning (with a Great Lake substituting for the North Sea), then search for your tee shot in white-pine forests in the afternoon. For a golfer, there might not be a better place to visit.

'Pinehurst of the Midwest'

"The best golf in the nation is here," says instructor and architect Rick Smith, who has designed four courses in the area and has a school at Treetops Resort in Gaylord. "The land is fantastic and the views go on for miles. It's the Pinehurst of the Midwest."

The complete roster of Northern Michigan courses, which numbers about 150, isn't as tightly accessible as the best in Pinehurst, but on a well-planned, five-day driving trip, no course is too remote to reach with a morning drive. The entire parabola of Northern Michigan's golf Riviera is less than 200 miles long, or about a 311/42-hour car ride. As at Myrtle Beach, most of the prominent new daily-fee courses here count on visitors coming for long play-and-stay weekends--sampling the resort's offerings, but also traveling off-campus for rounds at other courses.

A topographical map of Michigan makes the state look as if someone steamrolled it with heavy equipment, then rumpled the northwest corner. From the Ohio and Indiana border up through the middle of the state, Michigan is Nebraska flat. It's only when you head into that northwestern quadrant of the Lower Peninsula that the road in front of you starts to disappear over an oncoming hill. The state's biggest ski resorts are all within this 100-mile radius.

Most of Northern Michigan's main roads are well-paved, fast-paced and lined with trees, which makes pleasure drives a popular diversion. Just remember to watch the road. Northern Michigan is alive with deer, elk, bear and various other animals that can destroy the front of a rental car faster than you can say "deductible."

First stop: Arcadia Bluffs

On a recent trip, we started in Arcadia (a comfortable five-hour drive from Detroit), worked our way up to Traverse City, then through Petoskey and Gaylord before finishing on the Lake Huron side of the state. Plotting a route following the lakes, it's easy to pick Arcadia as the jumping-off point, but it isn't such an easy place to find. A fisherman's inlet for the past 100 years, this sleepy town only seems as if it's at the edge of the world. Arcadia Bluffs, the striking new Warren Henderson-Rick Smith course overlooking Lake Michigan, is past the edge of the world, two wrong turns past Arcadia's tiny post office.

The postcard-worthy views in this part of the state are the kind most courses in the world would envy. There's the panorama from Arcadia Bluffs' 15th green, which sits on a cliff 200 feet above Lake Michigan. And the ninth plays 240 yards from the back tee. Even the view from the picture window in the golf shop is stunning.

Arcadia Bluffs' clubhouse is perched on one of the highest points of land on the property, overlooking the Lake Michigan bluffs from which the course got its name. At the apex of the climb from the parking lot to the shop, the lake tumbles into view across the entire horizon, offering a thrilling preview.