By MIKE POULOS
Special to the Journal & Topics Newspapers
Though the summer season is coming to an end, There's' still time to golf.
It's only a six or seven hour drive through picturesque Central Michigan to the beautiful resort area of Traverse City. I had an opportunity to stay a couple evenings at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa recently and though the focus of my brief stay was to golf some of the magnificent courses in this area, it is an ideal vacation destination for individuals or families who want to do other things.
Traverse City is located in the Northwest part of the state just south of another fantastic vacation and recreation area, Mackinac. The area around Traverse City is defined by the East and West Bay's of Lake Michigan, which make two distinct peninsulas where all of the local activity takes place. It is the geography of the region that makes the area so attractive to visitors. Much of the area consists of rolling hills with dense pine forests, which serve as perfect topography for a round of challenging golf.
But a few more things about the Traverse City area. One cannot visit this area not knowing it is the cherry capital of the world. Even the airport is called Cherry Capital Airport. The second week of July features a cherry festival in which the entire region opens up with a carnival-like atmosphere topped off with a spectacular fireworks display over the West Bay on the last day. There is no shortage of water-related activities, boating, sailing, swimming and fishing. Also, this area of Michigan features abundant opportunities to ski during the winter.
There are also two top quality casinos located on the east and west sides of Traverse Bay. On the west side on the Leelanau Peninsula is the Leelanau Sands Casino, a scenic 20 miles north of Traverse City. On the east side is Turtle Creek Casino in the neighboring Williamsburg, which is open 24 hours a day year-round.
For the golfer in you and before the season changes to a fall-like setting, you must treat yourself to some excellent champion caliber courses in this area. I just wish I was a better golfer to fully appreciate the intricate design which when you think about it challenges man against nature. When you play courses like this, which utilize the natural topography in such functional ways, you begin to realize just how difficult this sport can be.
According to Golf Digest Magazine, the Traverse City area is ranked as the 12th best area in the world to golf. In the press information provided to me was a golf guide pamphlet which lists the area's premiere golf courses and the four courses I played. You will see from my description how uniquely different they all are with varying degrees of difficulty.
To start off with, the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, a 900-acre resort with an eye-catching 17-story tower in the center, features three quality golf courses; The Bear, The Wolverine and Spruce Run. The resort opened in 1980 and has been adding ever since. The tower was completed in 1986 just one year after famed golfer Jack Nicklaus designed The Bear, a nickname he has gone by for decades. The Wolverine, designed by another hall of fame golfer, Gary Player, opened in 1999 and the third on-site course, Spruce Run, actually pre-dates the opening of the resort, opening in 1979. I had an opportunity to play The Bear and shoot nine on Spruce Run.
I guess you could say The Bear is, well, a bear to play. Of all the courses listed, it is ranked as the most difficult with a Slope Rating of 146. In golf terminology, the higher the number, the higher degree of difficulty. To put perspective to this, Spruce Run has a Slope Rating of 130, the Wolverine a 144, the Leelanau Club a 136 and the High Pointe Golf Club a 136. To a golfer of my limited skill, it makes little difference though I admit to having lost more golf balls at The Bear than the other three combined. Maybe that says something about the degree of difficulty.
The distinguishing feature of The Bear is its lack of vertical elevation. It was purposely designed with a horizontal perspective, a washboard effect you might say. Influenced heavily from English and Scottish courses, The Bear positions hazards from the point of teeing-off to the green. Clearly, The Bear features more sand traps - deep ones, too - than the other courses and several holes with water hazards.
But the most difficult thing to navigate through on The Bear is its high grassy areas sporadically located throughout every hole. Should your ball land in one of these tall tufts of grass and weeds, best you take a penalty stroke. It can be inferred from the Slope Rating that The Bear demands precision shooting and not just whacking away and hoping the ball doesn't land in the rough along the edges. Of course, The Bear features as all of the courses, a finely-trimmed fairway and exceedingly fast greens. I warn you not to go into one of those deep sand traps. Some of them have steps to help you get in and out.
The Spruce Run golf course has more traditional features of a golf course unlike The Bear. These fairways are narrower lined with more trees on either side, likely spruce trees which the course is aptly named after. Depending on which color tee you shoot from, Spruce Run is almost 800 yards shorter than The Bear. It's a beautiful course and is superbly maintained as are all of the courses, but what distinguishes this course from, say, The Bear, is that there are water features on 13 of it's 18 holes.
Admittedly, I struggled with The Bear, but I felt more challenged by the third course I golfed on, the Leelanau Club. I had to travel about 20 miles out of Traverse Bay to reach this course, opposite West Bay in Suttons Bay. The mile or two before the entrance of the club features acres and acres of cherry trees, which dominate the landscape.
Upon entering the club and preparing to tee-off, it did not appear from the gentle topography on the drive up that this course would feature some of the most dramatic overview vistas I've ever seen. There were at least 5 or 6 holes where the tee-off overlooked the vastness of the hilly terrain, below which was, yes, the fairway. In front of the fairway and below from the hilltop tee-off positions were rows of trees or significant stands of tall, thick bushes...wonderful places for golf balls to hide. I know.
The best and only way to approach these holes is to blast away - put your ball a good 200 yards out and into the open. Often, from there, your second and third shots would have to go uphill and over or around embankments before you can get a fix on the green. This course may have less water than Spruce Run, but the topographic relief is so intimidating, you couldn't imagine what it would be like if it contained lagoons, ponds and creeks. Now that would be something to behold.
The last course I golfed at was the High Pointe Golf Club, which is located only a couple miles east of the Grand Traverse Resort. Up to this point, each course had it's own unique look and feel - some distinguishing characteristic that made it stand out. With High Pointe, it seemed to combine the qualities of the other three with a mix of topographic slopes, thickly forested areas and vast open areas with tall grass. Again, nice hiding places for golf balls.
High Pointe is a course that starts out in the open for the first nine and then transforms into a more densely wooded area defined by narrower fairways. Like the others, there's a lot of up-and-down terrain, dog-legs and curvatures to the holes. They challenge golfers to either go over hazards, like a stand of trees well positioned to block a direct approach to the green, or play it safe and go through a field of sand traps and the rough. It doesn't take a bad stroke to make a critical mistake.
The distance on High Pointe is almost that of The Bear. The Slope Rating here, 136, is the same at Leelanau, though I felt less stress having to navigate it. Surprisingly, there is only one hole (No. 18) that features a water hazard, and it's a whopper. Named "The Pond", it requires a tee shot that must be pin-pointed along the right fairway to avoid an area of dense brush, wetlands and marshes. From there it requires a monster stroke of at least 200 yards to clear the pond. From there it is a 60 or 70 yard chip shot onto the green. At nearly 500 yards, it was perhaps the most challenging - and difficult - hole of the weekend.
I was surprised to learn that the green fees for playing these wonderful courses is affordably low and well within reason. The three courses at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa each have differently priced green fees. The Bear, the premiere course, and the Wolverine, are $85 on weekends if you are a guest at the resort. Otherwise, the cost is $110, still a reasonable price to pay for such magnificent courses. The adjoining Spruce Run is only $60 and $70, respectively. Midweek rates are considerably lower and these prices are good through October 3. After that until the snow and ice descend upon the area, the fees are less.
The rates at the Leelanau Club are $59 on weekdays and $69 on weekends. At the High Pointe Golf Club, the weekend rates are $69, but only $64 after 3 p.m.. The weekday rates are $59 and only $54 after 3 p.m. To contact the Leelanau Club for more details and tee times, phone 231-271-2020 (www.leelanauclub.com). To contact the High Pointe Golf Course, phone 800-753-7888 (www.highpointegolf.com.
For all information regarding the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa as well as The Bear, Wolverine and Spruce Run golf courses, phone 231-938-2100 or 800-748-0303. And for those of you interested in visiting the Traverse City area and other quality hotels and resorts such as BayShore Resort, Holiday Inn Express Hotel and West Bay locations, Traverse Bay Lodge, Traverse Bay Inn and Waterfront Inn Resort Hotel to name a few, contact the Traverse City Convention and Visitor Bureau at (800) 940-1120.
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