Great Places to Play 18

Create Your Own Golf Package

Throughout April
Traverse City
888-499-4503

The Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau’s 2008 “create your own golf package” plan allows golfers to play the fabled courses of Michigan’s Golf Coast by choosing among 19 different courses and accommodations at 25 hotels, motels and resorts for as little as $52 per person. Now golfers can choose among such courses as The Legend, The Wolverine, King’s Challenge, Hawk’s Eye, High Pointe, Cedar River and Sundance Golf Club, as well as traditional favorites like Pinecroft, The Crown and Elmbrook. By calling a single toll-free number (1-888-499-4503) golfers can connect with one of the Bureau’s trained destination concierges, who’ll help them create a package customized to their individual tastes, budget requirements and playing ability.

Paw Paw Golfing

Paw Paw Lake Golf Club
Watervliet
269-463-3831
www.pawpawlakegolfcourse.com

There are at least 6 courses within 30 minutes of one another. Our course offers 18 holes which can accommodate golfers of varying skills depending on which of our three tees they choose to play from. Also beginners can opt for just 9 holes and walkers are still welcome (except for week-end mornings). Opening day is April 1st, weather permitting.

We have a most welcoming staff and offer light lunches on our clubhouse Patio or more casual hot dogs with drinks on our lakeside Gazebo.

Thoroughbred Golf Club

Double JJ Resort
Rothbury
800-DOUBLE-JJ
www.doublejj.com

Designed by renowned architect Arthur Hills, the Thoroughbred Golf Club is known for its beauty and solitude. With bent grass tees, fairways and greens, the Thoroughbred offers 18 championship holes that sprawl over 240 acres of rolling Michigan woodside. It wraps around the Gold Rush Indoor Waterpark and is the only golf course in Michigan where horseback riders have the right of way on cart paths. The strategic layout is challenging but rewarding to golfers of all abilities. Play it yourself and see why you'll want to come back again and again.

Golf From $89

Crystal Mountain
Thompsonville
800-YOUR-MTN
www.crystalmountain.com

Play at Crystal Mountain during their Hot Dates/Hot Rates UNLIMITED Golf from $89!
Valid April 1-24, April 27-May 1, May 4-14, 21-22, 25-27, June 3-4, 10-12, 15-16, 2008.
Package includes nightly lodging, unlimited golf with cart and breakfast. Two night minimum stay.

Manistee Golfing

Portage Point Inn
800-878-7248
Onekama
www.portagepointinn.com

Manistee County has six championship courses to consider when staying at the historic Portage Point Inn and Resort, on Portage Lake and Lake Michigan. This special resort is a perfect lodging option to play Arcadia Bluffs, nationally acclaimed golf club, just 15 minutes north of the Inn and The Heathlands, 10 minutes away on the other side of Portage Lake. You can add Manistee National, Manistee Golf and Country Club, Bear Lake County Highlands to round out the selection in Manistee. Hemlock Golf Club, just south of Manistee is also a popular option on your way up or on your way home. Call Jeff at the Portage Point Inn at 800-878-7248 to get your group quote or visit www.portagepointinn.com to view this special place.

BOYNE Golf

800-GO-BOYNE
www.boyne.com

At BOYNE resorts, you'll enjoy 162 holes of incredible golf with an array of amazing course layouts set against spectacular natural backdrops. Options are plentiful from $75 Frequent Golfer Cards available at Boyne Country Sports that save you $15 per BOYNE golf round to the new Gr8 Escape Golf Vacations (formerly Super Five Golf Weeks) available in three- and five-day packages that include lodging, breakfasts, all-inclusive dinners, unlimited golf with cart on seven courses, a $25 gaming voucher and customizable options such as a 50-minute massage, 18-holes at Bay Harbor Golf Club, golf lessons and much more! The five-day Gr8 Escape package starts at $835 and the three-day package is from $535.
Other golf packages include one night lodging, unlimited golf with cart, a hot and hearty breakfast and $25 gaming voucher to the new Odawa Casino for $109 per person, per night for midweek lodging and golf on five courses or $119 per person, per night on weekends. Unlimited golf on seven courses starts at $127 per person, per night.

Package prices are valid at Boyne Mountain in Boyne Falls, Michigan and Boyne Highlands in Harbor Springs, Michigan.

Experience Birchwood Golf and Country Club

Complimentary Golf  Special
Birchwood Farms Golf and Country Club
along with Holiday Vacation Rentals
Traverse City
888-242-7555
www.holidayvacationrental.com

For a limited time you can experience  Birchwood  Living including 27 holes of golf, tennis, outdoor pool and all new clubhouse and receive free golf with your vacation home or condo rental at Birchwood Farms Golf and Country Club.

Rent a cottage, condo or vacation home at Birchwood Farms Golf and Country Club and up to 6 persons in your group will receive a free round of golf.   You only pay a cart fee.  Choose any 18 - hole combination from the 27 breathtaking holes at Birchwood.   Golfers will find themselves surrounded by untouched forest and scenic Lake Michigan views.
 
Along with free golf, as a guest at Birchwood you will enjoy private golf club amenities including   pool, tennis, golf shop, new grill and superb dining in the completely remodeled Clubhouse.    Downtown Harbor Springs is only minutes away with shopping, boating, public beaches and restaurants.   
 
Experience Birchwood  is a unique opportuntiy to enjoy a getaway at one of the  best golf communities in the Michigan.  Offer subject to availability.  Expires June 27, 2008.  Minimum nights rental apply.  

Stay & Play Package

Holiday Inn
Grand Haven/Spring Lake
1-800-788-8411
www.higrandhaven.com 

Package includes overnight room, two rounds of golf at Grand Haven Golf Club with a cart, and $20 towards breakfast at Jack’s.

2008 Rates

Until May 22 Weekday $179.95 Weekend $199.95	May 23 ~ June 30 Weekday $229.95 Weekend $259.95	July 1 ~ Sept. 1 Weekday $249.95 Weekend $279.95
Sept 2 ~ Sept 15 Weekday $179.95 Weekend $209.95	After Sept 15 Weekday $159.95 Weekend $179.95	Rates are based on double occupancy. Additional person charges apply. Guests are responsible for making their own tee times

Golf for Buddies

March 28 - May 16
Fridays 5-7:30pm
South Haven
269-637-1041 

Grab a friend and join this basic golf class for beginners and novices. Boost your confidence and find a new pastime! Lake Michigan College offers this class in partnership with the South Haven Center for the Arts

First three classes at LMC, South Haven Campus, then Beeches Golf Club, South Haven.

Golfing "Up North"

Jack Nicklaus, Tom Doak and Arnold Palmer may have added the finishing touches to Traverse City’s awe-inspiring golf terrain, but it was an ancient glacier that did all the heavy lifting. Massive dunes, drumlins and moraines, left behind some 8,000 years ago by retreating ice sheets, give this place a distinctive landscape of long hills, narrow valleys and iridescent lakes that has attracted generations of golfers here to Michigan’s “Golf Coast.” Golf Magazine calls it “America’s summer golf capital.” Golf Digest awarded it the Number Twelve spot on its list of the world’s Greatest Golf Destinations.

It was Nicklaus’s grueling design for The Bear at Grand Traverse Resort & Spa that launched Traverse City as a world-class golf destination in 1985, and the course – now home to the Michigan Open – still holds up. Designed by golf great Jack Nicklaus, The Bear is one of the toughest in the Midwest. You'll quickly appreciate this beautiful par 72, links-style course featuring Scottish terraced fairways, tiered greens, deep grassy roughs, moguls, mounds, and deep pot bunkers. Lakes, ponds, hardwood forests, streams, and fruit orchards are home to a variety of wildlife that give The Bear its character: golf in the midst of wild nature. http://www.grandtraverseresort.com/index.php/do/The_Bear

Just a few miles to the west is Antrim County’s famed “drumlin country,” a landscape of rolling glacial ridges that are perfect for golf. Here is the area’s newest course, Sundance at A-Ga-Ming Golf Resort. A marriage of state-of-the-art construction and classical links style architecture, this Jerry Matthews course is designed to provide the ultimate golf experience for either the scratch golfer or the weekend duffer. Offering multiple tee boxes, lush beautifully sculpted greens; generous fairways carpeted with the most advanced bentgrass hybrids; plentiful strategic hazards and impeccable conditioning complement a course with its soul laid bare to the forces of nature. http://www.a-ga-ming.com/sundance/

The Leelanau Peninsula, Michigan’s “little finger,” is one of the most diverse landscapes in the country, from 400-foot coastal sand dunes and quaint fishing villages to rolling hills covered in vineyards and orchards, and including several fine golf courses. A well-kept secret among Midwestern elites, “The Leelanau” is becoming increasingly well-known among the general public but still retains most of its traditional charm. A good place to sample this treasure is The Leelanau Club at Bahle Farms. Golf enthusiasts will find unsurpassed terrain and beauty while playing one of northern Michigan's newest golf additions. The 18-hole championship course boasts spectacular views of Suttons Bay and West Grand Traverse Bay, varied terrain with hills, woodlands, water and strategically placed bunkers. Two holes are situated among working cherry orchards, just ripe for the picking in July while golfers plan their strategy to the green. http://www.leelanauclub.com

Just down the road, another golf design legend – Traverse City’s own Tom Doak – got his start at the High Pointe Golf Course. Opened in 1989, High Pointe was the first independent commission of legendary designer Tom Doak and was listed among that decade’s 10 best new U.S. courses by Links magazine. High Pointe is a mixed course that combines an open links-style front nine with a tree-shrouded “Up North” back nine. http://www.highpointegolf.com/

About 45 minutes’ drive from downtown Traverse City is the village of Bellaire, nestled in a region of tree-shaded inland lakes in central Antrim County. This is home to an impressive complex of golf courses at the Shanty Creek Resorts, including the Cedar River Golf Course

Designed by PGA tour player Tom Weiskopf, Cedar River is rated among "The Top 10 You Can Play" by Golf Magazine. Contoured to take full advantage of the Northern Michigan Terrain, Cedar River is traditional golf at its finest. With five tee placements on most holes, this 7,000-yard journey is relished by scratch golfers and novices alike.http://www.shantycreek.com

Lansing Golf

Greater Lansing is home to so many great golf courses, you can choose from over 30 courses within a 30-mile radius. In fact, there are so many options close by, that the only long drives you’ll see around here-will be from the tee box!

Check out the 3 courses at Hawk Hollow Golf Properties: Hawk Hollow, The Falcon and Eagle Eye Golf Club. www.hawkhollow.com.

What’s really cool is the 18 hole natural bentgrass putting course Little Hawk at Hawk Hollow. The putting course is a sculpted, landscaped, par 54 course, complete with sand traps, bridges, and water hazards. Playing time is one and a quarter hours. Perfect for the whole family to enjoy.

Free Golf

Whitefish Lake Golf & Grill
Pierson
888-368-5666
www.whitefishlakegolf.com

After a long cold winter, Spring is Here! It is time to fire up for a fun-filled season of golf at Whitefish Lake Golf Club! Several fun events are planned this season! Visit Whitefish Lake Golf for Tax Relief Day on April 16! If the IRS has put you in the hole get back on Par with FREE golf (excluding cart) on April 16!

“Slam” Package

Manistee National Golf & Resort
Manistee
877-626-4783
www.manisteenational.com

The Famous “Slam” Package includes: A Sunday night stay and unlimited golf on both courses from 2 p.m . Sunday until sundown Monday. Slam packages are based on double occupancy and standard rooms. The spring or fall Slam is available every weekday.
Not available with any other package or coupon. (Weekday is Sunday -Thursday) Prices are as follows: April 27 – June 12 $99; June 15-Sept 14, $159; September 21 – October 12, $99.

Spring Package

McGuire’s Resort
Cadillac
800-647-7302
www.mcguiresresort.com

Stay and Play – Starting at $109/person! Package available Sunday – Thursday. Golf to your heart's content with this package! Includes accommodations for one night, breakfast, dinner and as much golf (with cart) as tee times allow on our championship Spruce Course or the ever-challenging Norway Course – from noon on the day you arrive until noon the following day.

Golf Packages

Yarrow Golf & Conference Center
Augusta
800-563-4397
www.yarrowgolf.com

*Spring Golf Package
Package includes: Full Hot Breakfast, 18 holes of championship golf and cart at Yarrow Golf Club, One-Night Hotel Accommodations, and Taxes & Service Charges. Only $99 based on double occupancy.

* Learn to Golf Package
Come and learn to golf at Yarrow! Have a lesson, fantastic dinner, and a night away to relax. Package includes: One-Night Accommodation, Full Breakfast Buffet, Three Hours of Instruction with Stephen Helner, 18 Holes of Championship Golf with Cart & One Dinner. Only $455 per person ~ Based on Single Occupancy or $274 per person ~ Based on Double Occupancy and Shared Lesson