HARRIS, MI. – The Island Resort & Casino in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula already has two golf courses that offer variety for their players.  So, now they have a third course that will split the different style-wise between the two.

Michigan architect Paul Albanese, who designed the first two courses – Sweetgrass and Sage Run – has also designed the third one.  Officially it’s called Kishke.  That’s the term for Cedar in the Potawatomi language.  When it opens, projected for August of 2026, it’ll be known as the Cedar Course.

Sweetgrass was the first course built on the property and is widely recognized as one of the best in golf-rich Michigan.  Sage Run opened in 2018. It’s a fun course to play, but somewhat controversial.  It is certainly not easy.

Matt Sly, the course superintendent at Sage Run, says Cedar will be “a hybrid.’’

“It’ll be similar in yardage to the other two, but it’ll be a little more challenging than Sweetgrass, but not as hard as Sage Run,’’ said Sly. “It’ll have the wide, bentgrass fairways like Sweetgrass and rolling terrain like Sage Run.’’

There are a few more things you should know about this two-year project, planned as a $19 million investment.

While the new course will have no replica holes, it is being inspired by “the golden age of golf architecture.’’ That wasn’t the case at either Sweetgrass or Sage Run, and players will notice the difference.

“We wanted to give them a flavor of what it would be like to play overseas or from that era in the early 1900s,’’ said Albanese. “We are taking some great concepts from that era and incorporating them into the Cedar Course.’’

Most easily recognizable will be the church pew bunker on the ninth hole, reminiscent of Pennsylvania’s Oakmont – site of the 2025 U.S. Open. No. 6 has an enormous bunker left of the green and is called the Sahara hole.  No. 7 resembles the Juniper hole at Augusta National, annual site of the Masters. The par-5 second hole also looks intriguing with a long row of railroad ties clearly evident at this early stage of construction.

One other thing: the Cedar Course will have a six-hole partner.  An unusual short course is being constructed near the ninth green.  It’ll have two double greens and two regular greens.

Sweetgrass, Sage Run and Cedar are all names of the Indian tribe’s medicinal plants.  A fourth, Tobacco, is also being mentioned.  That suggests another course project could be in the works.

“We are building nine holes now with the hope of adding another nine in a few years,’’ said Sly.

A Michigan State graduate, Sly arrived on the scene 18 years ago as part of the crew that built Sweetgrass. He stayed around and is now more involved than just being superintendent at Sage Run.  He also coaches the boys and girls teams at Bark River Harris High School, which is located next to the Island Resort & Casino.  The teams play their matches at Sage Run, and the girls team was recently crowned the champion of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula schools.

While the new course is the major talking point going forward, other big projects have already been undertaken.  The Convention Center at the Island Resort & Casino received a 17,000 square foot addition that opened in June. Now there’s 30,000 square feet of convention space.

A new pro shop at Sweetgrass is also open now.  It offers a great view of the double green complex that serves both the No. 9 and 18 holes. That becomes a major focal point of the course, which already has an island green at No. 15.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, check islandresortandcasino.com.

HARBOR SPRINGS, MI. – Operators of the three Boyne resorts have always stayed ahead of the game.  This year they’ve been twice as good at it.

Two upgrades at The Highlands, in Harbor Springs, have changed the golf atmosphere there.  One is called Doon Brae, a one-of-a-kind nine-hole short course that was planned as the star attraction.  The other is the Back Yaird – and, yes, that’s the correct spelling for a huge new putting green off  The Highlands dining area.

Doon Brae and the Back Yaird stand side-by-side, and they opened together on June 6 after lengthy construction periods. You can’t help but play fun golf on Doon  Brae, and the number of games you can play at the Back Yaird are limitless. There’s a small fee to play Doon Brae and there’s none at the Back Yaird,  but these two newcomers are considered teammates.

Veteran Michigan golf architect Ray Hearn designed Doon Brae, and a lot of thought was put into the process. Doon Brae is built on a ski hill.  You can see the ski lift chairs, but they’re not in use until the winter. Hearn is a big fan of sidewall bunkers, and that’s clearly evident at Doon Brae.

There’s no power carts available to get you around.  You walk and carry a few clubs (I brought along five).  A light carry bag is provided if you want one, and it’s likely you will. Tee areas are fluid.  There’s three per hole, but only one marker per each yardage.  Tee off on either side of the marker, as you deem appropriate.

Each hole has a plaque with the history of the hole’s design. There are greens with the Punch Bowl, Redan, Postage Stamp and Biarritz formats, among others. It’s interesting reading, and highly educational if you’re a serious golf buff.  A scorecard is available, but not necessary.

The course has lights for night play, speakers to bring music to the players and a bar also adds to the good times. The previous short course at The Highlands was very basic; Doon Brae is anything but that. It measures 1,050 yards from the back tees, and 851 from the front markers. Longest hole is 150 yards and the shortest is 88.

Doon Brae is a Scottish term, with Doon meaning going down into a valley and Brae meaning hillside. Downhill, uphill and sidehill lies are commonplace.  Rarely do you get a flat lie, and that enhances the fun experience. The greens, though, are the star of the show, as Hearn has created them as tributes to famous architects from the distant past like C.B. McDonald and Seth Raynor.

“It’s a terrific course,’’ said  Ken Griffin, Boyne’s director of sales and marketing. “It opens up the resort to guests who are new to golf or who might not have the time to play one of our championship courses.  Doon Brae is all about fun.’’

Size is the thing at the Back Yaird.  It’s built over 65,000 square feet.  Three nine-hole courses are set up on that terrain, and there’s space for a fourth if needed. Each nine is distinguished by different colored pins in the holes. You can have informal competitions at the Back Yaird – but they can be serious battles if that’s what you want. You can also use that space to just practice, if that’s what you want to do. It’s best suited for post-round or post-dinner activity. It’s not physically taxing.

Whether it’s Doon Brae or the Back Yaird, you’ll find a number of participants playing barefoot. Enough said for how serious the participants approach their time on the two.

One of the courses at The Highlands — the Donald Ross Memorial — has undergone regular upgrades.  It opened with 17 Ross-designed holes chosen from his courses world-wide.

The other hole wasn’t designed by Ross, but No. 10 from Scotland’s Royal Dornoch was from a course which the designer grew up playing. It was the last hole re-done and re-opened this year.

Ross emigrated to the U.S. from Scotland in 1899 and he has an estimated 600 courses to his credit. A panel of Boyne officials selected the holes and the course was named Best New Resort Course in the USA by Golf Digest in 1990. It was a fine composite of holes then, but future research revealed that some needed changing to assure their historic credibility.

Six were rebuilt over a three-year period.  The course was played a hole short at times, and with a reduced rate to reflect that. Now it’s back to 18 holes and – while more upgrades are being considered – more hole shutdowns are not scheduled.

My favorite Boyne course is the Arthur Hills at The Highlands.  The most memorable hole there is the par-5 thirteenth, which offers a breathtaking view from the elevated tees.  This year there was an added attraction.  Loggers have been working diligently to restore damage done by a spring storm, and it was interesting to watch them do their duties while in no way disrupting play.

Boyne’s story began in 1955 when Everett Kircher purchased a failing ski resort.  Seventy years later it continues to flourish. While Kircher immediately put in a nine-hole course, the golf side of Boyne took off in 1971 with the opening  of The Heather at The Highlands.  Doon Brae, the 11^th course, opened in 2025.

While Doon Brae was in its finishing stages of construction Boyne Golf hauled in some major awards.  Most noteworthy was USA Today naming Boyne Golf the No. 1 golf resort destination in the U.S. and The Highlands was named No. 2.

You can’t do much better than that.

MACKINAC ISLAND, MI. – The first time we visited this vacation hotspot in Northern Michigan we came largely to check out the golf.  It appeared to be a well-kept secret on the Island that we should be uncovering – and it was.

The island’s iconic Grand Hotel has an 18-hole course that is well worth playing. The front nine by the hotel is called The Jewel and Tom Bendelow designed it in 1898.  It offers a pleasant setting and the horse-drawn carriage ride to the back nine added a fun touch of the unusual.

Jerry Matthews, a Michigan architect, updated The Jewel in 1987 and designed the back nine, called The Woods, in 1994.  A lot of golf history there, but Wawashkamo was another matter.  This nine-holer was well away from where the action was on the Island and had much more history than the 18-holer.

Called Wawa, it was built in 1898 with Alex Smith the designer.  You play this unusual layout using sand to create your own tees, feathered golf balls and hickory club.  Just like the Island itself, its golf courses have lots of history.  You get the idea.

All that was well and good, a story worth telling, and it produced our first travel writing award – a big boost as we were just getting this website going. That was in 2016. We’ve changed our thinking a lot since then.

While we did visit the Island just to watch the boats finish the storied Chicago-to-Mackinac yacht race a few years later, we thought this year would be a good time to visit Mackinac Island again with no  pre-conceived ideas. It was a good idea.

In our many trips around the United States we have seen both golf and travel writing change, and we’ve needed to change with it.  Covering just golf wasn’t enough. We started blending our travel destination stops with more family visits, then looked for other attractions to check out. That’s enriched our experiences.

That was especially true of our return to Mackinac Island.  We visited like tourists this time. We enjoyed the 20-minute boat ride to the Island, when we crossed under the Mackinac Bridge, from the waters of Lake Michigan to the waters of Lake Huron. We took a two-hour carriage tour of the property.  We sampled the fudge, which seemed to be on sale at every other storefront.

We also savored the food at the Chippewa Hotel and chowed down on those delicious pasties – an area-wide attraction – upon our return to our hotel in Mackinaw City.  Yum!

Wish we had taken this approach sooner. Our arrival at the Island came after four straight days of great golf at the Boyne resorts (much more on this in our next destination post).  We just wanted to get a fresh look at Michigan’s Upper Peninsula after that.

A couple hours’ drive from the Island was Manistique, a town with a 1.8-mile walking/biking trail along the shores of Lake Michigan. We enjoyed our 2-plus mile walk the first day so much that we stuck around another day to go even further. The route had signs giving information about the birds, fish and plants along the way. Very interesting stuff.

Our next stop is back to the wonderful world of golf — a one-hour drive from Manistique along Lake Michigan’s shores to the Island Resort & Casino in Harris, MI. We have two rounds scheduled at this destination, one on the Sweetgrass course that we believe is one of the best in Michigan, based on a stop we made in 2018.  We’ll also get a sneak peek at a nine-holer that is under construction.

This stop, though, won’t be all about golf. Hopefully none of our others will be, either. We’ll be seeking more new adventures. Can’t wait to see what lies ahead, and we’ll tell you all about it.

GALENA, IL. — Since Mark Klausner took over the ownership of Eagle Ridge Resort & Spa seven years ago the facility has taken on an exciting fresh new look. That’s especially true this year.

“We continue to expand our horizons,’’ said Klausner, a resident of the Eagle Ridge area for 25 years.

“We’re re-inventing ourselves all the time,’’ said Colin Sanderson, the resort’s director of sales and marketing. “Since 2019 we’ve taken the profits and put it all back into the resort and we’ve been building partnerships within the area.’’

Already the resort has added the Smokehouse Barbecue to its dining options and celebrated a rare double honor for its 63-hole golf complex.

Coming soon will be a unique new package combining fishing with the golf. Details haven’t been announced yet, but the new package is a no-brainer.  The golf has always been extensive, and fishermen have found great success in Lake Galena. The tiger muskies are biting, and one angler recently caught one that measured within an inch of the Illinois record.

Klausner remains especially proud of the Stonedrift Spa, which has been a big hit since its opening a year ago.  The barbecue was a natural, too, as the Smokehouse – the brainchild of general manager Steve Geisz, a smoker enthusiast – fills a need for the entire area.   Barbecue restaurants have been a rarity there, and the Smokehouse opened a month ago.

Eagle Ridge has added barbecuing at the Highland Restaurant, which adjoins The General golf course.  Sun sails are also being added to the Highland to provide comfort for outdoor diners.

As for the golf, Scott Szbowicz was hired in the spring to revamp the instruction program.  He’s been operating as a roving instructor in the Chicago area but has taken residence in the Galena area and will have an increasing presence at the resort.

The golf operation also got a big boost when the raters at GolfWeek magazine judged both   Eagle Ridge’s oldest and youngest courses in the top 15 in Illinois.  The General, an Andy North and Roger Packard design that opened in 1997, was ranked No. 7 and the North Course, which opened on July 4, 1977, was ranked No. 15.

“Selecting The General was obvious,’’ said director of golf John Schlaman. “It didn’t surprise me because it’s been in Golf Digest’s Top 100, but the North was a pleasant surprise.  It was an honor to see the North on the list, and that’s not saying anything negative about our South course.  They’re so different from each other.’’

The General is spectacular because of its elevation changes.  There’s a 289-foot elevation change from the No. 1 hole to No. 18 and the signature fifth hole (formerly No. 14 prior to a recent and well-received decision to flip the nines) is a par-4 with a 189-foot drop from the tee to the green.

While the steep, winding cart path rides at the General can be exciting while requiring caution, the older North is longer than The General and a more likely tournament course.  North is 6,884 yards from the tips and The General 6,726. The South is noted for having streams running through 11 of the 18 holes.

Six new blue chairs have been added at The General, providing an up close view of both the No. 10 tee and No. 18 green. The elevated patio at The Highlands also offers the same views there, making for a pleasant setting when players are finishing their rounds.

Schlaman was on board when The General made a high-profile grand opening, then he left for 14 years to head the then new Prairie Landing in the Chicago suburbs. He returned to Eagle Ridge as head pro at the South before moving up to his present position and has a good perspective on the evolution at Illinois’ premier golf resort.

“We’ve aged gracefully,’’ he said. “We have longevity approaching 50 years on our oldest course, and the property is super cool. Our rolling terrain is only in this part of the state.’’

HOT SPRINGS, Va. – Our return to the Omni Homestead Resort & Spa was long overdue. We first visited in 2014, and a lot has changed at America’s first resort since then.

Eleven years ago our report was all about golf, and that was appropriate.  Homestead was where the legendary Sam Snead first started playing golf.  He had worked at the resort’s Cascade course, one of the best layouts in the country, and its other 18-holer, dubbed The Old Course, offered an historic photo op.  The No. 1 hole is the longest continuous first hole in American golf.  That’s still the case.

Four years after our first visit Homestead began a massive restoration.  That was understandable, as Homestead dates back to 1766. That’s 10 years before the birth of the United States.

Twenty-four of the 47 sitting U.S. Presidents have visited Homestead, starting with the first one.  George Washington passed through the area as early as 1755.  Thomas Jefferson, the third president, loved the hot springs, which he felt alleviated his problems with “rheumatism.’’

The first president to play golf there was William McKinley in 1899.  William Howard Taft, one of the most avid golfers among the early presidents, had a three-month stay in 1908.  Another, Woodrow Wilson, played there with his second wife while they were there on their honeymoon. The last to visit was George W. Bush in 2015, a stay in which he played both the Cascades and Old Course. The Homestead has always been rich in history.

In recent years, though, it has undergone a restoration that’s been priced at $170 million. Starting in 2018, the restoration touched most every phase of the resort from the Great Hall to the guest rooms to the bath houses, and the transformation has been impressive.

The 483-room resort has a two-acre water park, eight restaurants, skiing facilities for winter guests and equestrian activities. More unusual amenities include axe-throwing, falconry, shooting club, fly-fishing and Cascade Gorge hikes — which are particularly popular.

While it is old, historic and big (spanning over 2,000 acres), the Homestead is  also beautiful throughout. A National Historic Landmark, the restoration meticulously revitalized the grandeur from its rich past.

As for the golf, it was touched only minimally in the restoration.  The pro shop at The Old Course was moved and down-sized a bit and the historic first tee area was  expanded and the commemorative marker upgraded. It’s a favorite for golf history buffs.

The tee was part of an original six-hole course in 1892 and it wasn’t touched when the course was expanded to nine holes in 1896.  Architect Donald Ross later redesigned the course in 1913 to create 18 holes and Rees Jones refined his work in 1994. The original No. 1, however, has always remained the starting hole.

Cascades, designed by William S. Flynn, has also had a centennial, having opened in 1924. It’s a championship course regularly ranked among the country’s top public courses. It will host the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Sept. 13-18 this year and the men’s U.S. Senior Amateur in 2029.  After those events the course will have been the site of 10 U.S. Golf Association national championships.  Only 11 courses have hosted more than that.

Snead was a fixture at Cascades when he was developing his extraordinary golf skills.  He worked at the Old Course starting in 1929, then moved to Cascades as the head professional until becoming a touring pro in 1934.

His namesake restaurant, located near the resort but not part of Homestead, was closed several months ago.  Snead also moved his base to the nearby Greenbrier Resort eventually, but Homestead’s resort address is still on Sam Snead Highway.

“Yes, he went to Greenbrier,’’ said Anthony Pusey, a fourth generation Homestead staffer who is now Maitre d’ of the Great Hall. “But we still say  he’s ours.’’

Lee Peery, who grew up in Hot Springs and  has worked at the Cascades for 45 years, has written a book — “The Cascades…If Only The Greens Could Talk’’ –  and it includes more than a few anecdotes from Snead’s years spent there. As soon as we left the resort we ordered the book.  Can’t wait to read it.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: THE OMNIHOMESTEAD.COM

Make no doubt about it.  With its beaches, lodging options, golf courses and wide variety of other attractions Myrtle Beach, S.C., is – at least arguably – the top tourist destination in the Carolinas.

For a week in May, however, it’ll be a bit more than that.  It’ll be the site of a PGA Tour event in one of that circuit’s most important months of the year.  The PGA Championship, at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, N.C., comes up a week after the ONEFlight Myrtle Beach Classic, which is May 8-11.

The PGA Championship is the second of the four major golf championships of 2025.  The ONEFlight Myrtle Beach Classic is in only its second staging, but the first was a success and the second has a new title sponsor.  It’ll again be played at the Dunes Club, a layout that has thrived on Atlantic Beach since 1939.

Myrtle Beach’s tournament won’t have all the golf stars that will be at Quail Hollow a week later, but it’ll have a tournament well worth watching again.  Chris Gotterup won the initial playing in 2024 with a 22-under-par performance.

The lead-in has been innovative.  The Q at Myrtle Beach was introduced before the first staging and was honored as the PGA Tour’s Best In-Class Element award-winner for 2024.  The Q features 16 players – eight aspiring pros and eight influential content creators in an 18-hole stroke play competition.  It was held on March 3 at TPC Myrtle Beach but the winner will be revealed on YouTube on May 5.

That player’s identity has created pre-tourney interest, as he will get a spot in the Classic field. Last year’s winner – pro golfer Matt Atkins – made the cut in the tournament proper and finished tied for 46^th place.

KENTUCKY GOLF TRAIL – This new  venture has a new logo and is also drawing interest with one of its courses, Woodford Club in Versailles, hosting a significant tournament.  The Bluegrass Women’s Senior Amateur Championship will be played there May 5-8.

The Kentucky Golf Trail, organized by veteran professional Bob Baldassari, has six courses – Woodford, Bardstown Country Club, Gibson Bay, Cherry Blossom, Greenbrier and GlenOaks.

In addition to golf, the tour participants can visit Bourbon distillerys and get behind-the-scenes looks at Kentucky’s rich history of horse racing with tours of the state’s horse farms.

A REAL GOLF MECCA:  The numbers don’t lie.  The Villages, in Florida, can make a case for being “the single largest golf community in the world.’’

That claim was made after the area’s courses reported 3.4 million rounds were played in 2023.  That number tailed off to 2.983 million in 2024, but that didn’t reflect a reduction in golf enthusiasm.  Every course had to be closed for at least two weeks last year because of weather-related problems.

Villages courses reported 747 holes of golf were available in 2023.  Now the number is 792.  It doesn’t seem like the community needs more courses, but we heard of a new 18-hole opening and had to check it out.

Shallow Creek, the 14^th championship course in the area, was a lot of fun to play. Kenny Ezell, The Villages course architect with the Clifton, Ezell and Clifton Golf Design Group, created a par-70 layout with six par-3s and four par-5s.  It has TifTuf fairways and TifEagle greens. The Villages High School borders the layout, which will be the home course for the school’s boys and girls teams. Shallow Creek also features the Boosters Bar & Grill. It has 50 TVs and a menu particularly notable for its extensive hot dog options.

So, now The Villages course count is 46 executive layouts and 14 championship 18-holers – and more are coming. The Woodlands, an 18-holer, and Meadow View, which will have 27 holes, are in various stages of development. And that doesn’t count practice facilities and putting courses.  The Villages has those, too.

Ezell offered this explanation for the extraordinarily rapid growth of golf in The Villages Magazine:  “We are going to try to introduce the game to any and everybody that wants to experience the game of a lifetime and what has made The Villages such a hub for golf.’’

COMING SOON:  The French Lick Resort, in Indiana, was among the first places in the U.S. to have a short course.  There was one on the grounds in the early 1900s, and now there’ll be another one.  Sand Creek, with nine holes measuring between 35 and 90 yards, is to open on May 1.

French Lick hosted major championships for both the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour  in its early years.  It returned with the opening of the Pete Dye Course and renovation of the Donald Ross Course. Now the resort is the host for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.

Sand Creek, though, will be different than the big layouts and likely will stay open longer than those courses.  It’ll have lights for night play and also included piped-in music. Sand Creek will include miniature versions of Dye’s famous “Volcanic’’ bunkers and challenging greens reminiscent of those on the Ross course.

HERE AND THERE: Barely a year after Pinehurst opened its No. 10 course the North Carolina resort is planning for a No. 11.  Pinehurst Sandmines was the site for the Tom Doak-designed No. 10 and No. 11, being created by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, will be nearby.  It’s scheduled to open in 2027.

Myrtle Beach’s World Amateur Handicap Championship has drawn over 3,000 players frequently.  Now the field will be limited to that number when it’s played Aug. 25-29.  Nearly 1,000 are already in the field through Past Participation Registration.

Dunedin  Golf Course, in Florida, has completed a $6 million restoration of its Donald Ross-designed course.  The project was directed by architect Chris Spencer.

The Heritage Golf Group has acquired The Club at Cheval in Tampa Bay, FL.  It’s Heritage’s 42^nd course nationwide and ninth in Florida.

My biggest focus at this 72^nd PGA Merchandise Show was getting the word out on my latest project.  I’d been coaxed into being the new president (or, I think the title should be executive director) of the Golf Travel Writers of America. It’s a 20-year  old organization that has been led by Bruce Vittner, a very nice guy from Rhode Island who befriended Joy and I in our early years attending the show and got us involved in the GTWA.

Bruce didn’t want to keep up the grind of leading the group and wanted me to do it.  I was reluctant at first, but decided that reorganizing the group would be a worthwhile project as well as potentially being fun.  That led to me being in charge of the annual meeting, held at the PGA Merchandise Show, and I was delighted by the turnout.

Joy is now the GWTA treasurer and two other friends, Tom Gorman and Dan Vukelich, had joined me in getting the reorganization going.  We had 22 enthusiastic travelers attend the annual meeting, some returning members and some new ones.  When it was over we had an international membership, with Stephan Guertler (Austria) and Grant Fraser (Canada) on the greatly revised roster.

We hope to revive a past GTWA feature, a golf outing held around the show dates. We have one scheduled on Friday at Heathrow Legacy, the first course in the Concert Golf Partners string of 36 private clubs.  Weather might hamper this one, since it’s been cold and raining most of our time here in Orlando but Concert’s Michael Abramovitz – a long-time GTWA member – is optimistic we can get the event in before everyone leaves town.