ACME, Michigan – The structural changes at Grand Traverse were made last year when owners of the 30-year old resort spent $7 million to renovate the tower that is the facility’s centerpiece. Grand Traverse has three courses on its 1,400 acres and the resort features 660 rooms, diverse restaurants and lounges and 49,000 square feet…
Author: lenz
A big change is coming at Michigan’s Inn at Bay Harbor
BAY HARBOR, Michigan – This is anniversary time for Boyne Golf, the biggest golf course conglomerate in the Midwest. It has 10 courses among its three northern Michigan resorts and two are celebrating milestones in 2016. The Heather course at Boyne Highlands – the Robert Trent Jones Sr. design that got the golf boom started…
Montgomerie goes for a three-peat in Senior PGA at Harbor Shores
As far as major championships go, this is a rare lean year in the Chicago area. Last year there was both the U.S. Amateur and the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship. The Amateur has come and gone and the BMW is taking a year away; it’ll be played at Crooked Stick in Indianapolis in September before…
Want something different? Try the Mackinac Island courses
MACKINAC ISLAND, Michigan – There’s a lot of reasons why people take the 20-minute boat ride from Mackinaw City or St. Ignace to Mackinac Island from May through October every year. The Island is an interesting place. It’s different, and not just because of the boat ride required to get there. Visitors – up to…
Chicago’s new Web.com Tour event will be an upgrade from its predecessors
The PGA Tour is bringing its secondary circuit back to the Chicago area for the first time since 2008, but things have changed a lot since then. The Glen Club, in Glenview, hosted the LaSalle Bank (or Bank of America) Open on what was then called the Nationwide Tour through 2008 before sponsorship problems set…
HERE AND THERE: Boyne’s Heather course starts 50th anniversary season
Here’s the latest for golfers who like to travel: The Heather Course at Michigan’s Boyne Highlands Resort hit a milestone when it opened for the season on Friday the 13th. The 2016 campaign will mark the Heather’s 50th anniversary season. The Robert Trent Jones Sr. design was the first course at Boyne. Heather opened for…
Glen View’s Bauer wins IPGA Match Play title in a walk
Very few players in Illinois PGA tournaments walk their rounds. Kyle Bauer, the 11-year head pro at the Glen View club, is one who does. He doesn’t think it puts him at a competitive disadvantage, and Thursday he proved it. Bauer captured the 65th playing of the Illinois PGA Match Play Championship at Kemper Lakes…
NCAA tourneys could provide a bonanza for Illini, NU
The collegiate golf season reaches its climax in the next three weeks, and it could go down as one for ages as far as Illinois schools are concerned. Both the men’s and women’s teams at Northwestern qualified for the NCAA tournament and the Illinois men’s squad looms as one of the favorites for the national…
Could Mistwood’s playing staff be the best in the U.S.?
Mistwood director of golf Andy Mickelson said it, almost without any hesitation. “I’d be bold enough to say that we could put our playing staff against any in the country,’’ Mickelson told me. And I couldn’t argue with him. Mistwood owner Jim McWethy has a big staff of teaching pros in Romeoville and their playing…
Web.com Tour returns — with tourney at Ivanhoe
After eight years the Web.com Tour is back. This is going to be fun. The PGA Tour’s developmental circuit was just that when it held tournaments at Kemper Lakes in 2002 and The Glen Club from 2003 to 2008. The return event has very little to do with those. In fact, the only link is…