Travel Destinations – Page 26

Michigan’s Mecca had plenty to celebrate at 25th anniversary

GAYLORD, MI. – It has never ceased to amaze me how much better golf is in Michigan than it is in any other state. The season isn’t very long there, but the number of quality public courses is extraordinary. I should know.

For over 25 years – starting about the time of the 1985 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills – I’ve been a regular Michigan visitor just because of the golf offered. Most of the trips were between two and five days (a couple might have lasted a week), and usually there were two or three per year. And rarely have I played a course more than once. There are so many good courses in Michigan you don’t want to miss one.

This isn’t to spotlight specific courses, though. This is to put the state’s golf success story in perspective, and no one place could do it better than the Gaylord Golf Mecca, a marketing affiliation that celebrated its 25th anniversary in August with an outing and dinner at the Masterpiece — a Robert Trent Jones Sr. design at Treetops Resort.

Keith Gornick, owner of the Hidden Valley Resort, is credited with starting the Mecca. Tired of the area’s golf facilities fighting each other for business, he invited the owners of several of them to a winter lunch in 1987. The result was the formation of the Gaylord Golf Council.

To say that was a wise move is putting it mildly. Instead of battling each other the owners mounted a cooperative effort that has resulted in more than 3.6 million golfers playing on Mecca courses over the last 25 years.

The Mecca started with six courses – Wilderness Valley, Garland, Gaylord Country Club, Michaywe Pines, the then-new Masterpiece course at Sylvan Resort (now named Treetops) and the Classic – oldest of the lot (it opened in 1955) on the grounds of ski hotbed Otsego Club.

Now the Mecca encompasses 17 courses, 306 holes, four resorts and 21 hotel properties to accommodate stay-and-play properties. Course architects represented in the Mecca include, in addition to Jones Sr., include the likes of Tom Fazio, Tom Doak, Rees Jones, Rick Smith, Jerry Matthews and Gary Koch.

The courses include Threetops, which bills itself with justification as “the No. 1 Par 3 Course in America.’’ Lots of pro stars have played it, and Lee Trevino earned $1,090,000 with one swing when he made a hole-in-one on the No. 7 hole – a feat that is now described as “the shot heard round the world.’’

Elevation changes make the biggest impact on me when I play in Michigan, and none is more pronounced than the 219-yard straight downhill third hole at Threetops. The signature sixth hole at Jones’ Masterpiece (shown below) has a breathtaking vertical drop (120 feet) as well.

Everybody has their favorites at the Mecca. I’m a big fan of Otsego’s Tribute – a fun layout designed by Rick Robbins and Koch, the PGA Tour veteran and NBC golf analyst. This last trip involved playing three of the Mecca courses, but Gaylord is a full day’s drive from Chicago so catching other courses on the way is a must if time permits. For us it did.

Shanty Creek Resorts, in Bellaire, has been a frequent stop over the years starting when the resort opened The Legend, an Arnold Palmer design that celebrated its own 25th anniversary in 2011. Shanty’s a top-quality resort (it just completed a $10 million renovation) with three other courses, our favorite being the Tom Weiskopf-designed Cedar River. Most fun layout, though, is Schuss Mountain, which has long been popular with locals. For non-golf activity the view of Lake Bellaire is spectacular from the dining area of the Lakeview Restaurant and Lounge.

Michigan golf leaders have always been ahead of ahead of the national curve, and a good example of that came at Schuss Mountain. In an effort to make golf more enjoyable for beginners the layout has two cup placements on each hole. One has the traditional 4 ¼-inch cup and the other – usually in the back of the green – is eight inches wide. You can play to either or – as we did – try out them both. Head professional Brian Kautz said that two-cup plan may be extended to Shanty’s fourth course, Summit, next year. Though a full-length 18-holer, the Summit also features par-3 tee boxes on every hole.

Another stop on the way to Gaylord this year was Forest Dunes, in Roscommon. People who should know tell me Forest Dunes has the best greens in Michigan. The raters from both Golf Magazine and Golf Digest apparently agree. Golf Digest rated Forest Dunes No. 20 in its list of the top 100 U.S. public courses and Golf Magazine elevated it from 45th last year to 33rd on its Best Public Courses in the U.S. list.

Forest Dunes’ location is on the remote side, but you couldn’t tell that on the weekday that we visited. A youth tournament, combined with public play, made it a most busy place.

The Mecca anniversary outing, which included an inspiring speech from Michigan lieutenant governor Brian Calley at the post-golf dinner, climaxed our second golf journey into the state in 2012. Our next such adventure on the Michigan’s links can’t come soon enough.

My GolfVisions record: 16 courses played in four states

CHESTERTON, Ind. – Tim Miles Sr. tells me I’ve made golf history. He says I’m the first member of GolfVisions’ Player Pass program to play all of the 16 courses offered in this most innovative program, and I’ll tell you it wasn’t easy.

Miles, the GolfVisions president, started the Player Pass program two years ago and tweaked it for this season. GolfVisions is a course management firm that Miles founded under the name GreenVisions in 1989. It presently oversees 11 courses in Illinois, two in Indiana, one in Michigan and two in Florida.

Under the Player Pass program, you pay an annual fee to join, then get one free greens fee at each course plus other perks – the lowest fee the course offers for your playing partners, free range balls and discounts on meals and pro shop merchandise.

A friend urged me to sign up for a Players Pass and it took me a month – bolstered by a reduced holiday special rate of $99 prior to Christmas – to do it. While I’ve played all 16 courses, my buddy – for a variety of reasons – has played but two. He says he’ll catch more of the courses before the year is out, and I hope he does. My regular partner and I, meanwhile, made this our special project, and we had a lot of fun with it.

To make the program fully work you have to have the time and willingness to travel. Just playing the two Florida courses, Club at Pennbrooke Fairways in Leesburg and Green Valley in Clermont, made it worthwhile for us. In our two-month Florida stay in January and February you pay top-dollar for greens fees. Thanks to my Player Pass we got in two rounds (two people with cart) for $27 apiece. Now that’s $54 for four rounds of golf with cart. That’s a bargain anytime, but especially in central Florida during the height of the tourist season.

Pennbrooke had 27 holes, broken into the Meadows, Oaks and Sanctuary nines. The first two were sporty, executive length layouts. Green Valley, which dates back to 1966, is a favorite of the locals. It’s a 6,645-yard par-72 with some nice elevation changes.

Had I played alone on weekdays at the courses without my Players Pass I would have spent $598, though senior rates might have knocked that number down in some instances. And that doesn’t include money that might have been spent on range balls and food and pro shop merchandise. It also doesn’t factor in the savings on my partner’s fees. Not bad for a $99 investment.

Some of the close-to-home courses (Foxford Hills and Chalet Hills in Cary, Settlers Hill in Geneva, Village Green in Mundelein, Oak Grove in Hebron and HeatherRidge in Gurnee) are regular annual stops for this hacker who relishes playing lots of courses rather than limiting myself to the one in which I am a member. Those weren’t all played as part of the 2012 Player Pass program but I have plenty of familiarity with them.

Anyway, this project wasn’t so much about saving money as it was about having golf adventures. What the Player Pass did was encourage us to take some day-long golf getaways, the longest of which was to the Michigan course, Whittaker Woods. It required a 130-mile drive each way.

Some of the courses were better than others, of course, but all offered something a little different from the ones we play on a regular basis and we also got a chance to see different areas than we would have just playing near home. We tried some most interesting restaurants along the way as well.

Our favorite course of the lot was The Brassie (pictured above), in Chesterton, Ind. We played that one in 102-degree temperatures. It was like a sauna out there. The Brassie is a links-style course designed by Jim Fazio (not George or Tom) in 1998. Jim and Tom are the nephews of the late George, who designed Butler National in Oak Brook, among others. Tom has some great creations, too, most notably Conway Farms in Lake Forest. Jim’s The Brassie isn’t bad, either.

The Brassie had the very best Course Guide that I’ve ever seen – and that’s saying something, given the number and variety of courses I’ve played in over four decades as a golf journalist. The staff at The Brassie was also extraordinarily friendly — and that’s not to say the staffs at the other courses weren’t. At The Brassie, though, the people went beyond the expected service. Our random selection for dinner before heading home, — the Lucrezia Café, a cozy Italian place – worked out well, too.

On one trip we hit two of the courses – Tanna Farms, in Yorkville, IL., first and Deer Valley, in Big Rock, IL., on the way home. Deer Valley has the smallest greens I’ve ever seen. It’s a nine-holer built by John Flodstrom who owned the land in 1995. He later sold it to Kane County.

Deer Valley had a log-cabin clubhouse and the lowest Players Pass fee of the places we visited — $12 with cart for two players – and it was a fun, but challenging, layout. Our round there came in the aftermath of 18 holes at Tanna Farms, which has tons of wetlands and a most unusual start; there’s no par-4 hole until No. 4. You open with a par-3 over water, then hit a par-5 and then another par-3.

A few weeks before making the Tanna Farms-Deer Creek run we visited Nettle Creek, in Morris. This place had a most charming clubhouse, excellent food, a challenging start (especially the first two holes), a well-conditioned course and a most polite staff. What more could you want? Too bad Nettle Creek is so far from home. I would play it more often.

Two of the courses had undergone some obvious problems. The clubhouse had burned down several years ago at Hunter Country Club, in Richmond, IL. – a quaint little town just inside the Wisconsin border – and operations were conducted out of a trailer in the parking lot. And GolfVisions had just taken over Chapel Hill, a McHenry layout known for having the only hole over 700 yards in Illinois. The clubhouse was shuttered at Chapel Hill, with all business done out of the golf shop. I had played both Hunter and Chapel Hill many years before (at least 10 in both instances) and was just happy to see that they were still in operation.

River Pointe Country Club, in Hobart, Ind., had the most interesting history. It was a long-time private club created by American Steel Supervisors. This was the biggest of the facilities – 27 holes – with Red, White and Blue full-length nines.

Our journey ended, appropriately, at Whittaker Woods (pictured below), in New Buffalo, MI. It was a highlight to our golfing odyssey.

Opened in 1996, Whittaker Woods had an extremely tight front nine holes. The starter tells you “You may lose your ball if you hit it into the trees, but you could find three while you’re looking for it.’’ That tells you right away the challenge you’re about to face.

Needless to say, we put some balls in the trees on that front side. Then you come to No. 10 and you’re surprised — and relieved — to find a wide open tee shot. This course had tee shots over wetlands on almost every hole, it seemed, but the fairways and greens were in great shape.

Whittaker Woods also had the nicest-looking restaurant of the Players Pass facilities. The only drawback was that the restaurant had already closed by 5 p.m. We found that unusual, but there are plenty of good dining spots in New Buffalo. We ate at Brewsters with the couple that played with us, completing a most enjoyable day.

Miles, a former golf team captain at the University of Missouri, created excitement at the last two Chicago Golf Shows when he provided patrons with free greens fees at some of his courses. GolfVisions didn’t have as many Player Pass buyers this year as it did in 2011, but Miles plans to continue the program next year with some minor tweaks.

“It’ll be similar to what we did this year,’’ he said. “This is a promotion, to see if we can get people to try our courses. We’re real happy with it.’’

Quad Cities should be considered as a golf destination spot

MOLINE, IL. – For years now I’ve told my golf-media buddies from the Quad Cities that they reside in “the golf capitol of Illinois.’’

They think I’m kidding but, after four decades of covering the PGA Tour stop in that community, I’m not so sure. In fact, I can now say that the area encompassing Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa could be a golf destination – and I’m NOT kidding.

S_9910_6 — The clubhouse at TPC Deere Run.

Golf in the Quad Cites is relatively inexpensive. That’s a big plus. Nothing is very far away, either. More than anything, though, I like the diversity of the area’s golf options.

You can play a PGA Tour site. TPC Deere Run has been the home of the John Deere Classic since 2000. Golf’s premier circuit has come to the Quad Cities every year since 1971, a clear indication the PGA Tour respects the passion in one of its smallest markets.

TPC Deere Run, a D.A. Weibring design, is plenty challenging but hardly the brutal test that some of the other tour layouts are. A serious recreational play can have a good time at Deere Run without feeling beat up afterwards. The par-17th hole (shown here) exemplifies the beauty of this layout.

OK, so there’s a tour course. What else?

If you want tradition there’s the Rock Island Arsenal military facility, which has a sporty layout – now called Arsenal Island — that dates back to 1897. Through 2011 it was a private club. Now the public can play this interesting 6,254-yard layout, which borders on the Mississippi River.

If you want upscale public without paying much for it there’s Glynns Creek, in Long Grove on the Iowa side of the Mississippi, and Byron Hills, in Port Byron on the Illinois side. Glynns Creek is excellent, the site of an American Junior Golf Association event in 2012. Byron Hills is noted for its greens, which some say are the best in the Quad Cities.

A key here is price. Two of us played both Glynns Creek and Byron Hills on a weekday with cart for $56 – that’s total, not per person.

Those are the most notable public offerings. If you’re fortunate enough to get a round on one of the area’s private clubs there’s three of them – Crow Valley, in Davenport; Davenport Country Club, also in Iowa; and Oakwood, in Coal Valley, IL. – which have been sites of PGA Tour events in the past.

There’s more to a golf getaway than the courses you can play. You have to have lodging, and the Quad Cities has most all of the chain hotels and motels. But, if you want someplace special there’s Hotel Blackhawk in Davenport. It dates back to 1915 and was renovated in 2009. Charming is the best way to describe it.

You also have to eat, and we found some good ones. The well-established Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse, in the heart of the Moline business district, is my favorite. It’s fairly-priced, with good food and pleasant atmosphere.

Duck City, located near the Blackhawk, seems to be the in hot-spot, but it’s not very big and difficult to get a table many times. Granite City Food & Brewery has one of its locations in Davenport and is much bigger with a varied menu, good food and a energizing atmosphere.

For a getaway from your golf getaway there’s Faithful Pilot, Cafe in LeClaire, Ia. This is a most interesting waterfront place in a quaint little town with shops offering all sorts of antiques.

If you don’t mind spending big-time, there’s the Red Crow Grille in Bettendorf. I don’t have this place figured out completely. It has a disarming location in a small shopping mall and an exotic menu. Our dinner there was a pleasant one, even after the check arrived.

Biggest bargain on the culinary side was at Ryan’s, on John Deere Road in Moline. You may not be aware of it – we weren’t, either – but Ryan’s is no longer a chain of steak places. This chain is now specializing in buffet spreads and the two of us had a dazzling Sunday breakfast there for $16 – again that’s the total for both of us.

The problem with going to the Quad Cities for the expressed purpose of playing golf is that there aren’t golf packages. You have to book your tee times, lodging and meal reservations separately. Cost-wise, though, we found it well worth it.

Island Hills, Yarrow are good bets for golf trips to Michigan

AUGUSTA, MI. – Michigan-based golf course architect Ray Hearn has made an impact in Chicago with his work at Flossmoor Country Club, one of the area’s top private facilities, as well as at Mistwood in Romeoville, one of the best public courses.

If you want to test more of Hearn’s work you don’t have to go very far. Two of his earlier works are just over the Michigan line, and they’d make good stopovers for those who plan to attend the second Champions Tour major tournament in Michigan this summer.

The Senior PGA Championship, won by England’s Roger Chapman at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, was the first. The U.S. Senior Open will be coming July 12-15 to Indianwood in Lake Orion.

Chicago golfers headed to that big tournament can make it a nicer getaway by stopping at either Island Hills, in Centreville, or Yarrow Golf & Conference Resort, in Augusta. Both are in somewhat out-of-the-way locations, but these Hearn designs are worth a visit and the facilities where they’re located are interesting as well.

Hearn created the course at Yarrow first, after a storm in October of 2001 that included tornado force winds knocked down thousands of trees on the property. Yarrow didn’t have a golf course then, but owner Bill Pulte used the devastation as a trigger to get one built.

The resort opened in November of 1992 with only nine guest rooms and dining for 20 people. Now it has a 14,000-square foot lodge, 45 overnight rooms, eight miles of trails through forests and wetlands and, of course, its 7,005-yard golf course. Hearn’s design gets your attention immediately with a par-5 first hole that plays uphill most of the way and seems much longer even than its listed 588 yards from the back tees. The starter warned us of its difficulty, calling it “a par-7.’’

More good holes, many of them sporty and not so challenging, follow with plenty of elevation changes that fit the natural beauty of the property.

Yarrow is more of a retreat type of place, with a particularly nice patio deck overlooking the 18th green. Island Hills isn’t like that. It’s a more fun layout, with a smaller but busy restaurant – The Grille Tavern – that is open 365 days a year. The course has a history, too, and it’s plenty challenging.

Hearn did the original layout for a previous owner in 1999. He was called back by present owner Bob Griffioen when the previous owner converted several of the course’s best holes into real estate lots. The renovation was a two-year project in which Hearn created two new par-3s – Nos. 12 and 17. The project was completed in late 2011, and Hearn believes the new holes rival any pair of par-3s in Michigan.

The 12th is memorable because the stone ruins of an old farmstead are featured – but don’t come into play – both beside and behind the green. The hole can play anywhere from 102 to 186 yards.

No. 17, which played as the old 16th, has 10 tees now and can be stretched to 202 yards. The water, wetlands and bridges that surround the green create a spectacular backdrop on a layout that now measures 7,038 yards.

There’s more to say about Island Hills, though. In these economic times course owners continuously look for ways to bring in new players. Many times it’s just talk, but Griffioen is doing something about it. In fact, I’ve yet to find a course owner as passionate about growing the game. His efforts amount to much more than just installing a few extra tees to make it easier for the inexperienced to enjoy the game.

Griffioen’s new head professional, Tim Cole, is spearheading some unique programs that should bring in more players. For the very young he’s brought in the SNAG teaching program originally developed by Jerry Rich and his staff at Rich Harvest Links in Sugar Grove, IL. – the site of the Solheim Cup matches in 2009. Most affordable lesson programs are also offered for adults, and especially women.

More impressive still is Island Hills’ enticements for those who haven’t even tried golf yet. Forty-one sets of clubs are available for use, and they’re not rentals. They are simply made available for players who want to try the game. These aren’t just used sets, either. They include a variety of shafts, full sets of irons and hybrids. Not only that, but Cole fills each bag with balls, also at no charge.

Then there’s the oft-heard complaint that golf takes too long. Griffioen had Hearn design some shorter routings – for five holes, seven holes and 12 holes. If 18 holes takes too much time, try one of the shorter versions.

And, if that doesn’t get more people playing, then nothing will.

Indiana’s Swan Lake lands U.S. finals, ING gathering

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Swan Lake, the Indiana resort that has operated relatively low-key since its opening in 1969, is about to elevate its profile.

Located in Plymouth, near the Notre Dame campus, Swan Lake hosted the National Junior College Championships last week and will host that event again in 2014. Of even more note, it’ll be the site of the U.S. finals of the World Golfers Championship this September and the International Network of Golf spring meeting in 2013.

The announcements of both came at this year’s 22nd ING spring gathering, conducted at Embassy Suites Greenville Golf Resort and Conference Center and its accompanying golf course, The Preserve at Verdae.

“These are pretty big things,’’ said Andy Mears, director of sales and marketing at Swan Lake and an ING executive committee member. “We’re planning to hold a lot of events like this to showcase the resort.’’

Swan Lake didn’t always take that approach, even after Richard Klingler took over ownership 12 years ago. Mears came on board in November, 2011, as a key mover in changing the resort.

“There’s been a complete transformation of management there,’’ said Mears. “The owners decided to go in an entirely new direction. We’ve opened up to outings and have a whole new staff at the (teaching) academy. We’ve got 70 pros on staff, and they’ve been incredibly busy.’’

Klingler, an Indiana native who founded the Holiday Rambler RV Co. and later sold it, wasn’t even a golfer when he took over Swan Lake in 2000. In addition to taking on the big events, Swan Lake has attracted outings, notably a big one from Wal-Mart, which moved from a course in Valparaiso to Swan Lake. The resort used to average eight weddings a year; this year it’ll host 25.

The teaching operation is a high priority as well, under head professional Chad Hutsell. He had held that job at Plymouth Country Club for 12 years and returned to the area at Swan Lake after a stint at Aberdeen in Valparaiso.

“We’ll turn the golf operation into a learning center for PGA apprentices,’’ said Mears. “We want to be the Triple-A farm club for the PGA of America.’’

Swan Lake, spread over 600 acres, has 92 hotel rooms plus cabins and cottages and a 20m000 square-foot convention center.

The biggest event of this year, the U.S. finals of the World Golfers Championship, will be held Sept. 20-22. The leaders in five flights based on handicap will qualify for the finals in Durban, South Africa. Billed as “the world’s largest amateur tournament,’’ this is a growing competition started 17 years ago by legendary late Swedish athlete Sven Tumba, a hockey great who turned to golf later in life and designed the first course in Moscow.

Tumba’s first events were invitationals, but he eventually switched to a qualifying format and now eliminations are held in 40 countries. Florida-based Anders Bengtson is the majority owner of the U.S.. portion of the competition, which involves about 200 elimination events held year-around.

“We’re now in eight states and looking for tournament directors all over the country,’’ said Bengtson, a fellow ING member. “We’ll have in the thousands try to qualify (for the U.S. finals) and expect 80-100 to play at Swan Lake.’’

John Downey is the tournament director for Illinois, and a former Chicago area judge, Eddie Stephens, was a qualifier for the World finals last year at the U.S. event held in San Antonio, Tex.

The World Golfers Championship is unique, in that men and women of all ages compete together. There’s no breakdowns for age or sex, only by handicaps (0-5, 6-10, 11-15, 16-20 and 21-25). Different tees, though, are used according to sex , age and handicap differences.

“We feel we’re a true amateur tournament,’’ said Bengtson. “We’ve established camaraderie with people, some of whom can’t even communicate because of their language differences. But they’ve still become friends.’’

Bengtson took next year’s finals to Swan Lake because “it’s very charming and we need at least two courses…I don’t want the players playing one course over and over because they play four in the finals.’’

The World finals were held at PGA National in Florida the first three years but had a more international flavor after that. The finals will be held in South Africa for the second straight year but were held in Spain in 2009 and Thailand in 2010. Arnold Palmer has endorsed the competition and the late Seve Ballesteros was honorary chairman of the advisory committee last year.

Swan Lake has two 18-holers for the 72-hole competition, and the finals include two practice rounds and four tournament rounds, to be played on four different high-quality layouts.

As for the four-day ING event, it’ll bring golf leaders from management, resort, equipment and media together next May 19–23. Executive director Mike Jamison has taken the event around the country, with this year’s golf portion played on a challenging layout designed by Willard Byrd in the 1990s. It had hosted a Nike Tour event for nine years.

That was in keeping with the type of layouts Jamison had previously used. It was held at Florida’s Innisbrook layout, site of the PGA Tour’s Transitions Championship, in 2010.

French Lick’s fourth course, Sultan’s Run, is a keeper

JASPER, Ind. – If ever there was a comeback story in the golf business, it’s the one that has unfolded at French Lick Resort — and it continues to get better.

This little town in the resort’s namesake in southern Indiana, near Louisville, was the home to one of the most popular retreats in the United States in the early 1900s and its two stately hotels reflect that. The French Lick Hotel (now with a 24-hour casino added) has 443 rooms and suites and dates back to 1845. The West Baden Hotel, with 243 rooms and suites, was built in 1902.

French Lick went through a lengthy economic downturn after its heyday years, with its only claim being the fact that it was the boyhood home of basketball great Larry Bird. Now that’s all changed.

The original French Lick had an 18-hole course designed by one of the architectural greats, Donald Ross. He opened it in 1917 as The Hill Course, and the 1924 PGA Championship (won by no less a legend than Walter Hagen) was staged there. The course also hosted LPGA and Senior PGA Tour events before a $5 million renovation. In 2005 it re-opened as The Donald Ross Course.

The original French Lick also had an 18-holer designed by Tom Bendelow, perhaps the most prolific architect in golf’s early years in the United States. Bendelow did his creating in 1907, when The Valley Course opened. It also went into disarray and was renovated in partnership with US Kids Golf as a nine-holer. It’s now called the Valley Links course, and its popularity and conditioning in improving rapidly. In what other nine-holer can you go around twice and end up playing a 7,000-yard-plus layout? You can at Valley Links.

Then came the arrival of Pete Dye, arguably the most famous architect of this generation. His most famous creations include TPC Sawgrass in Florida, Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run in Wisconsin, The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Resort in South Carolina, Oak Tree in Oklahoma and Honors Course in Tennessee.

Dye, by now in his 80s, created a spectacular course to further spur the French Lick revival. That layout opened in 2009 and hosted a PGA event – the Professional Players National Championship – a year later. It hosted the Big Ten men’s event this year, and will also host it in 2013 and 2014 while The Ross hosts the Big Ten women’s championship at the same time.

Though he’s designed or co-designed about 300 courses world-wide, Dye said his namesake course at French Lick is “probably the biggest construction job I have ever had. This is the most interesting inland site I have built on.’’

Still, the French Lick experience continues to grow. This year the resort took over the management of Sultan’s Run in nearby Jasper. This is a big development for French Lick. Sultan’s Run is an 18-holer designed by one-time Dye protégé Tim Liddy and has a memorable waterfall on its closing hole.

This layout is good all the way around, a real fun track to play. And, if you visit French Lick, it’s not one to miss. Its addition to the golf options should keep lots of golfers at the resort an extra day. They’ll be missing something if they don’t play Sultan’s Run.

“That’s one of the most talked-about holes in Indiana,’’ said Dave Harner, French Lick’s director of golf. “But there’s not a bad hole, and that course is a contrast to both of ours. While (the Dye and Ross layouts) are more links style, this is a parkland course with tree-lined fairways and a far amount of elevation.’’

Sultan’s Run, built in the 1990s, is a challenging 6,859 yards from the back tees. It’s challenging, sporting and playable — a real treat about 20 miles from the resort, but transportation can be provided.

Though it’s not connected to French Lick, those playing Sultan’s Run can make it to Schnitzelbank, the best German restaurant I’ve ever visited — and that’s saying something because I’ve been to quite a few. Schnitzelbank, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary in January, is a fixture in the town of 5,000.

Harner is every bit as enthusiastic about the good things happening on the Valley Links. Upon its re-opening the resort offered a junior certification program for residents that allowed youngsters 12 and under to play free if accompanied by an adult who played a half-price.

That plan was more recently stretched to include resort guests. Valley Links has six sets of tees, the shortest providing a layout of 1,100 yards to even 5- and 6-years can play it.

“Our junior program is noteworthy,’’ said Harner, “and it’s been starting to get attention lately. For years we thought the juniors were more of a nuisance, and now we realize we should have taken better care of them.’’

The entire golf world is realizing that in these tough economic times, but French Lick is doing something about it and so are the little towns around it — Mitchell, Orleans, Paoli and, of course, Jasper. I was stunned by how much development has been done (and not just in golf) in those communities since my last visit in 2010. The economic recession seems to have stimulated progress, not slowed it down, in this little corner of Indiana.

Eagle Ridge comes back strong from storm damage

GALENA, IL. – I’ve always had a warm spot in my heart for the Eagle Ridge Resort. Not only has it been a favorite get-away retreat for about 40 years, it’s also a place where I’ve been on hand for some special events.

In 1984 I played in the grand opening outing for Eagle Ridge’s South course, a Roger Packard design. In 1997 I played in another celebratory round, one to mark the opening of The General — Eagle Ridge’s premier layout, created by Packard and Andy North.

That’s why it was somewhat nostalgic when I returned to Eagle Ridge this spring after a two-year absence to take advantage of one of its very worthwhile spring golf packages. I played the South course on a Tuesday afternoon in April and The General the following morning. Both were in the best spring shape I’d ever seen them. Then I learned the reason why, from director of golf and head professional Michael Stewart.

Eagle Ridge, located on 6,800 acres 150 miles west of Chicago, endured a disastrous summer in 2011, when extraordinary rainfalls did severe damage to all four of its courses. Just how bad was it? Well, 16 inches of rain hit the par-5 second hole on The General, a layout filled with spectacular vistas resulting from 250 feet of elevation changes.

“Welcome to The General,’’ said Stewart. “It’s a different kind of animal.’’ That it is.

Stewart was barely on the job when the rains hit on July 27, leading to one fatality in addition to the damage to the facility. He’d left a job in Fort Myers, FL., to run the golf operation at Illinois’ premier golf resort facility. Immediately he had to cope with rainfall that stopped play altogether.

“We weren’t closed too long – a few weeks,’’ he said. “But when we opened up we had to use temporary tees, and we let people play at reduced rates.’’

The recovery effort led to a $2.3 million renovation, which was needed anyway. Oliphant Companies, a Madison, WI., firm specializing in course development, construction and management, worked with the Eagle Ridge staff in the recovery effort.

“We had to rebuild over 100 bunkers, reshape the creeks and restore the tee boxes on all four courses,’’ said Stewart. The storms, he now believes, were “a blessing in disguise.’’ They forced repair work that left Eagle Ridge with much better courses than it had previously. Several trees were removed to improve play, drainage was improved and some bridges repaired.

When the work was in its final stages the weather also turned extraordinarily good, so Eagle Ridge had 111 rounds played on the North (which was first played in 1977 and is now open year-around) in January.

“That shows what a mild winter we had,’’ said Stewart. “We had an early run because of the wonderful weather .’’

He calls the courses “absolutely pristine and stunning in every sense of the word’’ and likens their spring condition to what they would be like in the summer.

The openings of the other courses were the earliest in the resort’s history, which spans five decades. The South opened on April 6, the East on April 13 and The General on April 20.

While The General took the biggest hit, the rains did damage to the heavily-played North, the sporty South and the nine-hole East (youngest of the layouts with a 1991 opening) as well. These courses all have extreme elevation changes, making for some fun golf.

The 18th hole of the South course might be my favorite hole of the 63. Or, maybe it’s the par-3 second on the East. The General, though, is filled with one great hole after another, the most eye-catching (see the photo at the top of this story) being the short par-4 14th, with a steep drop off an elevated tee. If The General was an easier course to walk, it’d be a great big tournament venue.

FarmLinks finds it’s time for a change

SYLACAUGA, AL. — The FarmLinks course in this little town about 45 miles from Birmingham already has a big reputation. Golf Digest, Golfweek and the National Golf Foundation have recognized it for one good thing or another.

Soon, though, things will be changing. Honours Golf, which managed the facility for 10 years, will be leaving and a new management team is coming in. Honours did a good job, but 81-year-old owner Jimmy Pursell wants to take his course in another direction.

Pursell, who made a big impact in the fertilizer business, created the course as an agronomic research and demonstration facility. The course, designed by the highly-respected architectural team of Dr. Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry, is just too good. While the national golf publications have shown their respect, perhaps FarmLinks’ most significant appraisal came from the Birmingham News, which called it the No. 1 public course in Alabama in 2009. Golfweek had previously rated it “one of America’s best (public) courses” in 2004.

With those accolades in mind FarmLinks is changing.

“It’s been very successful, said Chuck Ocheltree, who took over as general manager in January. “Our superintendents’ program has been what FarmLinks has been all about. We took care of 1,000 superintendents a year since the course opened in 2003. Now the Pursell family wants to become a 4-star resort in the golf business.’’

That’s likely to happen sooner rather than later, and it’s already been listed among Golf Digest’s Top 75 Resorts, debuting at No. 39. I’m not one to take the magazine polls as gospel, and I think FarmLinks will eventually be considered much better than that.

The biggest problem with FarmLinks is getting there. It’s an hour’s drive from the Birmingham airport, an hour from a regional airport in Montgomery and two hours from Atlanta. But once you get there you find a very special place.

The course measures 7,444 yards and was the site of the Alabama Amateur championship in 2011, yet it’s playable for a wide variety of players. This year Golf Channel’s Am Tour paid a visit while we were there. Near tornado conditions the night before and a cold, rainy day didn’t detract from either our day on the course or that of the Am Tour competitors, who had become familiar with the course the year before.

It’s not easy to describe FarmLinks, which will likely get a name change — to the FarmLinks course at Pursell Farms. That’d be a more appropriate name, since there’s much more to the place than the extraordinary golf course. It has its conference center with high-tech meeting rooms in an out-of-the-way setting, making it a productive business retreat as well as a vacation option. But it’s also been a site for the First Tee program the last three years.

However you get to FarmLinks, you arrive at an impressive entrance. A windy two-mile drive is required to get from the guard gate to the clubhouse. While the food is top-notch, the staff is just getting prepared to host big events. It doesn’t even have a liquor license yet (that’s expected to be acquired by May).

Pursell, a man with strong religious beliefs, isn’t changing his own lifestyle nor that of his family. His son David is chief executive officer of the facility and son-in-law Tim Spanjer is director of marketing. But, underscoring the overall name of Pursell Farms, the place is being given a more resort-like feel. Pursell has 3,500 acres available, and quail hunting, fishing, hiking, horseshoes and five-stand clay shooting are established offerings. Horseback-riding and hayrides have been added recently as has a working relationship with a Birmingham spa. More resort offerings will be added soon.

“Things can happen here that can’t happen anywhere else,’’ said Ocheltree, who had been living in much more cosmopolitan Atlanta. “But golf still drives everything.’’

Stay-and-play packages got a big boost in 2009 when guests could enjoy new cottages and cabins, each comprised of four suites, a shared great room and outdoor patio areas with views of lakes and mountains as well as the golf course. Ours, at the Jones Cabin, offered a putting green just off the patio. Now there’s also a Golf Academy on site, headed by Layne Savoie, who had coached collegiately had Arkansas and Florida State.

FarmLinks maintains its claim as “the world’s first and only research and demonstration golf course,’’ and will continue to welcome more than a thousand superintendents from all over the world to The Experience — an educational program that showcases the industry’s best products, services and equipment. In the past golf industry professionals have learned about advanced technologies and turfgrass research thanks to partnerships with several top manufacturers via roundtable and focus-group meetings.

That won’t change. Neither will FarmLinks’ involvement with various ministries. A large prayer group is booked at the facility in early May. But there’ll be more weddings and other gatherings mixed in with the great golf moving forward.

Alabama’s an underrated state for golfers

GULF SHORES, AL. — There is, I believe, a misconception about golf in Alabama.

Sure, the creation of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail 20 years ago was a big boost for golf in the state. In fact, it was a marketing breakthrough for the entire golf industry. The Trail has 11 courses covering 468 holes, with most in the Birmingham area. Newcomers to Alabama may well gravitate to those layouts.

GlenLakes_18 — Extensive mounding creates a unique look on No. 18 at the GlenLakes course.

There’s a lot more to golf in Alabama than the Jones Trail, however. I witnessed that up-close-and-personal on the way home from a winter spent in Florida. Alabama golf is much different than its neighboring state to the south. Gulf Shores is less than an hour’s drive from Pensacola., FL., near Mobile.

The courses I played in Gulf Shores were much more like the ones in the Midwest in terms of the grass, then bunkers and the designs. And all of them were good.

Tourism in Alabama has had it tough recently, due to the bad publicity produced by an oil spill that affected its coast-line in June, 2010. There were no signs of lingering problems in Gulf Shores, however. In fact the 32 miles of white sand of neighboring Orange Beach produced a waterfront that rivaled (maybe even surpassed) Florida’s Siesta Key, which happily points out a recent survey that proclaimed it the No. 1 beach in the United States.

Orange Beach has a lot more golf to go with it than Siesta Key does. Golf GulfShores boasts nine signature courses covering 189 holes, all within easy driving range of each other. Probably the best is Kiva Dunes, designed by former U.S. Open champion Jerry Pate in 1995. It’s Alabama’s only beachfront golf resort.

That wasn’t on my itinerary, though. My first tee time was at Craft Farms, which boasts the only Arnold Palmer-designed courses in Alabama — Cotton Creek and Cypress Bend. Cypress Bend, the newer of the two, reminded me of another Palmer design in Illinois — Hawthorn Woods Country Club, site of the Illinois Open from 2008 to 2011. Wide fairways make it user friendly, but undulating putting surfaces and big bunkers make it challenging enough, as well. Palmer’s design company also handled the updating of Lost Key, another Gulf Shores course, in 2006.

Second stop was at GlenLakes, which has 27 holes and claims to be “the best golf value on the coast.’’ Visitors play for $65 before noon, $45 from noon-2 p.m. and only $30 after 2 p.m. during the busy winter season. By comparison, the Palmer layouts at Craft Farms charged $89 before 1 p.m. and $69 afterwards.

GlenLakes’ 18-hole links-style Vista Dunes course was a design combination of Bruce Devlin and Robert von Hagge. The nine-hole Lakes is more resort style but has water on six holes. I played the Vista and Lakes nines, which were fine, but Duncan Millar, the Golf GulfShores executive director, told me I missed something special by not taking on the well-mounded Dunes nine.

Two other 27-hole facilities — Peninsula and TimberCreek — were designed by Earl Stone, and he also was the architect for 18-hole Rock Creek. The father-son team of Jay and Carter Morrish did the design work on Gulf Shores Golf Club. Built in the 1960s as the first course in Gulf Shores, the Morrishes did a complete makeover in 2005.

Four of the Golf GulfShores courses — the two at Craft Farms as well as Rock Creek and Peninsula — are well-managed by Honours Golf, which oversees 13 courses in Alabama, Florida and Mississippi and is somewhat of a rival to the Jones Trail. Honours also includes Alabama layouts Limestone Springs (Oneonta), Highland Park (Birmingham), Cider Ridge (Oxford) and Gateway and Lagoon Park (Montgomery) in its portfolio but will lose one of its best clubs, FarmLinks in Sylacauga, this spring.

FarmLinks, a very special location that’s a 200-mile drive from Gulf Shores, is moving in a new direction after a management change. Developments there will be detailed in a future Len Ziehm on Golf report.

Gulf Shores, though, stands on its own as a golf destination. In addition to the courses and spectacular beaches, the area also offers such entertainment options as deep sea fishing, kayaking, surfboarding, cycling, water sports, hot-air balloon rides, horseback riding, family fun parks and cruises.

It also has a surprisingly wide range of restaurants. One that we can heartily recommend is Tin Top, a fish and oyster bar with an out-of-the-way location that fits the stereotype of rural Alabama down to the hot rod enthusiasts who revved up their engines on the country roads. That added spice to an already spicy lunch.

Of a more genteel nature, there’s Nolan’s Restaurant and Lounge — one of the many appealing places right off the main drag of Gulf Shores Parkway. There are plenty of other good, non-chain restaurants to visit, and the lodging options are almost as varied. In addition to the beach resorts and condo rentals available you might want to check out the Courtyard Marriott GulfShores at Craft Farms. It just underwent a $2.2 million renovation, the completion of which was celebrated during our visit.

Searching for golf bargains on Florida’s Gulf coast

SARASOTA, FL. — The main goal was to get to know a new area on our first two-month winter odyssey and — of course — that meant getting to know the golf options on Florida’s Gulf coast. We did a good job of both.

Between our arrival in Sarasota on Dec. 30 and our departure on Feb. 29 we played 14 of the 18-holers and one of the nine-holers. We didn’t have access to the area’s premier private clubs, like Concession, The Founders Club, Sara Bay, Longboat Key Club, Venetian, TPC Prestancia or The Ritz Carlton Members Club — but that didn’t matter.

This was more about discovering the best golf bargain in the highlight of the tourist season rather than getting in that one memorable round on a course with a big reputation.

Once friends learned of our winter plans we were advised to contact representatives of two prominent golf course management groups. We did, via email, but our contacts at neither Billy Casper Golf nor Pope Golf responded with either advice or invitations. So, the resulting selection of courses was solely ours. We were like any golf addicts on vacation looking for the best deal. Tee time availability and greens fees were prime considerations with a few suggestions from fellow tourists — those more experienced here than us — mixed in.

We went into our stay determined to play as many courses as possible. Therefore, we had a policy of playing each course only once. Our tour took us from Venice on the south to Leesburg on the north, but eight of the courses were within the Sarasota limits and three more were in the neighboring big city of Bradenton.

Florida golf is different than what we are used to in the Midwest. Tee times are, understandably, much higher in the winter months. There’s also a premium if you want to tee off in the morning. I found that hard to understand, and it was also puzzling to find most courses closing operations for the day in late afternoon — some even before we finished our rounds. That limited our opportunities to sample clubhouse food and beverage options.

I had a taste of Sarasota area golf when my parents lived part-time in the area for about 30 years, but then it was limited to The Meadows, a private club, and the nearby Bobby Jones Golf Complex, a busy, basic 45-hole facility with the most attractive greens fees. Those visits were made largely in the 1980s and 1990s. I hadn’t been back to Sarasota since 2002, and returned 10 years later with a different perspective on golf. I found the area in general had changed a lot in that period as well.

This time around the most notable things were the lack of bright flowering, so prevalent around Midwest courses, and bunkers that didn’t have nearly the sand in them as the courses closer to home. But the variety in the courses we played was outstanding. Courses that would be deemed too short around Chicago were pleasantly sporty in this climate. One course, Green Valley in Clermont, started with two par-5s. We’d never seen a course with that before. And water was a big strategic factor on most courses we played, a departure from what we were used to in the Chicago area.

While there wasn’t much in the way of cheerful flowering, there was plenty in the way of wildlife on all the courses. An alligator was about to devour one of our golf balls at Boca Royale, in Englewood, and big turtles formed a gallery on our tee shots at Rosedale in Bradenton. We spotted a bald eagle, quite a few sand cranes as well as a few woodpeckers and ducks. Squirrels were also in abundance at some of our stops.

While these tough economic times have taken a toll on Florida’s golf courses, just as they have everywhere else in the country, there was an upside to that. Many of the private clubs made their courses available for at least some public play. That enabled us to sample the challenging Waterlefe layout, most expensive of the courses we played at $79 per person with an afternoon tee time.

Best buy was also at a private club that welcomed public play, Bent Tree in Sarasota. This layout had been a stop on the Ladies PGA Tour, and legendary Nancy Lopez won both her first and last pro tournaments there. We were able to play it, though, for $39 apiece on one beautiful afternoon.

The Meadows, a long-time Sarasota golf landmark, opened two of its three courses to the public. The Groves was short but definitely challenging, the Highlands full-length and user-friendly. The Meadows limited its premier layout, called the Meadows, to member play though there didn’t seem to be much of that during the course of our stay.

Most unusual course we visited was Sarasota National, in Venice. It was supposed to be the centerpiece of a golf community, but the homes never got built. As a result, we had the feeling that we were playing golf on the moon — no homesites and not much in the way of trees bordering the fairways that were well spaced. But Sarasota National was one of our favorite courses on our tour, that also included Oak Ford and Sarasota Golf Club (not to be confused with Sarasota National) — both fairly priced and user-friendly.

Lowest greens fees — and that was always a consideration — came when we were willing to take day-long trips and cash in on the most attractive Players Pass program instituted this year by GolfVisions, which manages Foxford Hills, Tanna Farms, Oak Grove, Settler’s Hill, Nettle Creek Village Green and Heatherridge in the Chicago area. Two of the GolfVisions’ other courses are in Florida, and we played both Green Valley and Pennbrooke Fairways, in Leesburg. Thanks to the Players Pass our expenditures at both places — for two greens fees — was only $27. Now that’s what you call a bargain for Florida golf in the dead of winter, and making the approximately two-hour drives also brought us to two surprisingly great dining experiences — Cheesers (for breakfast and lunch) and City Grille (for dinner) in Clermont.

If you’re a golf history buff — and I am — a must stop (and one of the cheapest) is the Bobby Jones Golf Complex. Jones, who won golf’s Grand Slam in 1930 and then abruptly retired from competition, was on hand for the dedication of this layout in 1927. Donald Ross, the legendary architect, designed the first 18 holes. The facility grew by nine-hole increments in 1952, 1967 and 1977. The last was the creation of the John H. Gillespie Executive Course, named after a Scotsman who built the first two holes in the area in 1886. Local golf historians claim those two holes were the first built in the U.S.

Now the area has courses designed by celebrity player types like Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer as well as prominent world-wide architects like Tom Fazio, Robert Trent Jones and Arthur Hills. Most prolific architect for this area, though, is Florida-based Ron Garl, who has his name on Longboat Key Club, Plantation, TPC Prestancia, The Meadows, University Park and The Highlands. Chicago golfers might also be interested in Palm Aire since its architectural work was done by Dick Wilson and Joe Lee, the co-designers of the Dubsdread course at Cog Hill.

Scheduling golf the way we did educated us on Florida living and brought us into contact with a wide array of nice playing partners, all determined by chance. We were paired with an 86-year old at Waterlefe, who just happened to know other family members from the Chicago area. We played rounds with two couples from Michigan. One wasn’t married, just friends who enjoyed a round while their partners were tied up with work projects. We also met up with a telephone technician from Vermont, two good ol’ boys from Kentucky and a Korea-born computer programmer who had settled in Bradenton. All seemed to be good people and were good golf partners, for sure.

The biggest drawback was the lack of walking courses. Only Bobby Jones and Green Valley fit that category. And, unfortunately, we didn’t get to test such courses as University Park, Legacy at Lakewood Ranch, Tatum Ridge, Serenoa, River Strand and Rolling Green. We were told each had their good qualities. They’ll be must-stops on our next Florida golf tour.

So will Streamsong, a 36-hole resort facility that will open in Polk County, Fla. (between Orlando and Tampa) in December. It’ll be managed by Chicago-based Kemper Sports.

Len Ziehm On Golf

Category: Travel Destinations