WILLIAMSBURG, Michigan – This is one of those golf feel-good stories that you don’t see often enough. It focuses on LochenHeath Golf Club in northern Michigan, on the outskirts of Traverse City. LochenHeath is a course that once was closed, but has since been rescued thanks to some extraordinary efforts by a few club…
Travel Destinations
Michigan’s Forest Dunes continues to expand its facilities
ROSCOMMON, Michigan – There was never a doubt that Forest Dunes had one of the very best golf courses in Michigan, if not the entire United States. Tom Weiskopf designed it in 2002 – the same year that Golf Digest named it Best New Course in the U.S. That started a rivalry with nearby…
Arthur Hills Golf Trail is up and running
TOLEDO, Ohio – Arthur Hills designed more than 200 golf courses and renovated more than 150 in his long career as a course architect. Few modern day architects have come even close to those numbers. Hills, now 90 and officially retired, spends most of his time on the east coast of Florida now but…
Valley Tower’s creation brightens the outlook at Indiana’s French Lick Resort
FRENCH LICK, Indiana — Our longest golf/travel writing tour of the year – 22 days with stops in six states — ended at a most familiar place. We’ve made at least one stop at French Lick Resort & Casino every year since 2009. This year’s visit was a bit different than the others in that…
What’s the best course on the Georgia Golf Trail? You tell me
Georgia may be the best state in the union for golf. Others may have more courses, but the Peach State is the home of both the Masters and the PGA’s Tour Championship. No state has major events of that caliber on an annual basis. And don’t forget the Georgia Golf Trail. With 20 destinations it’s…
New clubhouse will also bring a stunning opening tee shot at Cherokee Valley
TRAVELER’S REST, South Carolina – Clubs — at least the lucky ones– are sometimes able to build nice, new clubhouses even in these difficult financial times. Cherokee Valley, a 28-year old public facility 25 miles from the city of Greenville, is one of those but there’s more to the story. Owner Matt Jennings wanted…
`Dirty Dancing’ helped make Bald Mountain a special course
LAKE LURE, North Carolina – The Bald Mountain course at Rumbling Bald Resort hasn’t changed much since W.B. Lewis designed it in 1968. “Actually, it hasn’t changed at all,’’ said Adam Bowles, who has headed the golf operation at the resort the last seven years. “They put in new bentgrass greens in about 2000, and…
GOLF TRAVEL NOTEBOOK: Bath Course coming to Blackwolf Run
Business is reportedly down aty America’s golf destinations, but you certainly can’t blame the operators of those places for that. They have taken aggressive measures to entice golfers back, even in these troublesome pandemic times. Most notable recent example of that comes from Kohler, Wis., with an announcement only a few days after the…
Golf travel has changed, but it’s still fun — especially in the Pinehurst area
SOUTHERN PINES, North Carolina – Traveling to golf destinations has had a big impact on our lifestyle for 10 years. Make no mistake, though. The pandemic affected us big-time, just as it has everyone else. For eight months we didn’t leave Florida, our home for nearly four years now. We didn’t forget how nice it…
This history-rich town has a Donald Ross golf course — and much, much more
CAMDEN, S.C. – Camden, a town of about 7,000 residents, has a Donald Ross-designed golf course. That made it fair game for us on our first travel writing trip of 2020. There’s much more to Camden than that, however. Camden, a beautiful little town, is less than an hour’s drive from the state capital of…