MI-Best-Weekend Edition-May 28, 2023

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When we chose the stories for this edition, all the events and dates were accurate. As always, find the mostup-to-date information on the event/activity website, Facebook page or other direct information source.

Imagine the sun going down and the bon re starting up. You’ve already settled your on-course bets from the day and now are going double-or-nothing on yard games, with a favorite beverage in hand.

Sounds a bit like 19th holes all across Michigan. Except at Gull Lake View Golf Resort, it’s the 109th hole.

That’s right. There’s not just one, but six championship courses at Gull Lake View all in one amazing destination, making it the sixth-largest golf resort in the world!

“With six golf courses that are all very much unique, you can come here for four or ve days and never play the same hole twice,” said Jake Heerlyn, director of marketing for the family-owned resort in the Kalamazoo area.

“If you’re looking for a pure golf trip, we offer one of the better products in the Midwest.”

Not familiar with Gull Lake View? For starters, it’s home to the 2021 National Golf Course of the Year. It’s a hot spot for golf outings with 36 holes at multiple locations, and the capacity for your event to use three or four courses in the same day. It’s the host of high school state nals and college tournaments, too, plus the Michigan Senior Open.

You can stay and play at Gull Lake View with unlimited golf packages that offer great value and a spectacular variety of golf without having to drive way up north or catch a ight out of state.

You can make tee times online to play any of the six courses at Gull Lake View.

You also can take advantage of the resort’s stay-and-play packages that include unlimited golf when spending the night in one of 67 villas or luxury cottages that all sleep up to four people with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room and a full kitchen.

All of the villas and cottages are located along the course at Gull Lake View East, which also features Charles & Darl’s Smokehouse & Grille, the resort’s main restaurant and bar.

“Once you’re done for the day, you can head back to the villas and have a short walk over to the restaurant,” Heerlyn said.

One of the most popular stay-andplay options at Gull Lake View is a Thursday to Sunday deal that gets you on all six courses – 108 holes! – in four days. The resort offers customized trips all summer long and also partners with

hotels in Kalamazoo on golf packages that have you stay off-site and experience a little downtown nightlife after hours. Through May, you can stay and play for as low as $165 per night on a spring package. Then, starting Sept. 19, you can get an incredible rate on a fall package. Special senior packages are available Sunday through Thursday in spring, summer and fall, too.

Whether you want to play all six of the unique courses at Gull Lake View or maybe just a couple, the resort offers a blank canvas to build your next adventure.

“Every package is unlimited golf,” Heerlyn said. “You come here and play as much golf as you want.”

Michigan’s Magnificent Ten

he clock ticks nearly ten as the last putt of a multi-day summer golf trip in Northern Michigan sinks into the hole. After playing four different courses in four days, someone jokes they’re not certain they can hold a golf club any longer. The foursome departs while they debate the best course of their BOYNE Golf experience. Each divulges a different answer.

It’s BOYNE Golf’s variety and consistent quality across ten golf courses that spur this frequent golf trip scene. Most golf groups discover reaching a consensus favorite course or feature among the ten properties an improbable feat. The variety and quality among the ten courses — all located in proximity of each other — establishes the conglomerate as a world-class golf destination. And with nearby Cherry Capital Airport in Traverse City offering direct ights from 17 major cities, secret’s spreading across the country that some of the best golf resides right here in Michigan.

“There are only a handful of destinations in the U.S. that offer this number of courses,” said Ken Grif n, Director of Golf Sales and Marketing for BOYNE Golf. “And those that do are set in very similar terrain. We have mountain courses, valley courses, lakeshore courses, wetland courses and a course built in a former stone quarry.”

BOYNE Golf comprises ten championship courses that span three resorts centered in the northern lower peninsula. Each with their own distinct attributes, together they form the ultimate golf environment. Within minutes golfers can be along the shore of Lake Michigan to teeing off upon a vista that oversees 4,000 acres without a building in sight.

Golfers truly bask in the moment come summer as in this region the average temperature rests comfortably in the 75-degree range and the sunset pushes toward 10 p.m. More sunlight extends playing opportunity plus gives way to more spectacular views to behold.

BOYNE Golf matches the natural beauty and favorable summer weather of the area with

meticulous maintenance throughout each course. Whether playing the nationally lauded and award-winning course like Bay Harbor Links/Quarry or one of the more under-theradar courses, each property upholds exemplary conditions.

“We don’t look at our ten courses as a Big Two and Little Eight,” said Grif n. “Some courses may win more awards but the courses you don’t know about have the same conditions. It’s a different area, setting and topography but the golf conditions are the same. For you as a guest, you should have the same experience no matter the course you’re playing.”

Quality underscores how Boyne operates and it’s apparent both on and off the golf course. Updates on the 1, 13 and 15 holes on the Donald Ross Memorial this year highlight the commitment to improving playability and delivering high standards on the courses. Enhancements for 2023 also include new bunker sand on all 18 holes of the Arthur Hills course, improved sight lines on The Monument course, and over seven miles of resurfaced cart paths across the ten courses. Furthermore, 2023 upgrades include the availability of E-Z Go Pace Technology on the cart eets at all ten courses. The cuttingedge technology delivers golfers with better knowledge from the tee box to the green, improves pace of play and provides menu and food ordering capabilities. Off the course, recent enhancements at The Highlands Main Lodge and Chalet Edelweiss at Boyne Mountain boost the overall guest

amenities that allow golfers to cultivate the experience they desire.

And the Northern Michigan location of the courses provides ample opportunity to create a robust vacation.

A golf trip here can mean more than playing some rounds. Mackinac Island, a top tourist destination in the country, and many other great attractions are a quick swing away for fun excursions.

“The lakeside towns of Harbor Springs, Petoskey, Boyne City and Walloon Village offer guests great dining and outstanding shopping,” said Grif n. “There are also 13 wineries, several craft breweries and distilleries in the area to occupy your time when you’re not on the course.”

BOYNE Golf invites groups of all types across every skill level for a premier gol ng experience. Whether golf serves as the focal point of the trip, or as a leisure activity between exploring the area’s scenic beauty and other attractions, BOYNE Golf molds a package that ts you and your traveling party.

In fact, with so many components to the BOYNE Golf consortium, booking a package requires speaking to a dedicated Experience Agent that arranges every detail — from tee times to lodging amenities. A conversation allows the staff to assimilate what an individual or group desires and better guarantees a cherished vacation.

Centered in Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula, BOYNE Golf creates the quintessential golf destination with its variety and unyielding devotion to quality throughout ten courses. Pair that with the area’s favorable summer weather, it’s an unrivaled golf vacation experience.

experience. These upgrades and new rooms ensure lodging options are on par with the quality found among the courses. Plus, recent additions like SkyBridge Michigan — the world’s longest timber towered suspension bridge — at Boyne Mountain accentuate the comprehensive lineup of activities available at the resorts beyond golf. BOYNE Golf features a roster of courses and

Quality and variety reign at BOYNE Golf. Every course possesses its own unique avor but served with the same pristine conditions. And with six tee boxes at each hole, on each course, increased playability welcomes every golfer. World-class golf awaits, and it’s a “gimme putt” distance away for Michiganders.

“National caliber golf exists right in your own backyard,” said Grif n. Learn more at boynegolf.com or call 866.673.4150.

The golf experience of a lifetime that’s a short trip away

BOYNE Golf’s variety and quality provides the foundation to the ultimate golf trip

Carts at Grand Rapids’ Indian Trails Golf Course are

tGRAND RAPIDS, M he carts at a Grand Rapids golf course are going electric.

The move from gas-powered carts to electric ones at city-owned Indian Trails Golf Course, 2776 Kalamazoo Ave. SE, will come with an increase to cart rental fees but also new, in-vehicle amenities.

Graham Rayburn, clubhouse manager at Indian Trails, said each of the new carts come with a display unit providing GPS (Global Positioning System) features and an ability to order food from the clubhouse and communicate with the pro shop right from the cart.

The GPS functions show where the cart is on the course as well as how many yards the cart is from a selected position, such as a hole or bunker.

To offset the cost of the display unit software and the switch to electric, golf cart rental fees will likely be $3 more this season, making it $11 for nine holes and $16 for 18 holes, Rayburn said. Green fees on top of cart rental fees vary.

The new electric carts will be available when the golf course opens for the season this spring -usually around early-to-mid April.

David Marquardt, director of the city’s parks department, said the switch is part of finding greener solutions within the department to align with the city’s goals.

Grand Rapids city leaders have set a goal of reaching 85% carbon reduction by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2040 for all municipal emissions.

“We do lease our carts, and so that is a part of what prompted this switch,” Marquardt said. “Our lease agreement with the gas carts was coming up and we were looking for ways in which we can meet some of the city’s sustainability goals here within the Parks and Recreation Department, and this is one way in which to do that.”

City commissioners signed off on the 60-month lease of 54 electric golf carts, as well as four gaspowered turf maintenance vehicles and one utility vehicle, on Jan. 10. The annual cost of the lease is $78,000.

Marquardt said the lease for the electric carts is slightly more expensive than it was for gas carts.

The software in the carts, called Visage from the company Club Car, will also be a benefit to workers, Rayburn said.

It will give workers a real-time map of where the carts are at on the course, showing any slowdowns, and allow employees to directly message specific carts.

Additionally, the software allows the carts to be geofenced, meaning course officials can mark places on the course out-of-bounds that will stop the carts automatically until the driver turns back. Rayburn gave the putting greens as an example of a place that would be marked out-of-bounds for the carts.

However, he said, workers can turn off the geofencing on specific carts if someone has different needs and requires to be closer to certain areas than is otherwise allowed.

MICHAEL KRANSZ mkransz@mlive.com

If you think it’s hard to meet new people, try picking up the wrong golf ball.

JACK LEMMON