BOYNE Golf
Comprised of Ten Golf Courses and Three Resorts
By Brian Weis
When you're one of the longest lasting, most successful, most varied golf operation in all of golf-crazed Northern Michigan, how do you keep your edge, your leadership position, your honored standing in the crowed golf market?
If you're the hugely successful Boyne Golf Empire you do it be tearing down, building up, polishing old layout and bringing new projects to the area.
What you've done over the last 50 years is remembered, appreciated and enjoyed, but what you will do over the next decade and the decades to come is really important to continue the Boyne Golf Success Story.
"We've always got to be improving, always got to try to get better and more innovative," said Ken Griffin, Boyne's Director of Golf Sales and Marketing.
"In another year, you won't even recognize this place," he added at The Highlands at Harbor Springs Resort.
In the future, it will be known simply at The Highlands, but will include a new upscale dining option, more upgraded room to go along with the 85 which were new in 2002, a spa and an update to the Cuffs golf short game par 3 area.
Boyne will also be known for great golf, 3 different resorts, and 10 varied courses will see to that, but it will also showcase great places to eat, sleep and have fun with your friends.
Boyne Highlands, or The Highlands, has four great courses including the Arthur Hills course done by the Midwest master of golf architecture, the Donald Ross Memorial, an ode to one of golf's all-time great designers, plus the Heather by Robert Trent Jones.
But the Moor will be getting a makeover from Midwest architect Raymond Hearn. It will greatly expanding the varied options on the course which is a locals favorite at 6,850 yards from the back tees.
The fairways on the course are being both lengthened and widened and the area around the greens themselves have been opened up to all more creatively and chipping around the greens. All of the work should be finished and ready for the complete 2023 season as another example of the best get better at The Highlands.
Across the street from Boyne's flagship, the Inn at Bay Harbor and Bay Harbor Golf Club, Crooked Tree Golf Club is getting some renovation work as well.
More than a dozen bunkers are being removed on the course to improve the golfing experience moving the course to less penal and more pleasurable.
You're not getting a new Lake Michigan anytime soon, the original is doing just fine here, so little needs to be done for the spectacular routing at Links of Bay Harbor and Bay Harbor Golf Club. The Links nine holes has most of the direct lake views.
Four holes on the Links front nine offer stunning views of Lake Michigan with the par 5 seventh hole feature the natural watery treasure all along right side clearly visible from the cliffs above.
Hole 17 on the Quarry side features Little Traverse Bay on the short, but very dangerous par 3 hole. 18 has the lake all the way down the left side nearly tee to green with the fairway running out in front of a tangled enlarged ditch which crosses all along the fairway. You likely forced into a short pitch to a narrow green with a putt which usually breaks to the water for all the bets or bragging rights.
The Preserve is the third nine, also done by architect Hills, and it wanders into the wooded area of the massive property. Less stunningly scenic certainly doesn't mean less hard as there are plenty of trips and traps to get into your way here.
Boyne Mountain golf courses include the Alpine and Monument layouts and at more than 1,000 above sea level offers plenty of enticing view to take away any golf stings. There is also the outstanding Mountain Grand Lodge and Spa to rest up for your next golf challenge.
While the Moor is getting a restoration, there is still plenty to love about rest of the great golf at The Highlands. The Donald Ross Memorial is a tribute to some of golf's grand master most famous designs.
Among the holes replicated here are some from Oakland Hills, Seminole Golf Club, Pinehurst #2, Inverness, and Oak Hill, site of the 2023 PGA Championship.
The Arthur Hills layout is a great one for both design and beauty with several natural and manmade lakes and strategically placed bunkers coming into place on multiple occasions. The par 5 13th hole allows you to tee off from an elevated tee box over trees to the fairway below. It's made for golfers to hit it as far as they want and from the back tee box, a healthy 570 yards, the ball seems to go forever in the area.
The Heather Course was the first opened at Boyne in 1966 and is still the golfing excellence standard for all Boyne Golf course. It's Parkland golf at its finest and was named the 2019 National Golf Course Owners Association Course of the Year in the United States after being named the 2018 Michigan Golf Course of the Year.
The Robert Trent Jones, Sr., layout can play 7,143 yards from the back tees and has hosted every important Michigan golf tournament since it first opened.
The iconic lake fronting the par 4 18th hole is the calling card for the course, but with so much variety and challenge here, there is no end to the golfing thrills and spills.
A total of 10 courses, three resorts, plus endless value packages Including the Super 5 and the Magnicificant 10 along with the Unlimited, the Stay and Play and the Champions Golf Package, means the good times and stories never end with Boyne Golf. For this year, next, and many more to come.
For more information on making your next memory at Boyne go to www.boynegolf.com or call 855.496.9220
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Revised: 09/26/2022 - Article Viewed 4,308 Times
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About: Brian Weis
Brian Weis is the Publisher of GolfTrips.com, a network of golf travel and directory sites including GolfWisconsin.com, GolfMichigan.com, ArizonaGolfer.com, GolfAlabama.com, etc. Professionally, Brian is a member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA) and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG). In 2016, Brian won The Shaheen Cup, an award given to a golf travel writer by his peers.
All of his life, Brian has been around the game of golf. As a youngster, Brian competed at all levels in junior and high school golf. Brian had a zero chance for a college golf scholarship, so he worked on the grounds crew at West Bend Country Club to pay for his University of Wisconsin education. In his adult years, his passion for the game collided with his entrepreneurial spirit and in 2004 launched GolfWisconsin.com. In 2007, the idea for a network of local golf directory sites formed and GolfTrips.com was born. Today, the network consists of a site in all 50 states supported by national sites like GolfTrips.com, GolfGuide.com and GolfPackages.com. It is an understatement to say, Brian is passionate about promoting golf and golf travel on a local, regional, national and international level.
On the golf course, Brian is known as a fierce weekend warrior that fluctuates between a 5-9 handicap. With a soft fade, known as "The Weis Slice", and booming 300+ drives, he can blast it out of bounds with the best of them.
Contact Brian Weis:
GolfTrips.com - Publisher and Golf Traveler
262-255-7600