3 N. Mi golf courses wont reopen?

[S. Huffstutler]

I occasionally look at the Traverse City Record-Eagle (still have a home in Frankfort) and I read today that 3 courses wont be reopening in the Spring. Problem is, I can't open the link. Does anyone know which courses they are? Anything good going down the drain?

Steve

[Craig Van Egmond]

One of them is Cedar Hills:


Cedar Hills golf course in Long Lake Township is being sold to T.C. Land Co. of Clarksville for a proposed housing project, a trend that developers say is going on across the state.

I couldn't find the article either, looks like they removed it.

[Buck Wolter]

It's working now

http://www.record-eagle.com/2005/feb/27golf.htm

The sub-head is
"Affordable play is hard to maintain"

[S. Huffstutler]

OK.. Veronica Valley and Mitchell Creek, eh? Nothing too upsetting there, there is still more affordable golf in N. Mi than there is here in Naples, that's for sure.

Steve

[John_McMillan]

I guess the moral of this story is that it is becoming very difficult to operate a golf course at the very bottom of the quality spectrum - which is where these three courses ranked.  The greens fee you can charge is capped pretty low by courses in the middle strata - and there's no room for error in making decisions.  

I wonder what this means for a course like Crystal Lake - about 20 miles away in beautiful Benzie county.  One of the oldest courses in the area, it operated as 9 holes until around the mid 1980s or so.  At that time, it built and opened a second 9 holes. A horrible remodel added room for a driving range in the mie 1990s or so.  I drove to play the course once last summer, and noticed that the second nine appeared to be no longer maintained, with play being sold over the original 9 holes.  

If the Veronica Valley/Cedar Hills/Mitchell Creek model holds, it looks like the owners of Crystal Lake have chosen the toughest economics for their course to survive.  

[Brian_Sleeman]

I'm not sure if Crystal Lake has fallen or not, but I can tell you that their head professional has taken a job at the North Shore Golf Club in Menominee, Michigan (right on the border with Wisconsin), as of about two weeks ago.  Maybe Crystal Lake is going/gone too...

[John_McMillan]

There is still one budget course in the Traverse City area - Bay Meadows survives.  Perhaps they survived by getting the formula right for that market segment - they had a very good teaching staff with Lee Houteman and Ina Davis, and they watered the heck out of their course so it was always nice and green.  

Crystal Lake losing their pro does not bode well for their plugging into the Bay Meadows formula.

[S. Huffstutler]

I think Crystal Lake was recently sold for development. It never had much play when I lived there.

Steve

[Steve Lang]

 

with the demand for new housing acreage in these areas, the economics have to rule the day..  

I've driven by the sign for mitchell creek probably 100 times without ever stopping in.. mainly because of plenty of playing venues elsewhere in the area..