Why such little discussion on Black Forest, Diamond Springs, and Pilgrims Run

[Steve Lang]

   or they're walking back from the 18th picking berries!


actually I always jumped over to the Valley course for the walk back to the Clubhouse.


Yes Ben, I've walked BF and lived to tell about it...  not so bad except walk to #1 tee but you get some one to cart you there, between #2G to #3 T is thankfully downhill, but from #4G to #5 T very uphill, then down and back up, but then from #5 G to #18 G very walkable and then getting back is a trek, might as well play in on Valley as said..  been there done that as home course when at Blue Lake


There was quite a discussion about tte swinging gate at the 10th in a vintage thread, I watched Adam Clayman negotiate it with deft left to right skills and walk away with a bird..
 
Tom Doak I talked with someone on a dozer trying to carve out the driving range, that never materialized between the clubhouse and 1st tee, I think it was Mike DeV...its great berry picking there now!

[JJShanley]

I haven't made the trek up to Northern Michigan yet, but I have played Pilgrim's Run and Diamond Springs.  I enjoyed both, but enjoyed D-S- a little better.  I suspect its "rustic charm" puts off a few folk, whether here or in the wider golfing community.

[Tom_Doak]

Black Forest was actually designed to be walked!

Of course we had to make concessions, since the existing Wilderness Valley GC and lot sales meant there was no available land within a half mile of the clubhouse, and the client didn't want to build another if he didn't have to.  He actually bought back three undeveloped lots from people when we found a first hole we liked that came a bit closer.

I had a lot of friends who were golf pros up here, and they all urged me to make the course walkable so they could play it for an event without a cart.  The best I could do was to make an open jaw routing that finished in the bottom of the valley: even if we had found a couple of finishing holes up top, walking up to them would have been too much.  There are three big green to tee hikes:  downhill a long way from 2 green to 3 tee, up to 5 tee, and through the valley from 5 tee to 5 green.  After that it's easy!  But unless you've got someone shuttling players back from 18 green, which they could do but don't, it's all a moot point.

[Jason Way]

I think that the best workaround to most of the big walking issues at BF is to take a cart and use it up until the 3rd tee.  Leave it by the forward tee on #3 (let them know in the pro shop that you are going to do it), and walk the rest.  It is a short walk from the 18th green back to your cart, and it looks from the aerial below like there is a cart path/maintenance road there.

[Tom_Doak]

I think that the best workaround to most of the big walking issues at BF is to take a cart and use it up until the 3rd tee.  Leave it by the forward tee on #3 (let them know in the pro shop that you are going to do it), and walk the rest.

Never thought of that ... awesome idea!