Every time I'm driving around northwest Michigan, say from Manistee all the way up the Leelanau Peninsula, I always seem to be craning my neck out the window thinking I just saw the next great piece of rolling land for a golf course. Driving from Arcadia Bluffs to Traverse City has some pretty interesting plots of farm land visible from the various county roads.
In addition, my standard route from Chicago to Traverse City takes me up I-196 then onto US-131, both of which seem to have many sections of sandy, rolling land (Lost Dunes is bisected by I-94, just south of where I-196 starts). By definition of me seeing it from a highway, the land is obviously near a busy road, but I would imagine this topography stretches quite a ways in either direction. A good example of this is the land by exit 191 on US-131 near Manton, MI.
As has been mentioned before, most of us amateurs see "ideal" golf land that is in actuality too severe for good golf, and this is likely the case for most of the stuff I am seeing.
Question for Tom D or Mike D: have you seen any interesting and sandy pieces of land in Northern Michigan that made you say "wow, we could turn that into a pretty good golf course"? Have you ever looked into any?
Always fun to dream...