Can Northern Michigan Golf ever RECOVER? (Manitou Passage GC ) pics....

[Richard Hetzel]

One of my summer vacations usually takes me to Glen Arbor, Michigan (just due West of Traverse City) and I do my level best to sneak away from the family and squeeze in 2-3 rounds of golf while there. If you have never been to the Traverse City area, I highly suggest you go. Just ask Tom Doak, he lives there!

Many courses have shuttered there recently; Lochenheath and High Pointe come to mind right away. A few years back I played The King's Challenge; an Arnold Palmer designed course that skirts it's way around an old ski resort. On a few of the holes, one can see the old, rusted ski lifts. I remember the golf course as either being really EASY in spots, or really TOUGH in spots. I believe it may have been designed as a housing development, yet it never took off. In fact, the parking lot to the club house was not even completely paved if I remember correctly.

I noticed that the King's Challenge Golf Club has changed hands, and is now called the Manitou Passage Golf Club.

Does anyone know the original plan for the club/surrounding area? Did the new owners get this course at a deep discount (The Homestead Resort maybe?)? I would assume so in today's economy. According to the website they are renovating the course. Does anyone know who is in charge of said renovations, or what is actually being changed on the course? Did Arnie's firm re-do the course? Will it be a more player friendly layout?

I wonder if the new owners will be (or can be?) successful at Manitou Passage since it is NOT in a higher traffic area like High Pointe and The Grand Traverse Resort (sports 3, 18 hole layouts). The course is off the beaten path for sure.

Unfortunately, that area of Northern Michigan golf is either a fire sale or in dire straits....a short 5 month golf season sure can't help any. It's too bad, because it is a great golf destination.

Here are some pictures of The King's Challenge from June 2008:

[Jonathan Cummings]

Great question.  The pessimist in me says - unlikely.  My optimistic side says - no way.  Unfortunately with 850 courses Michigan needs to shed about half of them to even approach the realm of marketability.

JC

[JC Jones]

I've actually played the Kings Challenge.  There are a couple pretty interesting holes out there, which is surprising for an AP course.  I think Joe Hancock was doing some work there, perhaps for Mike DeVries.  Maybe they will chime in here.  THen Joe will tell you the story of the best meal he ever ate for less that $10 at some bar in Glen Arbor.

[JLahrman]

Michigan did seem like it was starting to get overbuilt even before the recession.  And the recession has obviously hit the state EXTREMELY hard, it has the highest unemployment of any state.  Tourism is one industry that Michigan needs to survive.  Besides the golf, you've got the lakes, the skiing, the wilderness.  It's a beautiful state.  Unfortunately with the current economy and brain drain there are fewer and fewer Michiganders who can support the tourism, so somehow they've got to start drawing folks from areas that haven't been hit as hard.  It's tough going in Michigan right now.

[Joe Hancock]

I don't know the specifics of the deal, but the owner of The Homestead resort is the principle owner of King's Challenge(Manitou Passage?....really?.....that sounds like a medical term, sort of...maybe a not so distant cousin to Montezuma's Revenge....)

The second picture is the set of tees I rebuilt(under Mike D's direction) this past Fall. There was very little visibillity from the tees and a dangerous cart path prior to our work.

The owner of The Homestead wants to utilize the course as another amenity to draw people to the resort, even though the course is something like 5 miles from the resort proper. He's a sharp guy who will make it work, I predict.

Joe

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Great question.  The pessimist in me says - unlikely.  My optimistic side says - no way.  Unfortunately with 850 courses Michigan needs to shed about half of them to even approach the realm of marketability.

JC

850 courses

What is the population of Michigan? England has something like 1800-2000 courses but with a population of about 60 million.

[Jonathan Cummings]

Donal - it's been some years ago and I know the numbers have changed modestly but a great trivia question once went something like this. 

During the building boom of the 80s/90s we were opening here in the US slightly over one golf course a day.  California and Florida were both vying to become the first state with 1000 golf courses.  Florida ultimately won the race due to tough water and environments restrictions that all but stopped course construction in California.  Around ten years ago Florida stood as the state having the most golf courses (at its peak - about 1350) and California second (around 1000).  The trivia question was "what state had the third most?"  You got it and to many people's surprise - Michigan with 850.  And all but just a couple of those were south of the Mackinac Bridge.

JC

[George Freeman]

Great question.  The pessimist in me says - unlikely.  My optimistic side says - no way.  Unfortunately with 850 courses Michigan needs to shed about half of them to even approach the realm of marketability.

JC

850 courses

What is the population of Michigan? England has something like 1800-2000 courses but with a population of about 60 million.

As of the 2005 Census, Michigan had a population of around 10.1 million

[Chris_Blakely]

The King's Challenge GC now Manitou Passage is indeed now owned by The Homestead resort.  Originally this course was part of the Sugarloaf Resort and was one of two courses on site there.  The Manitou Passage course is west of the main resort (closed / boarded up) as well as west of the airfield.  The orginal course Sugarloaf GC - The Old Course (east of the main resort / runway) is also still open but was also sold to a separate owner when the resort closed 10 years ago. 

Chris