To golf on five different Arthur Hills designed courses was wonderful. Friday, we were rained out, so we have a lifetime rain check at Crystal Mountain Resort in northern Michigan. Our weekend biking with Michigan Bicycle Touring at Crystal Lake, Michigan, was marred by rain. We survived, dried out in time to visit my daughter, and golf our way home.
9/5 Hawthorne Country Club (1993) Fishers, IN
The clubhouse is absolutely beautiful and large enough to be a castle. In fact, from the golf course side it reminded me of a French castle. The place was 1st class all the way. Arthur Hill's 1993 design is very good without being ostentatious. All parts of the course were in immaculate condition. The development surrounding the course is doing a booming business of building $500,000+ homes everywhere you look. While we were there they were building so many of these homes you wonder how they can say our economy is weak. The course featured at least 5 cape-type holes with water or marsh down one side of the fairway. On several holes he neatly tucked the green around a corner and protected it with bunkers, trees, or water. The greens had subtle breaks and were fast. We had the course completely to ourselves on this particular Wednesday since ladies day had started on the front side and the nice fellow in the pro shop started us on the back. At $106.00 a round there were not many other guests. Moe wins 7&6.
9/6 Moors Golf Course (1979) - Portage, MI
The Moors is a very nice subdivision course. The front is mostly open with large greens, many well protected by sand traps. The back 9 starts the same but then enters a wooded area and closes with what the locals claim to be the hardest four holes in Michigan. Arthur Hills used the woods, marshes and his elevated greens to make Moors a very tough finish. The greens were fast. Sand traps were in excellent condition. Fairways and tee-boxes were excellent. The last four holes were the only holes not in the subdivision. Moe wins 7&6.
Note: We were able to play these first two country club courses on our trip because Dan at Tanglewood (our home course ) called their golf pros and got us reciprocal rounds. The other courses are all open to the public.
9/10 Red Hawk Golf Course (1999) - Tawas City, MI
This is a Arthur Hills classic design on the sunrise side of Michigan. The course was carved out of the woods so every hole is lined with white birch, oak, and pine trees. It is like a walk in the forest. However, if you don't hit the landing areas Arthur Hills designed, it could turn into a very frustrating walk. Joyce and I both stayed out of the trees for the most part, and had a well played, exciting match. Tee boxes, fairways, and greens are all bent grass and in excellent condition. We played Red Hawk on a perfect 70 degree sunny day with low humidity. However, the night before it rained heavily, so the course drainage system was challenged. The front-side passed with flying colors but we detected some soggy fairways on the backside (holes 10 & 11). It would probably help if they would complete the cart paths so they could mandate "cart path only" after a rain. Red Hawk is a golf course with no housing development. They have a nice fine dining restaurant serving lunch and dinner in the clubhouse. The match ended all square.
9/11 Red Hawk Run (1998) - Findlay, OH
Monday, we played the Arthur Hills designed Red Hawk golf course in Tawas City, MI. Red Hawk is carved out of the forest. On Tuesday we played the Arthur Hills designed Red Hawk Run golf course in Findlay, OH that was carved out of the cornfields of northwestern Ohio. The difference in the look of these courses is dramatic. One can only imagine the difference in development cost to clear fairways of trees versus corn.
Red Hawk Run is not as scenic as its sister course in Michigan but it is a nice course and a good test of golf. Since Mr. Hills did not have trees or his beloved marsh areas to challenge us, he used sand traps, creeks, and ponds. The bent grass fairways and greens were in good shape and the greens were fast. Moe won the match 5&4.
Red Hawk Run just opened this year and will get better with age. However, with age will also come more houses. Housing developments will continue to be the driving force for golf course development, and Mr. Hills continues to be one of the best at designing a course that keeps the houses out of play.
GOLF
9/5/01 - The Hawthorns CC ($109 ea.) Match: 84-117 Moe Wins 7&6
9/6/01 - The Moors CC ($71 ea.) Match: 91-123 Moe Wins 7&6
9/10/01 - Red Hawk GC ($65 ea.) Match: 86-104 All Square
9/11/01 - Red Hawk Run GC ($39 ea.) Match: 81-113 Moe Wins 5&4
9/12/-1 - Pipestone GC ($40 ea.) Match: 86-108 Moe Wins 1 up
