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<\/a>Traverse City, Michigan<\/p><\/div>\n
It had been thirteen years since I jumped on a plane in Orange County to Detroit<\/strong> on a Monday morning to go to work, and then flew home on Friday night \u2013 yes, I \u2018commuted\u2019 to Troy, Michigan<\/strong>, mostly every week for five years, so I knew the way to Michigan.\u00a0 But this trip was not about work, it was about golf.\u00a0 Actually, it turned out that golf was a lot of work!\u00a0 The Sagers, Budds, VanBoxmeers, and us, headed to Traverse City<\/strong> in northern Michigan to enjoy four of the over 1,000 golf courses in the state of Michigan.\u00a0 Those who have been to northern Michigan understand just how beautiful it is \u2013 lots of trees and everything is so green!\u00a0 We got lucky with the weather, as it was not too hot, not too humid, but, as Goldilocks would say, \u201cJust right\u201d.\u00a0 Our lodging for the first half of the week was in an awesome, four-bedroom condo at the A-Ga-Ming<\/strong> golf complex.<\/p>\n We traveled on a Sunday and had a tee time at the A-Ga-Ming Sundance<\/strong> course set for Monday morning, but the Sagers\u2019 and VanBoxmeers\u2019 golf clubs decided they wanted to spend some extra time in Dallas.\u00a0 So, no golf on Monday; our free day of Tuesday was rescheduled for golf and on our golf day of Monday was rescheduled for a self-directed tour of Traverse City, where we had lunch on the roof top bar of the Hotel Indigo<\/strong>, that provided us a beautiful view of the West Arm of Grand Traverse Bay<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Happy to be playing the 19th hole<\/p><\/div>\n We took this free day as an opportunity to visit an old friend of Linda’s and mine, Shiela Nittman<\/strong>, who used to live in our neighborhood back in Orange, but she and husband, Helmut<\/strong>, were now retiring in their beautiful second home overlooking Torch Lake<\/strong>, which was only about twenty minutes from where we were staying.\u00a0 It was a great visit, as Shiela regaled us with stories of the surrounding area.<\/p>\n Later that day we also visited a friend of John\u2019s, Cindy<\/strong>, who lived in the area and used to own the Colorado Mining Co<\/strong>. restaurant in Denver<\/strong> and knew John when he played for the Denver Avalanche<\/strong>, NHL hockey team.\u00a0 She had one story after another, either about the hockey players coming into the restaurant and causing havoc, or the night Elvis<\/strong> came in and they made him a huge peanut butter, jelly and bacon sandwich<\/strong>.\u00a0 We ended the evening having some indigenous white fish and walleye at Gray Gables<\/strong>, a nice restaurant in Charlevoix<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Room from The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet<\/p><\/div>\n Looking for golf balls in a field of sunflowers<\/p><\/div>\n After another day of bad golf for me, we changed locations from our four-bedroom condo in Ag-A-Ming to the Grand Traverse Resort & Spa<\/strong>, a nice, but dated, facility.\u00a0 Our room looked like something right out of 50s.\u00a0 We had a free day, meaning no golf, to just tour the area, so we went into Traverse City for breakfast, then stopped by a large field of sunflowers<\/strong> that we spotted along the road; there was a place to pull over and take photos, so we did.\u00a0 Dinner on the 15th floor of the Grand Traverse Resort & Spa building \u2013 beautiful view, just an OK dinner.<\/p>\n After three rounds of frustrating golf for \u2018Double Bogey Bob\u2019, that’s me, I can\u2019t tell you how excited I was that we booked the Jack Nichlaus<\/strong> designed course, \u2018The Bear\u2019<\/strong> for our last day of golf in Michigan.\u00a0 Here\u2019s the description of the course:<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the toughest golf courses in America, featuring Scottish terraced fairways, tiered greens, deep grassy roughs, moguls, mounds and deep pot bunkers, along with lakes, ponds, forests, streams and fruit orchards.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n Another broken club!!!<\/p><\/div>\n The course was about this friendly<\/p><\/div>\n Oh great, all that to deal with plus FRUIT ORCHARDS . . . on a golf course??!!\u00a0 I didn\u2019t sleep well the night before, wondering whether I had enough balls to get through even the front nine!\u00a0 But, as it turned out, it wasn\u2019t as bad as it sounded . . . IT WAS WORSE!!!\u00a0 It took three hours to play the front nine!!!\u00a0 Not wanting to miss our dinner reservation and being totally frustrated with ‘The Bear’, we quit after 12 holes and headed to the showers!\u00a0 Travel tip: Don\u2019t play this course unless you are a very good golfer, are in a very good mood and have plenty of time . . . and balls!<\/p>\n Our last supper was at the Turtle Creek Hotel & Casino<\/strong>, and it was probably our best of the trip, made better by the fact that Camus wine was half-priced, and after what we’d been through, we all needed something to help us forget that round, or two-thirds of a round, of golf.<\/p>\n Northern Michigan golf: Check<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bob Sparrow It had been thirteen years since I jumped on a plane in Orange County to Detroit on a Monday morning to go to work, and then flew home on Friday night \u2013 yes, I \u2018commuted\u2019 to Troy, … read more![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Great-8-300x144.jpg\")
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