September 2005

I just played a great, great golf course. I even played one where I felt like they were glad to see me. Imagine that, customer service to write home about AND a great, great golf course.

Christmas Lake Golf Course is located in Santa Claus, Indiana. You’da never believed it if I hadn’t wrote it, would you ?

It’s just a few minutes off I-64 in southern Indiana. Close to Evansville, not too far from Louisville and only about 45-55 minutes from Owensboro, KY. Gives me ideas about joining a club. Can you tell ?

I played with Blair Jones, Brad Persohn and his friend Wayne. They’re from Evansville and Jasper.

It was only about 6006 yards from the White tee’s, but it looked long and felt long. I shot a 79 to Blair’s 80. Next time we’ll play the Blue’s and I’ll let you know how it plays from there.

The whole course was as fair and playable as ANY course I’ve ever played. Really. Room off the tee’s. Room around the greens and just room for the room. This part of southern Indiana is some of the finest land God made for golf courses. The designer here did a great job of working his way around what seemed to be 100 miles of rolling, wooded, big blue sky country. All I saw was green grass, trees that were away from the parts of the course that you play on and enough sand and water to keep you honest. This was how a golf course was supposed to use the land.

I didn’t have time to hang around, but I hear the 19th Hole Bar & Grill is as good as it gets. I WILL find out next time.

From their website:

Christmas Lake Golf Course makes the most of the Southern Indiana landscape, with tree lined fairways, rolling hills, valleys, and sparkling lakes. With its Zoysia grass tees and fairways, Bent grass greens, and four sets of teeing locations, you’ll enjoy golf at its best.

Golf Digest Magazine listed Christmas Lake Golf Course as one of the top 75 public golf courses in America, and Indiana Business Magazine rated the course as the 7th most challenging in Indiana.

The zoysia was kept at the right height in the fairways and on the tee boxes. I played every par 3 without using a tee and never missed a green. They are that good. Not me.

The greens were cut a little too low for the temperature and humidity, but held well on approach shots. They felt like they were rolling about 10-12 on the Stimpmeter, which is a little quick for me and my gang. The weather will be cooling off soon, so I expect that these big, gorgeous greens will be sweet like good tea in no time at all.

Tom Nelson, Head PGA Pro and Kevin Laswell, Course Superintendent are to be commended for having a facility that is well kept, reasonably priced and friendly.

I cannot wait to get back for another fabulous round.

Go by their website, or drop by and play a round. They have packages available that include everything you need for a quality golf experience.

Tell ‘em Mike sent you. They’re going to be seeing a lot more of me this year. And next.

As we continue on our tour of golf courses designed by Arthur Hills, we find a course named…The Arthur Hills Course.

It’s part of the Boyne Highlands Resort, Harbor Springs Michigan.

You can find this course, as well as all the others under their umbrella, by clicking HERE.

I’ve travelled up into Michigan at this time of the year. It’s harvest time here. The state of Michigan and the Dunes region of Northern Indiana are absolutely gorgeous this time of the year.

Somebody go check this course out and come back and give us a comment.

We need more comments. We need more reviews and we’d love to have you guys submit some info for all of us to read.

Go play The Arthur Hills and tell ‘em Mike sent you.

Continuing our visits to golf course designed by Arthur Hills, my favorite designer, we visit the website of Bay Harbor Golf Club, in Bay Harbor, Michigan.

Quoting from their website:

” Sweeping shoreline bluffs, dunes, rugged rock formations and verdant woodlands converge in the form of three nine-hole courses. Each course possessing a distinct character and flavor, but all sharing one interconnected thread, a genuine soul, to the way the golf experience unfolds here. “

I’m not sure if I can follow all that verbage and all those adjectives and such, but it sounds like a heckuva golf course.

Golfweek Magazine says:

” Bay harbor Golf Club is one of the most picturesque golf sites in the country…it may be America’s most diverse collection of Holes “

This is high praise and this quote alone puts this course on my short list of places to find a way to visit.

GOLF Magazine said this:

” Renowned golf architect Arthur Hills in collaboration with Stephen Kircher planned every detail of all three nine-hole courses, giving each a distinct flavor that challenges you to break par. This course is already a classic on the short list of must plays for any golf devotee. In the inaugural season the Bay Harbor Golf Club leap-frogged to the 8th ranking in the country - “Best Courses You Can Play”

Go visit their website and check out the photos…unbelievable !

If you’ve played this world-class track, leave us a comment so we can all learn more about this little slice of golflove.

If you stop by, tell ‘em Mike sent you.

A friend of mine recently became the co-owner of a condo near Naples, Florida. He married it.

While looking around for golf courses near Naples, I found this development, Fiddler’s Creek.

Here’s a quote from their website:

Golf in the
Time-Honored
Tradition of the Game

At completion, residents of Fiddler’s Creek will be surrounded by 72 holes of championship golf, 36 holes of which will be available to members of The Golf Club at Fiddler’s Creek. The first course, a masterpiece of design by acclaimed golf course architect Arthur Hills, is The Creek Course at Fiddler’s Creek. It is now open for play and provides a superb golfing experience for all skill levels.

Having fallen in love with another Arthur Hills course, River Islands, I really want to get down to Naples someday and play this course.

In fact, I think I’ll make the next few post about all the Arthur Hills designed golf courses I can find.

They’ll be worth playing and reading about, so check back daily or subscribe to my RSS feed.

I’m a little late, but I just saw an issue of Fairways & Greens in my local pro-shop today. The cover story for August is none other than David Feherty.

I always though Gary McCord was the world’s funniest human, UNTIL I heard and read David Feherty. I met them both at a breakfast table north of Columbus, OH at a Marriott. Sitting at the table next to us. Waiting on breakfast, while outside it poured rain like it can only do during The Memorial tournament week. Payback to Jack Nicklaus from the golf gods for kicking their butts for decades.

Even though he had not slept, or it didn’t appear that he had, he was still a walking wise-crack. McCord was a close second.

One of the guys at our table was a tournament director for a Senior tour tourney. State Farm Classic, I believe. His name was Brian, I believe.

He wanted to ask Gary to come play in his tournament. I offered to go with him. As heat. I’m 6′2″ and 245. Wide thru the shoulders and ugly as sin. I looks mean. Generally, I am.

He walks up to McCord, who had not slept either and introduces himself. McCord ask who the goon is. I tell him I’m there to make sure he shows. He shakes hands and says to take the goon back to his cage. He’ll be there.

Feherty makes wise crack about McCord being chicken. McCord says it looks like the goon eats chickens. Live. Feathers and all. I don’t smile.

Fast forward a few months. McCord plays in the tournament. I watch him on TV. This time I smile.

Get a copy of Fairways and Greens and read Feherty. That’ll make me smile, too.

I’ve been surfing around the site of InTheLoopGolf.com. They are the place for all the info you could ever want for golf in California.

You can find the latest edition of Golf California for only $9.95 (plus shipping and handling). You read that correctly, $9.95 buys you the Ultimate Golf Guide on over 1,000 courses in California, Reno, and Las Vegas.

They also have a partnership with California Tourism and can offer you the best courses at the best prices. Check out their new online tee time service.

For everything golf in California, go visit InTheLoopGolf.com.

Tell ‘em Mike sent you.

Do you plan to go on a golf vacation to Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, Spain or Portugal ? How about looking for a golf resort in Italy, France, South Africa, New Zealand or the Dominican Republic ?

If so, you might save some money or find a better deal at The AtlanticGolf Company.

These folks have been around for a while and have been known to help those of us looking for golf trips to laces around the world.

Go by and visit them and if you call, tell ‘em Mike sent you.

I’ve been noticing that of late, the winners on the PGA and Nationwide Tours are playing the Zero Friction Golf Tee.
Has anyone else tried these ?

Shoot me an email or leave a comment here so we can all learn whether or not this is a real improvement, a fad or a phenomenon.

When I get back from the next couple of days of business travel, I’ll investigate this a little further. While I’m researching this, I’ll hope to continue the good golf I’ve been playing lately.

Here’s a link to a Golf Digest article about the new rankings for Metro areas in the United States.

Based on their criteria , Alabama’s twin cities of Auburn and Opelika (a place more well known for college football than golf,) was selected as the top American metropolitan area for a golfer to live.

I’d say it had a lot to do with the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail than anything else. The courses there are fantastic.

Rounding out the top ten are:

No. 2. Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA

I used to go to Tri-Cities Golf Club a few times every year with General Shale Brick Co.
This is a great area for golf, food and family.

No. 3. Punta Gorda, FL - I’ll agree with this one.

No. 4. Youngstown-Warren, OH - Who would have thunk it ?

No. 5. Bloomington-Normal, IL - I have no idea why.

No. 6. Iowa City - I lived in Webster City, Iowa for about 6 months. I have no desire to check this one out.

No. 7. Utica-Rome, NY - Hmmmm.

No. 8. Wilmington, NC - I’d go here in a North Carolina minute !

No. 9. Gadsden, AL - No thanks.

No. 10. Johnstown, PA. - not really my kind of area, but I’ll go if I’m invited. I might learn something.

Go read the entire article and come back and leave me a comment.