DID YOU KNOW? Learn More About the Gaylord Golf Mecca
By Greg Johnson
It’s not exactly golf weather outside in Northern Michigan this week, but the friendly golfers who live in the Gaylord Golf Mecca rarely stop thinking about it, talking about it and planning how to make your golf visits wonderful.
With that in mind, we offer a couple of things to talk about this winter when you think golf and the Gaylord Golf Mecca.
Gaylord is known for its golf and elk viewing, but DID YOU KNOW that the current popular elk viewing spot near downtown was once Gaylord Golf Club?
The original then-called Gaylord Country Club was located next to what is now the Elks Lodge and the public City Elk Park viewing site. It was established in 1924 and Michigan Golf Hall of Fame designer Wilfred Reid was involved in the original design. When expansion wasn’t possible at the site, the club moved to its current location west of town in 1975, featuring a new design by Don Childs.
Take a trip to the Elk Park or check out Google Earth to view the original course site. You can see the bones of a golf course pretty easily.
As for a golf course with great bones, let’s chat about Black Lake Golf Club.
Rees Jones has designed a multitude of golf courses around the world, and is extra famous for his restoration work on historic U.S. Open sites, but DID YOU KNOW one of his favorite former work places is Black Lake Golf Club in Onaway?
“I’m proud of what we were able to do there, and I really enjoyed every minute on site,” he said a few years ago when we ran into him at a U.S. Open. “We were given a great piece of property and room for a great golf course. We feel it is exceptional in every way, and a perfect place for get-away-from-it-all golf.”
We hope you learned a little bit from us today, and DID YOU KNOW it’s never to early to plan that next trip to the Mecca? Go to gaylordgolfmecca.com.
