Gaylord Golf Mecca Continues on Path of Success
The Gaylord Golf Mecca moves into 2026 as a premier U.S. summer golf destination for the 39th year, coming off yet another banner golf season in 2025.
A grand total of 280,659 rounds were played at 17 member courses in 2025, which was a three percent increase over what was then a record-setting 2024.
And those rounds were played at an average price of $62.72 per round.
It is unmatched quality, quantity and affordability that powers the cooperative golf marketing group in the heart of northern Michigan, and it has been that way for almost four decades. The time-tested Gaylord Golf Mecca has clearly earned the right to be called America’s Summer Golf Mecca.
“The first budget for the Mecca was $15,000, the Tourism Bureau contributed $7,500 and we had a formula for the golf courses to put in $1,500 each to make up the rest,” said Tourism Bureau Executive Director Paul Beachnau, who has been around since the start in 1987.
“The initial Tourism Bureau budget for Gaylord was just over $100,000 and is now well over $1 million with about $300,000 budgeted for the Golf Mecca marketing and advertising.”
In its first year, the Mecca saw six member courses record 60,000 rounds of golf with revenues of $2 million. High water marks for the Mecca are now nearly 280,000 rounds with revenues over $26 million.
The Mecca is now the second oldest cooperative golf marketing group in the U.S., behind only Myrtle Beach, S.C. The groups includes 16 golf courses and 21 lodging partners, including three resorts with multiple golf courses.
Black Bear Golf Course, Black Lake Golf Club, Garland Lodge & Golf Resort, Gaylord Golf Club, Indian River Golf Club, Lakes of the North Golf Course, Michaywe Pines Course, Otsego Resort and Treetops Resort.
Beachnau calls the Mecca a golf destination unique in the U.S. and beyond. “We are unique as a destination with our quality and quantity of outstanding courses and facilities combined with affordability and playability for golfers of all levels and types. We include family friendly golf, classic country club style golf and award-winning resort golf designed by some of the world’s top architects,” he said.
Beachnau noted that a recent first gathering of the year to reveal 2025 numbers was attended by the leaders from each golf property.
“That tells me that there is as much enthusiasm, interest and support for what we do cooperatively now as there was when we started 39 years ago,” he said. “Each person wanted to know the numbers for 2025, the trends, the kind of things we shared and that’s the stuff that motivates me to keep working for the Mecca. It’s that kind of effort and support to keep doing what we are doing that really fires me up.”
