Golfers Inspired by Masters
Must Visit the Gaylord Golf Mecca
By Greg Johnson
Golfers around the world watched on screens of all sorts. The green expanse was alluring. The golf was inspiring. It gave golfers in places where winter stays a while the compelling itch to play the game again.
Another Masters Tournament week is in the books and that is when the game of golf, especially for those of us in the Midwest, awakens from a winter slumber. We get the clubs out of storage and get ready for our season of fun, while remembering what we again witnessed at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.
Then we switch from one Mecca in Georgia to the Gaylord Golf Mecca in the heart of Michigan, where we also present bright green expanses of grass, towering pines, blooming flowers, stunning scenery, chirping birds and golf action.
Did you know the Gaylord Golf Mecca has 17 golf courses and 21 lodging partners in its cooperative marketing group?
Did you know some of the great architects in the game of golf, for instance Robert Trent Jones and Tom Fazio, have designed Gaylord Golf Mecca courses?
Did you know that the ever-evolving Augusta National course, the Alister MacKenzie original design, has had several of the game’s other great architects, including Jones and Fazio, continually tweak and even change things dramatically since the 1930s?
Jones in the 1940s partnered with Augusta National co-founder Bobby Jones on Peachtree Golf Club in Atlanta and then did some work at Augusta National. The most famous changes he was involved with include turning No. 11 into a dogleg left from the original dogleg right version, and then dramatically transforming a previously short No. 16 into what the famous par 3 hole is today.
Fazio, meanwhile, has been an often called-upon architect to oversee multiple changes on many of the holes at Augusta National over the last 20 years, especially the distance changes and new tee boxes. He has been referred to as the “house architect” of Augusta, and part of his family legacy is that his father, George, also did some work at Augusta.
Which brings us back to the Mecca in Michigan for your Masters-inspired golf fix.
Robert Trent Jones did some of the final design work of his storied career on the Masterpiece course at Treetops Resort, which essentially helped launch the Gaylord Golf Mecca as a golf destination 36 years ago.
Tom Fazio, a few years later, was making his mark designing golf courses around the world and was talked into coming to the Gaylord Golf Mecca by the good folks at Treetops. It was there he fashioned his only Michigan design – the Premier.
The 17 golf courses of the Gaylord Golf Mecca, including the Masterpiece and Premier, will be opening as spring warms things up and soon golfers will enjoy long summer days of play. The 21 lodging partners offer lodging options that stretch across the spectrum of price point, comfort and luxury.
To make your Mecca to Mecca move, call 800-345-8621, visit gaylordgolfmecca.com or reach out directly to our member properties: Lakes of the North Golf Course, Treetops Resort, Otsego Resort, The Natural at Beaver Creek Resort, The Pines at Michaywe, Indian River Golf Club, Garland Lodge & Golf Resort, Gaylord Golf Club, and Black Lake Golf Club.
