GolfBlogger’s Holiday Gift Guide 2024: Golf Trip Experiences
For the ultimate holiday gift, I suggest a golf travel experience. Memories are better than things. Here are a few that The GolfBlogger has enjoyed:
- Cragun’s Legacy Resort: Midwest Nice For Everyone
- Boyne Golf: Northern Michigan’s Magnificent Ten
- Forest Dunes: Three Top 100 Courses
- Pinehurst Resort: Bucket List Golf
- Gull Lake View: 108 Holes of Golf
- Bandon Dunes: Dream Golf
- Morocco: An Exotic Golf Adventure
- Gaylord Golf Mecca: Seventeen Courses
- Island Resort: Get Away From Everything
- Tullymore Golf Resort: Two Distinct Courses
- Eagle Ridge: Great Midwestern Golf
- Turning Stone: Golf, Gambling and Entertainment
Cragun’s Legacy Resort: Midwest Nice For Everyone
Cragun’s Resort and Hotel on Gull Lake near Brainerd, Minnesota is a perfect place to take a family while being simultaneously being on a golf junket.
In addition to 45 holes of golf, Cragun’s has a mile-long beach (salt and shark free!), tennis, pickleball, yoga classes, volleyball, basketball, biking, boats, water skiing, wake surfing, tubing, kayaking, swimming, fishing, wagon rides, foot golf (I also think I saw disc golf), several restaurants, hotel rooms, individual cabins, and large rental houses. There are things to do for every member of the family.
Mrs. GolfBlogger and I visited as their guests for a couple of days this past summer, and I would love to return for another week. I say a week because there is so much to do there.
Visit Craguns.Com for more information.
Boyne Golf: Northern Michigan’s Magnificent Ten
If you want to maximize your golf vacation, head to Northern Michigan. At the height of summer, the region enjoys some fifteen hours of daylight. On my summer days “Up North,” I often finish rounds after 9 pm with light to spare. Two rounds a day with time for a leisurely meal between is often my schedule.
Boyne Golf in Northern Michigan offers three resorts and ten courses (plus a short course and putting course). Between them, Boyne offers more holes of golf than any resort but Pinehurst. But it gets more light, so It’s the perfect place to OD on golf.
I have played all of Boyne’s courses, and thoroughly enjoyed each one. Boyne’s Bay Harbor is regularly ranked on the various lists of best public courses. The Heather is a 1966 course designed by the legendary Robert Trent Jones. I love The Heather.
Indeed, I love all of Boyne’s courses. As I like to say, my favorite golf course at Boyne is the last golf course I played. This year, that was The Arthur Hills.
If you have not been to Boyne, you can get a sense of the courses by reading The Golfblogger’s Reviews on Boyne’s Bay Harbor, Arthur Hills, Crooked Tree, Heather, Alpine, Moor, Monument and Donald Ross Memorial
Boyne offers some great golf travel deals with custom packages that can include not only unlimited golf and lodging, but meals and non-golf entertainment. There is nothing quite like golf in Northern Michigan.
Forest Dunes: Three Top 100 Courses
Only a few golf resorts in American can offer three top 100 courses in one compact spot. Forest Dunes Golf Resort in Northern Michigan is one of those.
The original Forest Dunes golf course by Tom Weiskopf is in my estimation the best public course in Michigan. It’s ranked #32 in Golf Digest’s list. Tom Doak’s “The Loop” is an unique and intriguing reversible course that is ranked #58 in its clockwise routing and #69 in its counterclockwise routing.
Forest Dunes also has a short course called The Bootlegger, after the property’s Prohibition gangster past, and a putting course.
Forest Dunes has a lodge, villas and cottages for overnight stays.
You’ll need to stay at least two days at Forest Dunes because The Loop reverses on alternate days. Play The Black one day, and The Red on another. Schedule the must-play Forest Dunes on a third day.
Pinehurst Resort: Bucket List Golf
In 2021, I was able to check off a bucket list experience with a trip to Pinehurst Resort.
To get the the best Pinehurst experience, you’ll want to stay at the resort. The one that always catches my eye is the “Donald Ross Package,” which right now offers three nights and three rounds, with breakfast and dinner for $2, 139 at the Carolina Hotel. You can pay less at one of the other lodging options.
The breakfast is terrific and held me through two walking rounds in a single day, with only a brief stop for a snack between. For dinners, be sure to make reservations early; I didn’t and missed the chance to eat at a couple of the resort’s better options.
Also, make sure to sign up for a caddy if you’re playing No. 2.
There are the usual restrictions and details to pay attention to, so visit www.pinehurst.com for more information.
Gull Lake View: 108 Holes of Golf
With six quality courses — including the award-winning Stoatin Brae — Gull Lake View Resort, near Battle Creek, Michigan has more holes of golf than all but three resorts in the US (Gull Lake View has 108; Pinehurst ,171; Boyne, 162; Renolds Lake Oconee, 117)
Gull Lake Views’ Stoatin Brae was the 2021 National Course of the Year and sits at No. 96 on Golf’s Top 100 You Can Play list. [resort website]
During the Michigan golf season, I make a point of making at least one golf travel trip to play a Gull Lake View course. I enjoy them that much.
Because I live relatively close to Gull Lake View, I haven’t tried any of their stay-and-play options. I am confident, however, that Gull Lake View has lodging options that will fit your needs.
- Stoatin Brae Review
- Gull Lake View West Review
- Gull Lake View East Review
- Stonehedge North Review
- Stonehedge South Review
- Bedford Valley Review
Bandon Dunes: Dream Golf
With six highly regarded courses, Bandon Dunes golf resort is indeed dream golf. Currently, the resort’s Pacific Dunes is ranked #2 by Golf Digest among public courses, Bandon Dunes is #8, Old MacDonald is #13 and Bandon Trails is #11. The new Sheep Ranch is #16.
I visited Bandon four years ago — before the Sheep Ranch was built — and it was one of my favorite golf experiences. You can read accounts of my Bandon Dunes adventures, Bandon Dunes course reviews and photos at the link.
I hope to return to Bandon soon to play the Sheep Ranch.
Bandon offers a variety of lodging options from single bed to cottages for larger groups. Located as it is on the Oregon Coast, Bandon Dunes golf resort is open for play year-round. January temperatures average in the low fifties. July temperatures are in the mid sixties.
Morocco: An Exotic Golf Adventure
In 2016, I went play golf in Morocco in what was absolutely the trip of a lifetime. The golf is spectacular, the culture is exotic, the people are friendly, and the dollar goes a long, long way. I can’t recommend it enough.
On my trip to Morocco, I played Royal Dar Es Salam (a Robert Trent Jones design) in Rabat, at the Mazagan Golf Resort, and at the Royal Palm golf resort in Marrakech. And, of course, I soaked in the local culture and food. I want to spend so much more time exploring that amazing country. Read about my Adventures in Morocco.
Gaylord Golf Mecca: Seventeen Courses
Seventeen courses and a two dozen lodging options within a short drive of downtown Gaylord, Michigan, make up the The Gaylord Golf Mecca. The consortium has a group of area golf travel experts who can help you put together a great golf vacation in Northern Michigan.
Among the courses are Black Lake, which I think is in the conversation for best course in Michigan, Gaylord Golf Club, Indian River Golf Club, The Loon Golf Resort, Michaywe Pines, Otsego Resort, The Natural At Beaver Creek, and the courses Treetops: Premier, Signature, Masterpiece, Tradition and Threetops. Reviews at the links.
Island Resort: Get Away From Everything
If you really want to get away from it all, Island Resort Casino in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is the place for you. [resort website]
The resort has two absolutely outstanding courses in Sweetgrass and Sage Run. Sweetgrass is a prairie-links style course that has perhaps the best conditioning I have ever seen. Sage Run is routed through woods and across a large drumlin — a hill created by glacial ice.
Nearby, you’ll also find the highly acclaimed Greywalls and Timberstone.
Island Resort’s Perfect 4-Some package combines Island Resort & Casino’s Sweetgrass and Sage Run courses, together with the acclaimed Greywalls course in Marquette and TimberStone course in Iron Mountain make the region a top golf destination. Perfect 4-Some packages include 3, 4, and 5-night lodging options at Island Resort with four rounds of golf.
Tullymore Golf Resort: Two Distinct Courses
Tullymore Golf Resort in Canadian Lakes, Michigan features two fun golf courses. [resort website]
Tullymore is a fabulous Jim Engh design: imaginative and spacious. St. Ives, from well-known Michigan golf course designer Jerry Matthews, is a more traditional mitten state layout, with tree-lined fairways and significant elevation changes.
The resort has a hotel, condos, and cottages that sleep up to ten. The fabulous Lodge at Tullymore has ten bedrooms, each with two queen beds and a private bathroom.
Eagle Ridge: Great Midwestern Golf
Eagle Ridge, in Galena, Illinois boasts three-and-a-half courses: The General, The North, The South and the nine hole East.
For the non-golfer, the resort also has a spa, pools, horseback riding, bicycling, boating and fishing. Nearby downtown Galena is also a really neat place.
For lodging, Eagle Ridge has hotel rooms, villas and houses. Eagle Ridge is a neat midwestern resort.
Turning Stone: Golf, Gambling and Entertainment
Turning Stone is a vast casino and entertainment complex in Western New York that features five outstanding courses: Atunyote, Kaluhyat, Shenendoah, Pleasant Knolls and the par three Sandstone Hollow. [resort website]
Atunyote is a Tom Fazio design that once hosted PGA TOUR events. Kalhuyat, a Robert Trent Jones, Jr. design, is as challenging as you might expect.
Because Turning Stone is a casino resort, lodging ranges from adequate to extravagant. You can get in a lot of activity at Turning Stone. It is another one of those resorts where even a non-golfer can have a good time.
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