Arcadia Bluffs
Before there was Bandon and Cabot, there was Arcadia Bluffs. Remote. Waterfront. Cabins and a lodge on property. Linksy. And now there’s a second course (though there are more options nearby here than at Bandon and Cabot). Played Arcadia Bluffs in 2020. We stayed here one of the nights and at the Grand Traverse about 1.5 hours away for the others. The pandemic didn’t really affect the trip much. Tables were more spaced out for meals and you couldn’t sit at the bar. There was the mask routine in common areas, but otherwise was just great to get out.
Like Bandon Dunes and Pebble, the course opens you up away from the drama. A nice par five playing away from the lake. A tight par 3 with gnarly sand surrounding the green. If you stay at the cabins this green backs up to them and makes for a fun chipping contest after the round in the gloaming. Then it turns toward the water for three through five. I made rare back-to-back birdies here on four and five. A chip in for birdie on four and a tap in on five after sticking a 190-yard hybrid to five inches. I won’t tell you about the rest of the scores. Seven gets you by the halfway house and nine by the clubhouse so no need to load up at seven. The 10th and 11th are super tight and then you’re back along the lakefront.
They do carts here which makes it different than Bandon and Cabot. Again, for me, I like having a cart for your music and drinks, so that didn’t knock any points off my thoughts on Arcadia. They were doing some construction off of 12th hole. Not sure what they were doing. Fifteen takes you back to the halfway house and when you first get here, you’d swear 16 was one. I know that when we were ready I headed to the tee here before the guys I was with said it was 16. It would be one of the most dramatic openers in golf if they re-routed it.
The South course here was meh. It was pretty new when we played it and they tried this Chicago Golf Club look with hard angles in bunkers and on greens. Maybe when it grows out a little it might be something but for now if you plan a trip to Traverse City, MI to play just these two, you’ll be pretty disappointed. The Bear at the Grand Traverse is a good course but a little bit of a drive away and across from there is Lochenheath, which was a really nice surprise (both golf and food-wise). I had my pro arrange it but it may allow some public play. If you have the connections, Crystal Downs is the play but I didn’t even attempt to get our group on – though my friend Zeke says he has a connection so we may be back.
We played this with the same group of buddies as Cabot but two had to back out over the Vid. Luckily, my buddy Vahan lives up there in the summer and flew in our two buddies Nick and Zeke and they hung and played with us. It was great seeing those guys years later. One of the last times I saw those guys was Oakland Hills over 15-years earlier. Take a look at us then and now (below from the Grand Traverse).
There is a casino which is about a mile down from the Grand Traverse. We ate at the steakhouse there which was nice but nothing super special. The Aerie at the Grand Traverse is better (they have Overture wine there reasonably priced) and as I said Lochenheath was really good eats. The casino was one area that really was impacted by the Vid restrictions, so that sucked.
Golf Scrapbook 