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08/12/2007Even a mecca should support common folkNorthern Michigan likes to fashion itself a golf mecca, a place where the grand old game thrives amid rolling hills, deep woods, waterways and open spaces. But like many things in the region, perception doesn't always connect with reality. The area is saturated with top-end golf courses made for highly skilled, wealthy players, while courses where marginal golfers can enjoy the game and play with their families seem to shrink with each passing season. Mitchell Creek, Cedar Hills, Veronica Valley — all affordable golf layouts in the Traverse City vicinity — closed in recent years as owners struggled with the high cost of land ownership and/or golf course maintenance, combined with the long hours needed to make them pay. The future of another local family-friendly golf course — Bay Meadows in Garfield Township — also is up in the air. In the interest of full disclosure, there's some bias here. Bay Meadows' owner is a longtime friend and I've worked a couple hours a week at his course over the past few seasons in exchange for some free rounds. But know this: Bay Meadows and owner Steve White have done more to grow the game among families, youngsters, women and novices than any of the upper-echelon golf course developers who've descended on the area. Those folks seem far more interested in growing their bank accounts than in expanding the sport among the general public. Thousands of young people learned the game at Bay Meadows through its popular Junior Golf program, and the course offered free practice time to high school teams while maintaining affordable rates. Grand Traverse County taxpayers bent over backward to benefit the fringe sport of hockey, using public support to finance not one, but two local hockey rinks. Ditto for soccer enthusiasts; the public also subsidizes their facilities. And the city for years has operated a ski hill, where public dollars make it affordable for families whose lifestyles don't include weekend trips to Boyne USA. But our local officials haven't lifted a finger to do the same for golf, even as the region and state tout the sport as a key to Michigan's tourism industry. Other communities have figured out a way to do so. Charlevoix has a quaint public course in the middle of the city, a modest, affordable track that has players on it most every day. These places don't "compete” with the fancy designer layouts. It's on courses like these where most people learn to play the game. Golf teaches patience, etiquette, honesty, and it challenges players to think like few other sports. It's a game they can play alone, with peers, parents and grandparents, and one of the few sports they can enjoy for the rest of their lives. But if northern Michigan can't hold on to the courses that regular people can afford to play, the game will continue to wither to a point that it will become another sport of kings, with average folks on the outside looking in. And for too many aspects of life in this region, that's become par for the course.
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By Bill O'Brien
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