Shanty Creek Resort a Great Re-Visit After Too Many Years Away
By Tom Lang
I had to smack myself on the forehead last summer, similar to what my wife does when exasperated with me, wondering why it took me so many years to return last summer to the site of some absolutely wonderful golf options in Northern Michigan.
That site is Shanty Creek Resort near beautiful Bellaire.
By purchasing the neighboring Hawk’s Eye in 2021, Shanty Creek expanded its portfolio to five 18-hole courses (90 holes), making it one of the nation’s largest gathering of courses at one resort; in this case some on the same land but all no further than a 4-mile driving distance of each other – with free shuttles connecting them.
The two courses developed by famous designers in Tom Weiskopf (Cedar River) and Arnold Palmer (The Legend) generally grab the most attention – but the original Summit and Schuss courses have excellent features that round out the group of courses that provide a full range of prices, challenges, beauty, and varying golf experiences – all in one location.
THE LEGEND:
If you’re a golfer who loves dramatic views from elevated tees with downhill fairways while playing golf, you will love the first hole of Arnold Palmer’s The Legend at Shanty Creek.
Uh-oh, perhaps I spoke too soon.
You’ll also love holes 5, 6, 10, 13 and 15. Heck, you’ll likely love all the holes. I did.
But back to the starting hole. The downhill slopping par 5 gets any round going in the right direction, and acts as a precursor to the type of course ahead of you. The 2nd hole is dramatically uphill to the fairway landing zone ‘shelf’ off the tee – yet golfers will not see another uphill trek until climbing uphill to the 13th green from the valley below – then again at the mildly sloping uphill 18th hole.
The late Arnold Palmer’s routing (from 1986) is masterful in how he picked highly elevated areas for many tee boxes so that the course feels like it’s all downhill – or at least level – which causes problems picking a favorite photo, too. Palmer’s goal of beautiful distractions and getting more roll out of your tee shots becomes balanced on the scorecard with many tough putting surfaces that can even make two-putting a challenge.
Many golf courses across Michigan have 1-2 dramatic features in their designs. This course has 1-2 dozen, including the approach to the 7th green. No. 7 is a shorter par 5, but it’s the No. 1 handicap hole. The fairway is flat, but off the tee you are forced to decide on laying up before the first creek or try blowing over it. Yes, the first creek, because the second one crosses the entire front of the green, a green that is very wide but not very deep and is trimmed across the front with a rock wall below the slightly-elevated putting surface.
In this region of the course, it can get a little noisy for a few holes – well, that is if you are bothered by the sound of water with its babbling brooks and are distracted by thinking there is some river rafting adventure nearby.
HAWKS EYE:
When Shanty Creek Resort added the local Hawk’s Eye Golf Course to its portfolio – joining The Summit, The Legend, Cedar River and Schuss Mountain – it also created options to optimize all course conditions. Now with five courses, each one can be shut down twice per week on a revolving basis while still leaving enough tee times to serve the golfers on the other four.
By doing this rotation, and leaving all five courses open Friday through Sunday, management has been able to reinforce its approach to optimal course conditions on all five layouts. Closing each course two days every week reduces wear and tear on the grasses and allows the grounds crew to tackle larger, non-daily maintenance projects without impeding golfers.
With this philosophy, the playing conditions I had in mid-July 2021 were at a premium on all of them, and that is hard to say since golf courses nationwide have been inundated with new players during the Covid-19 rush to play outdoors.
This course management viewpoint is what gives Shanty Creek a great reputation for quality, by subtracting some traffic.
Hawk’s Eye is a top-notch course situated on similar rolling terrain style property. Beautiful water features highlight the first three holes, without any forced carries. Opps, spoke too soon again, because Hole 4 has a forced carry off the tee boxes. A total of nine holes have water to contend with, but the only forced carries are 4 and 11, the latter a medium-length par 3 to an elevated green.
My favorite stretch of combined holes are 1-3 for their simplistic beauty, but that doesn’t mean the remainder of the course doesn’t measure up; it certainly does. In fact, the last two holes are as good of closing holes as any could be. The 17th is a long par 5 with a fairway that cascades downhill in stair-step-like fashion to a huge green that’s guarded on the right half by water. Then 18 goes a little uphill with a slight right-hand turn to the green 80-to-100 feet or so below the grand Northwoods style clubhouse perched on a cliff high above.
Due to the rolling terrain, the course has at least a half-dozen holes with blind shots, either off the tee or on the second shot of par 5s. Overall, Hawk’s Eye has a very private and natural feel to the property, with very little housing along the way. The only place golfers really see other golfers is the intersection of the 10th green, the 11th hole and the 18th tee.
CEDAR RIVER:
Weiskopf added his gem in 1999, on a piece of land not as hilly as The Legend but still with enough dramatic rolling features it will maintain any golfers interest all 18 holes. Speaking of which, the 18th is very striking and one of my favorites. It’s a long par 5 that stays level for the most part, but then drops off dramatically the last 150 yards to a large green guarded on the right half with water, one of only three ponds on the entire layout.
The 14th hole could be one of the toughest par 3s in northern Michigan. It’s all drop off from tee to green; golfers must land the tee shot on the green as there is no fairway fronting the hole, but rather, deep bunkers going down the hill and deep woods right at the back edge of the bean-shaped green. The tee shot also must go between trees to reach the dance floor.
Otherwise, Cedar River has really wide fairways and most are shaped with mounding along the way that can kick off-line shots back toward the fairway. The greens have much less undulation than the two courses described above.
THE ORIGINALS:
Shanty Creek’s two golf options dating back to the 1960s and ‘70s include The Summit Course, and the 18-hole layout at the base of Schuss Mountain. The Summit is a slightly shorter test that’s great for any buddies’ group but also has something for the whole family. Most holes are tree-lined but with mown grass under most of them, not denser foliage like the other courses. There are also forward tees set up to play the entire Summit design as a par 3 course; providing that unique playing option for anyone, and a great place to get beginners started.
At Schuss, the front nine is flat and very walkable, and a good ‘tune up’ for the back nine, which in many respects plays like the major elevation changes found at The Legend, Cedar River and Hawk’s Eye. Rarely can golfers find front and back 9s so distinctly different from each other on the same property. Hole 12 is my favorite, visually, with a huge, slopping valley to navigate on the way to the highly perched green complex.
Both of these two courses offer free golf any day to any player aged 17-and-under when with a paying adult. Cedar River offers the same on Sundays after 2:00 p.m.
THE EXTRAS:
There is no shortage of non-golf activities at Shanty Creek and the region for the vacationers with you who don’t play our great game. Indoor and outdoor pools, hiking, biking and more. You name an outdoor sport or activity, and the beautiful Bellaire area delivers.
Overnight onsite options at Shanty Creek feature the Lakeview Hotel, which honors its name with wonderful views of Lake Bellaire, but a wide variety of choices expand with private area rentals, condos on site and hotels in town.
Find more information at: https://www.shantycreek.com/ or https://puremi.ch/3wU8ADN
