Treetops Resort - Tradition (Gaylord, MI)

The Tradition is the course that Treetops needed. The Premier, Signature, and Masterpiece are all difficult courses that require strong golf skills to play adequately. This course is none of that.  That is not a dig, and personally, I think it’s fantastic that the resort dedicated this piece of property to newer players and players with less skill. In fact, I believe resorts with these kind of courses do very well. There’s many opportunities for recreational golfers to enjoy themselves and it allows the resort to fill the tee times without it backing up. 

The property itself is very nice. It doesn’t have the elevation change the other courses have but it still moves up and down quite a bit. The course has less bunkers on it and the greens are muted with very little interior movement. In my opinion, that’s the biggest reason the course never attracted my attention. Truthfully, this is a great opportunity for renovation. I doubt they would ever go that route, but Mike Devries or Tom Doak, both Michigan boys, could instantly make this a top Midwest course. Until then, I don’t advocate a reason to play it with one of your packages. The par three course is much better. I give Traditions a 3 (average)(worth driving 15-30 minutes to play).

[we played a two man best ball. It was the backend of 36 hole day. Wyatt, an eighteen handicapper, caught fire on the back and really helped their team catch us and take the lead. Joby reaching eleven in regulation was very impressive. It’s 458 yards played extremely long. The short par three seventeenth was the tipping point. Joby made a twelve footer for par and I missed an eight footer. It was a lot of fun and all our C players had a great time.]