During September and October, new members at Manitou Passage Golf Club can play the course for free with a mandatory cart fee.  That just might whet your appetite to join now for the 2013 season.

Memberships at Manitou Passage Golf Club currently come in two forms: Platinum (seven days a week) and Golf (four days a week).  At many clubs, golf dures are paid in full when the application is submitted, but Manitou Passage allows its members to spread their payments over a six-month period.  Members receive unrestricted golf, discounts in the pro-shop and restaurant, a Golf Association of Michigan membership for course handicap purposes, club storage and charging privileges.

For those golfers who aren’t around all summer, a one-month membership for a single player (Red) or a couple (Black) are available.  These members will enjoy the same golf privileges as a full member.  To learn more, call 231.228.6000 or send an email to General Manager, Bob Summers at bobs.manitougolf@gmail.com.

But technology can be a good thing for the game.  The Manitou Passage Golf Club has just installed a new on-line tee time system called FORE!.

Convenience is now king for making tee times.  Let’s say one night after work you notice the forecast is virtually begging for golf the following day.  But it’s dark outside and nobody is home at the pro shop.  Well, here’s where FORE! kicks into action.  Head on-line to check out tomorrow’s availability.  It’s that simple.

FORE! will also improve service and communication to golfers.  It will send you a tee time confirmation and those who are interested can fill out customer satisfaction surveys.

Manitou Passage Golf Club has also updated the look of its website.  It looks similar to the website of the course’s affiliate, The Homestead.  The website will be informative, up-to-date and easier to use.  The large main photo will draw users in, while the navigation bar is better organized.  The photography, graphics and videos will showcase why people love our Arnold-Palmer design.

The easiest way to enter is to “like” the Manitou Passage Golf Club on Facebook, which automatically enters you weekly for each drawing.  Those who enter on-line at www.manitoupassagegolfclub.com must fill out a form each week to be eligible.

Playing the course and submitting written entry forms offer more advantages.  Playing as a twosome can double your chances of winning if both players in the twosome enter on the same written form, as their names will each be entered twice.  Entrants who are playing as a foursome can quadruple their chances of winning if all four players in the foursome enter on the same written form, as their names will each be entered four times.

Every entry is submitted for a chance to win the $1,500 grand prize: Four 18-hole rounds with carts and lunch for four at Manitou Passage Golf Club and four 9-hole par-3 rounds with cart and lunch for four at The Homestead’s Mountain Flowers Course.  Lodging for one night will include a one or two bedroom condominium, breakfast buffet for four and a three-course gourmet meal for four at The Homestead.  You must be at least 18 years old to enter.

Visit http://www.manitoupassagegolfclub.com/sweepstakes2012/ to enter.

The shop has some traditional styles for golfers, but it specializes in unique high-end brands like Sport Haley for women and Straight Down.  Sport Haley dazzles with splashes of color and elegant patterns.  Straight Down is worn by PGA Tour player Charlie Hoffman, as well as Champion Tour players Larry Mize, Scott Simpson and Loren Roberts. 

A new addition to the shop is classy apparel from Marbas Golf, a division of an Italian textile company that specializes in high-quality natural fibers and the production of mercerised fabrics.  Whether you’re shopping for yourself or that special someone, you can probably find the perfect gift, so stop on by.

Instructor Stefan Carlsmith says the Tutor works best on short to medium putts for determining, A: How well the putt was struck and B: if the student’s read of the green was right or wrong.  If the ball rolls where the Tutor was pointing and misses the hole, then the Tutor wasn’t pointed where it needed to be in order to make the putt (Hence, the read was wrong).  For more about this great device or the scoring clinics and schools at The Homestead, visit www.pelzgolf.com.

“Manitou Passage joy!!”

That pretty much sums up celebrity chef Mario Batali’s feelings for Manitou Passage Golf Club, the rejuvenated Arnold Palmer design now owned and operated by The Homestead.  Batali sent the tweet, along with a picture, on July 4, 2012.

Batali has become an unabashed supporter of the club.  He watched one of his two sons, Leo, then 12, sink a hole-in-one on the 126-yard seventh hole two summers ago.  “I was ecstatic.  I’ve never seen a hole-in-one before and now I know what they look like,” he told a local newspaper at the time.

He bought a home in nearby Northport and has fallen hard for this little corner of northern Michigan.  Batali and Pure Michigan recently hosted a “Made in Michigan” epicurean experience for media in Traverse City and Leelanau County.  Batali prepared three all-new recipes created specifically for the occasion.  The recipes showcased a few of his favorite locally sourced ingredients including fresh Michigan cherries, Lake Superior Walleye fillets from Taylor Fish Company, bologna from Pleva’s Meats in Cedar, and Leelanau Raclette from Suttons Bay.  The select journalists were also able to experience the natural beauty of the Sleeping Bear Dunes and spent the night at The Homestead, two of the region’s jewels. 

“I first fell in love with Michigan almost eleven years ago and have been coming back ever since,” said Batali in a press release about the event.  “My wife and I eventually bought a summer home here, and I really enjoy the respite from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.  The weather is amazing, the people are fantastic, and of course, the food scene has exploded.”

There are few places in northern Michigan better for both driving and dining than Manitou Passage Golf Club.  Golfers love listening to the sounds of silence out on the course, a peaceful place devoid of car traffic and people chatter.  Hanging out on the patio of the charming new clubhouse is just as pleasing and relaxing.  If it’s too steamy outside, Arnie’s Grill Room inside delivers a great ambience.  The lunch menu serves traditional golf fare – hamburgers, salads, hot dogs, brats and sandwiches – but with a level of sophistication to match the wine and spirits lists. 

Lunch is served daily featuring various specials worth exploring.  Those who spend the day will not leave disappointed.  For a diverse culinary experience, stay at The Homestead, America’s Freshwater Resort, on a “Golf & Gourmet” package.

The easiest way to get a hole-in-one (if there is such a thing as “easy”) would be to tee it up at Mountain Flowers.  The scenic par-3 course overlooking Lake Michigan gives players nine chances at it.  By comparison, Manitou Passage Golf Club offers up just five swings at glory, but every now and then the golf gods feel generous.

Sue Yotter of Indiana got engaged during a round at the Arnold Palmer course in July of 2010.  Just two holes later, she sank her tee shot on the par-3 seventh hole, one of the more difficult par-3s on the course.  Celebrity chef, Mario Batali, watched one of his sons ace the same hole a month later.  Perhaps the best odds of a miracle shot come courtesy of the scenic downhill 17th hole, which plays 143 yards from the blue tees.

Celebrating with drinks in the clubhouse is an expense well worth the bragging rights when an ace comes calling.

Nobody likes to go to school.  Even golf schools must overcome the stigma that they are too demanding, all work and no play.  That’s not the case with the Dave Pelz Scoring Game School at The Homestead.  This unique school focuses on your short game.  You won’t spend all day on the range pounding balls, getting blisters and worrying about swing plane.

The Pelz schools are uniquely tailored to work on the various shots on and around the greens that ultimately make the difference on your scorecard.  If you’re still unsure of what to expect from the school, sign up for a one-day program.  It’s akin to reading cliff notes of a novel.

You’ll learn many of the key Pelz concepts from instructor Stefan Carlsmith in a fun and enriching six-hour session.  Pelz One-Day Clinics run Tuesday or Wednesday until August 28 at the exclusively designed practice area near the Great Hall at Camp Firefly.  The 6-to-1 student-to-instruction ratio ensures individual attention.

The schedule will include hitting pitch shots on the range to dial in shots up to 30 yards.  From there, students graduate to bunker practice out of the sand.  The signature drill is learning “bump-and-run” chip shots with an 8-iron.  Years of studying statistics has convinced Pelz that rolling the ball like a putt is the wisest play for most amateurs. 

Speaking of putting, Pelz instructors use a practice aid that shows people why they have a hard time understanding where to aim a putt to make it.  The lessons are informative and will have you quickly applying the skills you learn to greatly improve your game.

That alone is worth the cost of the six-hour session.  For more, visit www.pelzgolf.com.

Manitou Passage Holes 10 and 11

A naturalist’s knowledge of songbirds and native grasses won’t help you improve your golf game, but such things can impact the way we think about our favorite golf courses.

American golf courses provide as many as 2.2 million acres of green space that might otherwise be lost to urban development.  Find out how one northern Michigan golfing destination has become a sanctuary for native species, why this matters to local players, and how this environmental ethic positively impacts the business’s bottom line.

Back when Bill Murray was up on the big screen matching wits with the tunnel-digging gopher in Caddyshack, you would have never heard the words “preservation” and “sustainability” in the marketing message for any golf course in America.

Wildlife used to be something that, on a golf course, was better seen at a distance or not at all.  Courses routinely used toxic pesticides to keep the bugs at bay, chemical fertilizers and excess groundwater to keep fairways and turf lush and green.

“Now for most golfers, seeing an eagle soaring overhead is just as memorable and worth talking about as scoring eagle on a particularly difficult hole,” say Jamie Jewell, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Manitou Passage Golf Club.  “Being close to nature has always been a big part of the northern Michigan experience, long before ‘going green’ became fashionable we were doing our part to be good stewards of the environment.”

Great Golf Naturally

Hard to pinpoint exactly when this new environmental ethic among golfers, club owners, and greenskeepers took hold, but these days there are many companies and organizations promoting golf as a naturally, sustainable activity.  There’s Golfpreserves, a self-sustaining funding mechanism for the environmental stewardship of golf course facilities.  Blogs like www.turfhuggercom regularly spotlight news in the “organic golf” movement as well as discoveries in green turf management science and techniques.

In northern Michigan, Manitou Passage Golf Club has always taken a homegrown approach to the challenge of making golf environmentally friendly.

“When we opened in 2009,” says Jewell, “a great deal of time and effort was spent on the restoration of the native grasses and plants that had been taken over by the weeds and other invasive species.  Our purpose was not only to improve the aesthitics of the course, but the natural habitat for the plants and animals.”

Going to the Birds

The average 18-hole golf course occupies 150 acres of land – only around 70 acres of which is maintained for actual play.  If managed properly, says Jewell, this leaves a lot of protected acreage that can serve as a sanctuary for wildlife and native plan species.

From the modern redesign of the main pump house (to ensure a minimal amount of energy and water is used to maintain healthy turf) to the “Nature Safe” fertilizers greenskeepers use to maintain the grass, the Manitou Passage Golf Club has always tried to tread as lightly as possible whenever nature is concerned.

And what’s with all the birdhouses?  Sitting in the heart of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore – a place known among bird watchers as one of the greatest songbird migration routes in America – the Manitou Passage Golf Club preparing to enroll in the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses.  Birhouses are everywhere in the woods and along the fairways not only to marking distances to the green but also giving songbirds safe refuge.

“People come to our course because we offer the whole package,” says Jewell.  “We really embrace the wilderness spirit that is so much a part of life Up North.  Our beautiful country-coastal setting and the challenging level of play really complete the package.”