Doug Hoeh
North Superintendent of Golf and Ski Mountain Manager

         My personal favorite course at Treetops is the Tradition due to its unique layout. Having been very lucky and fortunate to travel oversees to play true links golf in Ireland; I have a better appreciation of how golf was “meant” to be played. The way golf was “meant” to be played is golf is made up of good and bad breaks. You can hit the ball in the middle of the fairway and have a terrible lie and on the same hole someone can hit it way off line and have a perfect lie for their next shot. While the Tradition won’t give you the terrible lie in the fairway it will be somewhat forgiving for someone to hit it way off line. The fairways are very wide with some room to spray the ball around and if you’re like me, some extra room in the fairway is a good thing! The visual challenge the Tradition presents off the tee and into the greens are very similar to what is found oversees. Bunkers are aiming points to start your golf ball and let the wind move it into the fairways or onto the greens. The best time to play the Tradition to me is when the wind is blowing for just this very reason. I love the fact that I can hit a ball and leave it to luck for it to be a good shot or bad break. That is the way golf was “meant” to be played.

         The Tradition has taken some of the links style feel with its rock tee markers, short tee signs, wooden bunker rakes, pennant flags with wooding flagsticks to give you the closest experience to oversees golf in Michigan. The wind is a major influence on how golf courses were originally played and designed. Therefore the rocks as tee markers and other choices for course accessories are used for out of necessity then for aesthetics. While the wind on the Tradition doesn’t blow like it would next to an ocean, with it being a wide open golf course if the wind does blow at all it become a very challenging yet friendly course to play.

         If you get a chance to play a course or two at Treetops, make the Tradition one of them and let the experience take you back to the way golf was “meant” to be played!