Fox Hills Golf and Banquet Center features something for everyone

The Fox Hills Golf & Banquet Center has always been southeast Michigan’s most unique public facility. The story lines are almost endless.

• First and foremost, with 63 holes, it is the largest golf facility in metro Detroit.
• The course is owned and operated by two sisters, Kathy Dul Aznavorian and Sandy Dul Mily. They are a formidable duo in an industry dominated by white males.
• The Golden Fox, the signature track by Arthur Hills, was one of the region’s first “country club for a day” experiences built for public players, opening in 1989, the same time as Pine Trace Golf Club in Rochester. The success of the pair spearheaded the state’s building boom.
• The construction of the par-3 Strategic Fox, a new breed of executive courses created to help grow the game among juniors and women, helped Fox Hills win National Golf Course of the Year honors in 2002 from the National Golf Course Owners Association and the state’s course of the year in 2001 and 2002 from the Michigan Golf Course Owners Association.
• Fox Hills’ commitment to the environment earned the prestigious “Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary” by the International Audubon Program in 1996, becoming among the first 40 in America (and third in Michigan) to achieve this award. The Audubon status continues today with a review done every two years.

But what struck me during my first visit in years last week was its versatility. I've written about this before, but it was great to see the facility come to life before my own eyes. I saw the stereotypical country club types – guys with the logo shirts carrying big-headed drivers – enjoying the Golden Fox during an outing. I witnessed women and seniors tackling the easier, but no less fun, Strategic Fox and finishing all 18 holes in less than three hours. What a cool concept!

And then, on the 27 holes of the classic Fox with 18 holes that date to 1921, there were golfers of all shapes and abilities and attire. And that’s the ultimate storyline of Fox Hills. There’s something for everyone.

The junior program is thriving with 700 children taking advantage of the Strategic Fox and its separate clubhouse and driving range that encompasses the golf school, staffed by a number of excellent teachers. People like Brian Cairns, Jordan Young, Joal Harding, Top50JuniorTour founder Dan Thomas and Eastern Michigan University men’s golf coach Bruce Cunningham make it hum. Aznavorian says the junior program explodes once school gets out in June, so be sure to sign your future Phil Mickelson up early. Programs range from individual lessons to day and weeklong camps.

I’ve never played any of the holes on the Classic Fox, but the Golden Fox is a solid test. The signature hole (and most talked about) is the 396-yard 15th hole, featuring a blind green hidden behind a giant mound.

Playing the Strategic Fox can be fun for all ages. Envision a foursome of buddies reveling in a par-3 shootout for some cash or a family of four enjoying a day of bonding on the course without the stresses of high scores.

Architect Ray Hearn designed big greens, so beginners can experience that “rush of accomplishment” when they hit them in regulation. Seasoned players should hit every green on the front nine – the longest hole is 163 yards – but the course toughens up on the back with two 195-yard and two 171-yard shots.

Hearn says he gets satisfaction every time he sees pictures of the range of customers using his unique creation. “I’m not here to say it is the total answer (for growing the game), but it is part of the answer,” he says. “We get more requests for (building) these kind of facilities (than full courses).”

Boulder Pointe a tasty treat in metro Detroit

It’s been years since I’d tee it up at Boulder Pointe Golf Club & Banquet Center in Oxford.

And unfortunately, by getting older, I can’t always visualize golf courses hole by hole like I used to when I was a young buck with a memory as sharp as a tack.

I knew there were some solid holes at the 27-hole facility off of Telegraph Road 10 miles north of The Palace of Auburn Hills, but I just couldn’t get a grip on how much I liked it. I’d written stories in the past ranking the Conroy/Dewling design among the top 10 public courses in metro Detroit, but just how good is it? That’s what I set out to prove.

Last week’s round rekindled my love affair with the place. It plays firm and fast, just like I love. It has some sweeping terrain and some dynamic elevated tee shots, another favorite of mine. Several of the par-3s are down-right knee-knockers, another thumbs up from me. The water-laced the 197-yard third and the 141-yard fourth, both on the Peaks nine, come to mind.

The Peaks-Dunes combination provides the best 18 holes. The Peaks is my favorite with a unique mix of challenges. The first hole demands a blind wedge shot to a green protected by water in back. A peninsula green on the par-5 third juts out into the water. The short par-4 ninth provides an opportunity at birdie, provided you don’t choke on the wedge shot over a marsh pond like I did. The Dunes has some nice land, but the killer stretch of five par-4s over 400 yards in a row is too repetitive for me. The last of them, the 453-yard seventh, is one of the toughest holes in metro Detroit with a monumental carry over water to approach the green.

An A-list clubhouse completes the amenities of Boulder Pointe, tucked inside a huge residential subdivision. Nowhere on the course, though, did I feel crowded or intimidated about tight quarters. At the spring rate of $40-$50, playing Boulder Pointe is a steal.

Consider Traverse City's Great Wolf Lodge for a fun family golf vacation

Over the past decade, water parks have sprouted up all over Michigan. Even so, the Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City continues to stand above the competition.

This ultra-cool indoor water park, one of a family scattered nationwide, isn’t known as a golfer’s haven. I’m here to argue otherwise.

It’s a no-brainer for a golf trip/family vacation, a perfect place for guilt-free golf. While you’re off playing a round at any of the area’s great courses, the family you left behind will hardly notice you’re gone. Great Wolf Lodge is a wonderland for children. Throw in a massage at the onsite Elements Spa or some downtime for your significant other to create a great getaway for all.

The lodge in Traverse City sits off a main drag near a Meijer store but its northern woods décor gives off the vibe of an out-of-the-way escape. You never have to leave to be entertained or fed (the food is high quality with menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner).

Many of the unique suites sleep a family of 4 to 8 people comfortably. The KidKamp suites my family of four stayed in recently featured a main room with a couch, bed, TV and fireplace. The “den” where the children slept was enclosed with a bunk bed, a third bed and another television so we didn’t have to fight over the remote. A kitchenette with a fridge, sink and microwave were convenient additions.



During the spring and fall -- when the weather is good enough for golf, but iffy for the beach -- the constant climate of 84 degrees at the indoor water park seems like a perfect way to spend a day.

You can get wet any way imaginable on the four-story Fort Mackenzie, but the most dramatic way is when the 1,000-gallon bucket on top the play structure dumps its load. The walk-in kiddie pool is perfect for toddlers with a slide and climbing playhouse on a smaller scale. The bigger pool offers leap pads and a giant snake to play on with a separate area for water basketball. The lazy river attracts younger children, while the more adventurous love the speedy waterslides.

The outdoor water park and putt-putt course with animatronics open between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Since he’s not much of a swimmer, my son probably liked the dryland activities the most, the arcade and an addictive game called Magiquest, an interactive scavenger hunt where players gather pixie dust and slay dragons. It’s great fun for the crowd ages 7-14.



At Christmas time, the “Snowland” festivities celebrate the holidays in style. It really snows three times a day inside the polar-themed lobby, thanks to snow-making machines hidden in the rafters. My two children loved that they could decorate Christmas cookies and send letters to Santa.

As for the golf, Traverse City is loaded with great courses … the three at the Grand Traverse Resort & Spa are the headliners. The Bear is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Six more fab courses at A-Ga-Ming Resort and Shanty Creek Resorts are less than 45 minutes away.

Golf and goggles … it doesn’t get much better than that for a family that wants it all on vacation.

Hebert prepares for 2010 club pro national championship at eye-popping French Lick Resort in Indiana

Scott Hebert got his first look at the intimidating Dye course at French Lick Resort & Casino, the host of the 2010 PGA Professional National Championship. And the head professional from Grand Traverse Resort and Spa near Traverse City liked what he saw.

“All the Pete Dye stuff is tough,” he said, just moments after listening to Dye talk about his latest course at a recent media day for the tournament. “(But) I do better on modern courses. They fit my game better.”

Hebert, the six-time Michigan Open champion, says he didn’t get to play much golf over the winter, instead settling for banging balls out of the impressive winter practice facility at Grand Traverse Resort.

Even so, Hebert is among the defending champions expected to contend at the 43rd edition of the tournament set for June 27-30. Hebert won the PNC in 2008 and was a member of the PGA team that smothered its international competition from Great Britain and Ireland last fall in the PGA Cup, a Ryder Cup competition for club pros.

The PNC will feature one round on the resort’s Donald Ross course and one of the Dye course before moving strictly to the showcase Dye course on the weekend. Hebert believes it will be a challenge to walk the Dye course.

“It’s a good course for me. You can’t overpower it,” he said. “It’s similar to The Bear. There’s a premium on irons. I look forward to playing. I hope it’s playing fast and firm.”

The event serves as a coming-out party for the resort, which has undergone a massive $500 million renovation since 2005, spearheaded by the Cook Group Inc. of nearby Bloomington, Ind. The West Baden Springs Hotel, circa 1902, once again shines as “the Eighth Wonder of the World,” thanks to its awe-inspiring six-story atrium and ornate decor. Even Al Capone, once a regular guest, would be impressed at its opulence.

The nearby luxurious French Lick Springs Hotel, another historic building dating to the turn of the last century, now offers a monstrous 51,000-square-foot casino featuring 1,300 slots and 41 table games.

As grand as the hotels are, the golf is even better.

No golf resort in the country delivers such a range of playing experiences as French Lick. Purists drool over the restored par-70 Donald Ross course, built in 1917. Its terrain ambles to and fro with endless variety … dog legs left and right, short holes, par 4s longer than 460 yards, uphill approaches, downhill tee shots. There are virtually no forced carries, but crooked lies on hillsides challenge even the best of ball strikers. It will play 6,885 yards for the 312 club pros from 43 states who have qualified for the PNC.

Dye delivers the modern ying to Ross’s old-school yang. He took a rugged, almost mountainous, site that is one of the highest points in the state, offering expansive views 40 miles in either direction, and imposed his will to find a course on it. The terrain he carved is reminiscent of Whistling Straights, host of this year’s PGA Championship.

The master of visual deception, Dye peppered ribbon-thin fairways with danger … a lateral water hazard here, a waste bunker there. Or maybe it’s a falloff zone or set of mounds that suck your ball into oblivion.

He used every trick in his bag except his signature railroad ties. He molded “volcano” bunkers – sand hazards perched atop mounds -- along the fairway of the second hole. He added “church pews,” ala Oakmont Country Club, in the fairway waste bunker on the 18th hole. Three par-5s boomerang left around steep drop-offs filled with juicy rough. Almost every green seemingly rests on stilts, surrounded by shaved collection zones. He stretched the course to a mindboggling 8,102 yards, but it will play a mere 7,174 yards in the tournament.

Todd Smith, who won the 2009 Indiana PGA Championship at The Pete Dye Course with a 9-over-par 223 for 54 holes, calls the layout “really special.”

"Mr. Dye gives you a chance to play a hole with ample room in a fairway, but when it comes to making a score on a hole, you have to be precise,” said Smith, a 47-year-old PGA head professional at Rock Hollow Golf Club and a nine-time Indiana PGA Player of the Year. “I love to play his courses."

Even by Dye’s standards, this is diabolical golf at its over-the-top best. Dye, who lives near Indianapolis, admits to being nervous how it will be received by top club pros. It’s only been open slightly over a year. And at $350 a round, it’s not for everybody.

The 84-year-old architect shouldn’t fret too much about what a few club pros might think. This course should only enhance the legacy of his hall-of-fame career. A statue of Dye guards the entrance to the course and his picture is prominently featured on every tee marker.

“This golf course is always in the eye of the beholder,” Dye said. “You always worry how it will be received. The ambience is so dramatic. … I’ve never done anything like this before. We’ll see what happens (at the tournament), for better or worse.”

Golf season in Michigan officially here

The e-mails are streaming in one by one pronouncing the wonderful news.

Golf, in the upper Midwest, is open for business. I’ve gotten e-mails from some of the best public courses in metro Detroit – Boulder Pointe in Oxford, Moose Ridge near Brighton and Shepherd’s Hollow in Clarkston to name a few – that they’re open or will be by St. Patrick’s Day. The biggest surprise opening announcement came from Hawk’s Eye Golf Resort in Bellaire. That’s four hours north of Detroit, a northern Michigan outpost where snow usually reigns supreme until late April.

This is the earliest season opening I can remember since I began covering golf in Michigan 15 years ago. There could be a snow storm sometime in the next month. So far, though, the spring has been fantastic. Here’s the irony in all this: One local course, the Jackal at Mount Brighton, hosts a snowmobile race annually this weekend. With the forecast, it’s safe to say the race will be cancelled for the second straight year.

On a whim last week, I called my local golf course to see when it might open.

The phone rang and rang. Two thoughts crossed my mind: They’re so busy with the fabulous weather that nobody is answering the phone, or no luck, nobody’s working yet. On the second try, somebody answered and said the golf course might be open by the weekend.

Unfortunately, all weekend it rained like crazy. That might sound like a real bummer. However, it actually was a great way to rid the area courses of the record snow fall we received in February. Normally courses open anywhere between April 1 and April 15, depending on the snow and rain.

Instead of sulking for another month, I can tee it up for 18 and then grab some green beer Wednesday to celebrate March Madness. Sweet!

Golfers flock to Michigan Golf Show in Novi

There are all sorts of explanations why the Michigan Golf Show at the Rock Financial Showplace in Novi was a hit last weekend.

The weather was mild and sunny, giving everybody a good excuse to get out of the house after a long winter. The Detroit Free Press reported that Sunday's temperature of 58 degrees was last experienced in the area Nov. 29. That's a long three-month stretch of cold solitude.

As the largest consumer golf show in the country, the Novi show has been popular stop for the past 19 years. Working at the Michigan Golf Magazine booth on Saturday, I was amazed at how many golfers drove in from Canada and Ohio just to check out the shenanigans. Courses and resorts were giving away their usual promotional rounds of free golf. Savvy fans printed out sticker labels with their names, e-mail and address on them so they could swoop from booth to booth in seconds for their shot at the prizes.

But the No. 1 reason for the show's success? The bargains were everywhere. The package prices if you signed up early and on the spot were insanely low. I'd never seen Boyne USA Resort packages so affordable.

Everybody who stopped at the Arcadia Bluffs booth were disappointed its prices were remaining the same, but the No. 1 course in the state can get away with that tactic, even in this economy.

I've been going to the show for more than a decade and Saturday's robust crowd was the busiest I've ever seen it. I doubt that will translate into a booming year for course owners and operators, but the signs that people want to play golf are at least encouraging.

John Hover, owner of True North Golf Club in Harbor Springs, said this show didn't have the gloom-and-doom feel of the past couple Michigan Golf Shows. He said the weather was a big reason for last summer's struggles.

If only that sun will shine a little stronger in 2010, everybody would be a lot happier ... bad economy or otherwise.

An eye-opening family ski trip to Crystal Mountain Resort

I’ve been to Crystal Mountain Resort and Spa in Thompsonville, southwest of Traverse City, a handful of times over the years.

But I’ve never seen this northern Michigan resort sparkle like a jewel in the snow until last week. It was a new experience for me. I’m used to reveling in sun-drenched fairways on the resort’s two courses.

Seeing the ski trails was an eye-opener. It made me wonder why did I ever retire from skiing in the first place?

It was easy to see why Crystal Mountain has been named the No. 1 ski resort in the Midwest by a respected ski magazine. There were so many entertainment options my family ran out of time to try everything.

My children – ages 7 and 5 – are new to skiing. Thankfully the resort caters to all ages. The “bunny hill” is separate from the main ski area, allowing beginners plenty of time and space to hone their budding skills. My kids found the Crystal Carpet, a sort of hands-free escalator that people ride to the top of the hill, much friendlier to use than a tow rope. Riding the Crystal Clipper, the fastest ski lift in the Midwest, was a little too much stimulation for my children on the main hill. As they get older, though, I’m sure they’ll appreciate the chance to get a few more runs in because of its speed.

By the end of our three-day trip, my 7-year-old skied well enough to conquer a “more difficult” blue run and my 5-year-old amazingly survived the easiest green run all by herself. They can’t wait to go again. They even tried ice skating for the first time by renting a pair of double-bladed skates.

We spent our time off the hill lounging in our spacious, 3-bedroom Cottage at Water’s Edge watching the Winter Olympics snuggled up to a warm fireplace and sitting in the nearby outdoor hot tub. One night, we rode a horse-carriage with several other families through the darkness before ending with a bonfire, roasted marsh mellows and hot chocolate. A chance to go dog-sledding or swimming in the brand new fitness center will just have to wait for next time.

Over the years, I’ve skied on some bigger mountains – Mt. Baker and Stevens Pass in Washington and Big Sky in Montana and Searchmont Resort in Canada – but I kind of lost touch with the sport. This visit made me realize that we don’t have to fly to Florida for winter break to have fun with the family. I’ll probably always be a golfer at heart who loves the sun, but thanks to Crystal Mountain, I now realize even winter can be a hoot.