Three Golf Course and Much More
The Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, owned by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa First Nations, offers a relaxed northern Michigan lifestyle with some excellent golf.
Central to the property is the clubhouse where three championship courses and a Dave Pelz Golf School. The resort also offers more than 585 rooms, suites and condos and another 120 rooms at their sister property, Turtle Creek Casino & Hotel, a 9-minute shuttle drive away.
For those who also enjoy soaking up the sun, the nearby miles of sandy beaches Traverse Bay make this resort a premier Midwest destination.
TripAdvisor voted the Grand Traverse Resort as one of the 15 Best Golf Destinations in America (2018), and Golf Digest (2017-2018) designated The Bear as No. 78 in America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses.
The Bear at Grand Traverse Resort
A bear is big and bold, and so is this Jack Nicklaus Signature design – a good mix of open and tight tree-lined fairways with plenty of waste bunkers and 14 holes that feature water or marshes to carry over.
Stretching out to over 7,078 yards with a course rating of 76.3 and a slope of 148, this may be one of the toughest golf courses you will find anywhere. Even from the whites at 6,122 yards the rating is still 71.2 with a slope of 140 so bring your ‘A’ game.
In addition, the greens are well protected and appear to be smallest on the planet – either wide and shallow or narrow and elongated eliminating the bump-and-run game. The putting surfaces are extremely fast, and many are terraced with big undulations. More