CONFIRMED: Gaylord Golf Mecca, America’s Favorite Summer Place to Play
By Greg Johnson
When a new study by the National Golf Foundation (NGF) revealed big, bold news about Michigan’s golf industry in early 2024, the people involved with the Gaylord Golf Mecca nodded in unison.
The study, which revealed Michigan’s golf industry has an annual economic impact of $6.1 billion, also told the world something the Mecca has been sharing via its cooperative marketing for 38 years. The Mecca and Northern Michigan make up America’s favorite summer golf destination.
The study commissioned by the Michigan Golf Alliance revealed more than 1.85 million golfers travel to Michigan for golf and spend more than $1 billion annually with non-residents playing about three of every 10 rounds in the state each year.
Only a handful of states have a larger proportion of annual rounds played by visitors and they are the Sunbelt states of Arizona, Florida and South Carolina, along with the worldwide tourist destination, Hawaii. Those states, of course, have golf without a winter interruption instead of the five to six months where golf is enjoyed in Michigan, and even a little less in Northern Michigan.
The study also said only Florida, California and Texas, with golf facilities open year-round, have a higher volume of annual rounds played than Michigan, which had approximately 16.42 million rounds played in 2023.
And the NGF said outside of the coastal, warm weather states of Florida and California, it can be argued that no U.S. state has a more substantial footprint in the world of recreational golf. Michigan is 10th in the U.S. in size and 11th in population but ranks third in the total number of golf courses.
Of course, the Mecca has 17 courses and 20 lodging partners in the heart of the state surrounding the cozy community of Gaylord, which fits the state profile perfectly.
The Mecca courses are also part of 859 courses overall in Michigan, and part of the most open-to-the-public golf courses of any state.
The numbers fit with long, beautiful summer days on the edge of the Eastern Time Zone, making it a better destination option than over-heated Southern states. The Mecca and Northern Michigan are clearly the place to be in the summer.
Thus, the nodding heads in the Gaylord Golf Mecca.
“That’s been central to our message from the start,” Paul Beachnau, executive director of the Mecca since its inception in 1987, says. “We are unique in this country as a destination in the north in the summer, and we do it with the quantity and the quality of golf we provide through a tremendous group of golf course owners who have vision and believe in cooperative destination marketing.”
Gaylord, about 230 miles from the Detroit area, 175 miles from Lansing and 180 from Grand Rapids, can be found by going straight up I-75 to a welcoming community less than 60 miles from the Mighty Mac bridge to the Upper Peninsula.
Gaylord is in the heart of the Northern Lower Peninsula and offers a woods and water paradise where long summer days on the edge of the Eastern Time Zone allow all day golf and play.
The Mecca, according to Beachnau, credits old-fashioned Michigan work ethic, cooperation, vision and investment.
“We keep getting better,” he says. “You continue to see Mecca members improve their golf courses and properties with renovations, investment in additions and facilities, all the hard-work items. When you put it all together, it makes a better experience for our visitors.”
Black Bear Golf is an established property under new local ownership, and it has been welcomed into the Mecca for 2025. Located just north of Gaylord, the 18-hole, 6,500-yard course built in 1965, was purchased a year ago by longtime Gaylord area business owners Olivia and Rob Smith, who spent last summer making dramatic improvements.
The big fix, with the help of their son, Will, working with the irrigation system, was in course conditioning. In fact, Golf Advisor revealed golf fans voted it the No. 1 Most Improved Golf Course in 2024.
Smith says gaining membership to the Mecca to market with all the other successful golf courses in the area was part of their plan in making the golf course purchase.
“We’ve lived here in Gaylord, been a part of the business community and we know how successful the Mecca has been and what it has done to make this a golf destination,” she says. “It’s great to be a part of it.”
The Mecca’s lineup, in addition to new member Black Bear Golf, includes:
Black Lake Golf Club with its award-winning Rees Jones-designed golf course.
Gaylord Golf Club with its classic pristine greens that have charmed golfers for decades.
Garland Lodge & Golf Resort, which is home to four golf courses and is in year 73 as a destination.
Indian River Golf Club, a classic which bills itself accurately as the friendliest golf course in the north.
Lakes of the North Golf Course, a get-away-from-it-all spot that provides an affordable hidden-gem golf course.
The Pines at Michaywe, which has been a home of classic golf for 52 years, including hosting the Michigan Amateur Championship twice.
Otsego Resort, which is continuing multi-million-dollar improvements and features two courses, including the highly acclaimed Tribute Golf Course.
And Treetops Resort, with its unmatched five golf courses including one of the most famous par 3 courses in the world – Threetops.
Gaylord, fondly known as the Alpine Village, started its journey to being a U.S. golf destination in 1987. Harry Melling, an auto industry supplier and NASCAR team owner who had earlier purchased a ski resort on the edge of town, unveiled the Masterpiece, the last major golf course design by the legendary architect, Robert Trent Jones Sr.
The award-winning work by Jones attracted golfers to what became known as Treetops Resort, but also quickly put Gaylord in the national golf conversation as a must-stop in the Midwest.
When golfers stopped, they found uncommon variety fashioned by Jones, and eventually multiple highly regarded architects like Tom Fazio, Rees Jones, Rick Smith, Wilfred Reid, the team of Rick Robbins and Gary Koch, Michigan’s Jerry Matthews, Bill Newcomb, Warner Bowen, Don Childs, Bill Newcomb and Ron Otto.
“We might not be as well-known as Myrtle Beach or the Alabama Golf Trail, but our courses rival in design and variety those bigger boys in the destination game and we are a lot easier to travel to for Michigan golfers and those in the Midwest,” says Judy Mason, head professional at The Pines at Michaywe.’
Beachnau says last summer’s NGF study confirmed the Mecca has been headed in the right direction for almost four decades.
“We have something special here,” he says.
Learn more at gaylordgolfmecca.com.
