100 Years at Grayling Country Club
By Tom Lang
With holes 17 and 18 meandering parallel along the AuSable River, a round of golf at Grayling Country Club can feel as peaceful as a lazy river float.
That’s been the scene for 100 years in the small northern Michigan town, once an epicenter for logging and the manufacturing of arrows at the former Bear Archery company. Old wood moorings of a former lumber company dock on site still poke up out of the river along the 18th hole shoreline, marking an eerie connection to the past.
It’s very common that 100-year-old courses in Michigan first started as nine holes and later expanded to 18. What’s a little unique about Grayling CC – which is open for public play – is that it remained nine holes for almost 70 years before the expansion in 1990.
When the redesign took place to double the course’s size, the new holes were weaved into open land on property – instead of creating an entirely new back nine. The nine original holes are now played as holes 1-4, then there is a jump to 9 and 10, then finishes off as holes 16-18.
The course is filled with old, majestic white pines that survived the lumber days of Grayling. Two of them guard the front of the 15th green. Since the course plays only 5,800 yards from the tips, it’s a great layout for families, friends and social outings – but there remains enough obstacles and twists and turns to make it a strategic challenge for even the best golfers.
Former manager of the club, Rob Lawe, is now one of 75 stockholders in the club. Now a lawyer by trade, he first began in 1992 at age 12 cleaning carts for free golf. He’s been on staff or involved with the club for 32 combined years. Lawe is focusing on saving those majestic trees, “as long as Mother Nature allows” to help battle the shorter yardage of the course.
“Having those in play can dictate your shot,” he said. “That also makes it one of my favorite things about the course.
“We have enough doglegs and water features that you definitely have to keep the ball in play and hit it to certain spots. And from some of the back tee boxes you really have to shape many of your shots right and left.”
A severe tragedy hit the Grayling CC in April of 2013, when the Grayling High School golf team was involved in a fatal car crash traveling home from a Traverse City tournament. Head coach Jason Potter and player Louis Menard IV were killed. The crash and aftermath made national news and former Golf Channel personality Matt Ginella attended the one-year anniversary. Now, a permanent memorial sits at the back of the clubhouse near the 18th green, made of stone pavers, a firepit and three rocks with commemorative wording carved in stone.
A third player, Jake Hinkle, was in critical condition with brain injury and a shattered femur and went many months in rehabilitation – yet made an amazing recovery to play golf in the following year’s high school state finals, and at a D3 college after high school.
From that tragedy, a foundation honoring Potter was established, with the funding going to promote and fund junior golf for the kids in town. It supports:
Hosting the club’s own golf clinic for 4 days each June
Sponsor the costs for kids to attend additional youth clinics in the region
Purchasing dozens of sets of youth clubs to have onsite all summer long at the club, up to 80 sets, for kids to use free anytime. Clubs are stored in what they call Jason’s Locker.
$1,000 golf scholarships each year, for each of two kids from the Grayling golf team.
More info at: www.jasonpottermemorial.com and www.graylingcountryclub.com
