New Vintage Golf Accommodations
By Tom Lang
In the golfing world hype of ‘everything is new’ or has received a major overhaul, the owners at Links of Hunters Ridge Golf Course in Howell are banking on golfers who want something a little different for their overnight stays.
How about a 150-year-old farmhouse that sleeps 12 ?
They’ve got it, one of the more recent additions to Airbnb, sitting right at the 13th tee of the golf course.
“We booked the Farmhouse at Hunters Ridge for a family golf outing,” said Sarah of Novi in an online 5-star review. “This place was perfect. The house was extremely well stocked, clean and beautiful. We had nine people and we all slept very comfortably. The house was so spacious from the screened (back) deck to the living room to the beautiful yard. I would recommend (in fact I already have) this place to anyone looking for a golf weekend of a peaceful getaway. This is probably my favorite Airbnb!”
Hunters Ridge was purchased by a group of MSU alumni friends about half a dozen years ago, and they have been reinvesting money into getting the course back on solid ground as it grows in popularity – including a GolfPass ranking as one of the better conditioned courses in Michigan. Brand new this year are full-GPS Ezgo carts.
A separate family member of one owner refurbished the Farmhouse 8003 and has been renting it out to golf groups, wedding parties and reunions.
The Links at Hunters Ridge was designed by the late Jerry Matthews, and Paul Albanese, the latter who was onsite almost daily for two years overseeing the construction in the mid-1990s on the Miesle family farm, dating back several generations of theirs to the 1870s. Within a few years of opening, Hunters Ridge hosted a U.S. Open qualifier.
My favorite stretch of holes on the front nine are holes 4-6. The 4th is a short par four that goes a little uphill and slightly to the right.
The 5th is a downhill par 3 requiring a good poke to clear a marsh, to a thin front-to-back, but wide green. Then comes No. 6, a long par five that has a creek cutting across and one of the few large trees on course to navigate around.
Perhaps the crowning jewels, though, are the closing holes. The 17th tee is the highest point on the property from where you can see the entire course and drops 45-60 feet to the par three green. Then 18 is a par 5 risk-reward hole with water guarding the right side of the three-tier green complex.
