Sweetgrass has the honor

Tag : battery powered indicator
A new high-stakes game close to the tantalizing sounds ofthe adjacent Island Resort & Casino will debut Wednesday.
The long-awaited opening of Sweetgrass Golf Club takes place with adedication program and golf. It opens to the public July 11.
The Hannahville Indian Community entrusted Paul Albanese to turn320 acres of farmland into the Upper Peninsula's newest golfdestination, and he has crafted a spectacular layout to challengescratch golfers and reward high-handicappers.
"It has clearly exceeded my expectations," Albanese said in atelephone interview Tuesday. He said "the vision of the owners andwillingness to explore creative and unique ideas" helped make theproject a success.
"It has really been sweet. It is special," said Albanese, partnerin Albanese and Lutzke of Clawson.
The fairways are extremely generous, with 47 acres of fairways -normal is 25-30 acres - and some landing areas are as wide as 80yards. The fairways are framed by fescue grasses that provide atouch of links-style golf.
Albanese was quick to point out Sweetgrass is not a links course,noting that style is only found along the shore of a lake or ocean,like Whistling Straits or courses in Scotland.
"It is a prairie style golf course," he said.
Water does come into play on 10 holes, particularly the signaturehole, the island green par three 15th.
"I like all the holes, but 15 came out pretty special," Albanesesaid of a huge green connected to the rest of the course by the oldNahma Trunk Line bridge built in 1916. "That is pretty special,pretty dramatic and memorable," he said.
That hole has an elongated tee box sweeping around the lake to thebridge, so the tee shot can range from 168 yards to 107. To speedup play, the drop zone is on the island.
Moving golfers around the course in an efficient manner will be aprimary goal, said director of golf Dave Douglas.
He said the fleet of battery-powered carts will feature a globalpositioning system to provide yardages "to hazards or to carry itand yardage to the middle of the greens."
Because GPS makes other markings unnecessary, the only yardagemarkers will be black-and-white striped poles 150 yards from thegreen, in the middle of the fairway. "That will be a good indicatorof where to aim off the tee," said Douglas.
Douglas, during a tour of the course Tuesday, said "we want to makeit playable yet not easy. We want golfers to enjoy themselves andnot get beat up."
Albanese, architect of renowned TimberStone Golf Course in IronMountain in addition to other top courses, agreed.
"It is very easy to create 18 difficult holes, or 18 easy holes. Acombination of that is what we tried to do," he said.
"We know a lot of the patrons will come from the casino and theyare not necessarily golf specialists. We want them to enjoy theresort as a whole. It is meant to be a very player friendlyresort."
Five tees are available on each hole - a whopping eight on No. 17 -so playing from the correct distance will help provide an enjoyableyet challenging test.
"It could easily host any professional level event, or someone whonever played golf before and have an enjoyable time," saidAlbanese.
Douglas said the idea of hosting major events hasn't beendiscussed. "I'm not saying it won't happen. We're just trying toget this going before we get to that kind of talk," he said.
Wild Bluff Golf Course in Brimley hosted the professional CanadianTour and Fox Hills Resort in Mishicot, Wis. has hosted the HootersTour, but the response of top players was limited largely becauseof the remote locations.
Hannahville Tribal Chairman Ken Meshigaud is hoping the golf courseand casino can boost tourism in the area. Sweetgrass, TimberStoneand highly acclaimed Greywalls Golf Course in Marquette have formeda partnership to help achieve that goal by offering incredibleplay-and-stay packages through the Island Resort.
"From a regional and even to a national perspective, that will beattractive to bring people in," said Meshigaud.