The Michigan Road: Day One...Tullymore @ St. Ives

In days of yore (the 1960s), men of wisdom proclaimed that a northern golf resort could indeed turn a profit. These wise men, of Michigan stock, set the table from which other northern golfing folk would dine for years to come.

In this spirit, three men of average wisdom set forth on July 7th to chase The Michigan Road. Their goal? To know the state’s courses, from the shore of Lake Huron to the bluffs of Lake Michigan. Their alpha? Tullymore at St. Ives … Stanwood, Michigan.

Jim Engh came to Michigan near the turn of the millennium, charged with building a course that danced amid wetlands, balanced on thin fairways, and sheltered greens beneath canopies of tall trees. In a word or two, he succeeded.

Tullymore gives everything that a golf course can be expected to provide. The course is unbalanced only in its yardages (3300 or so from the tips on the front; 3800 more or less on the back.) It throws the unexpected (three par threes in four holes on the front) in a way that only Pacific Dunes (in recent memory) does. It offers a constant barrage of visual deception, presenting 257 yard par three holes with no fairway to speak of, that can be reached…followed by 456 yard par fours whose brier patch cannot be surpassed by any other than Paul Bunyan.

A TYPICAL CARRY AT TULLYMORE, NUMBER 12
What will you remember most from Tullymore? To begin, the bunkering. It looks like something from the early 20th century, from Herbert Leeds and Myopia Hunt Club. It staggers and daggers and swallows. Avoid them.

TULLYMORE BUNKERING

You will remember the wetlands, the trees, the water, the grand extensions of land. They are seen most vividly, experienced with greatest effect, on the long holes of the course. Five times you will play a par five, and each one will etch an image in your memory.

TULLYMORE PAR FIVE

Accomodations at the Inn at St. Ives were superior. The staff was helpful and the necessary amenities were well within reach.
Tomorrow: Arcadia Bluffs on Lake Michigan