Written By: Greg Johnson
LEWISTON – The Golf Association of Michigan course rating volunteers have already been busy this spring and one of their first assignments was the April 30 work on the new par 3 short course at Garland Lodge & Golf Resort in Northern Michigan.
Garland will debut the Sawyer course early this summer and join the hot nine-hole par 3 building trend in golf.
The course is named in reflection upon those who saw wood, a Sawyer, and is a unique reversible layout that offers nine par 3 holes playing in one direction, and 10 in the opposite direction via multiple tee areas and angles. The set of greens includes one 9,000 square-foot double green with a dramatic dividing tier.
“It will be something completely different for our resort and different from other par 3s, too,” Dave Sanderson, Garland’s general manager, said.
“This one is walking-only, and you can play with different-sized groups and have a good time. You can work on your short game, or you can take your shoes off, take just three or four clubs and have some fun. It’s another thing to offer to our resort guests and members.”
The plan is to offer the Sawyer at a round rate of $50, but it will remain an extra offered to customers and not part of the many golf packages the resort offers with their four 18-hole layouts.
The current boom in golf includes a boom in construction, especially short courses, or par 3 courses, and it follows that golfers want to post their scores on the new courses to stay current in the World Handicap System™.
Hunter Koch, director of course rating for the Golf Association of Michigan (GAM), said the GAM has rated 14 short courses in recent years and that the Sawyer course at Garland is just the first on the calendar for this year.
“There is a ton of energy behind short courses to say the least,” Koch said. “There are existing member clubs that have built short courses, and there are resorts adding short courses because of the popularity of them. They obviously answer the needs of facilities for their customers or members for various reasons, time, practice, that kind of thing. Golfers wanting to post those scores makes sense.”
Koch, who leads about 100 GAM volunteer course raters in rating or re-rating up to 70 golf courses each golf season, said the process is not different for a short course.
“There is a little bit that goes into the calculation because it’s one shot to the green on all the holes, but the process is exactly the same,” he said. “You can have a smaller team do it, and it doesn’t take as long. That’s really the biggest difference.”
Koch was joined on the rate at Garland by three GAM raters who live in that Northern Michigan region, Matt Witzke and the husband-wife duo of Erik and Carmany Thorp.
Witzke, who has worked as a ranger at Garland, thinks it will be a fun, popular addition to the four 18-hole courses at the property; Reflections, Monarch, Fountains and Swampfire.
It was built on a 10-acre plot just outside the door of the pro shop that has been used only by nature in recent years and like the rest of the property is dotted with majestic mature trees of multiple varieties.
Koch said the variety of tee locations and the two directions offered a bit of a challenge, but he said it just meant doing the rate in both directions. In recent years nine-hole rounds became a part of the World Handicap System on a single-round basis without having to be paired with another nine-hole score.
“That change in the system allows a lot of additional scores to be posted and more data makes the system better,” Koch said.
In October of 2023 Sanderson reached out to a former colleague, Kelly Shumate, a golf architect who had experience designing par 3 courses. Todd Godwin of TGC Construction out of Georgia, another Sanderson established relationship, was the contractor. Garland’s superintendent Mick Zajas and his crew have also been heavily involved. The course has 14 bunkers and just one large pond that must be played over just once in each direction.
“It was not a hard rate,” Koch said. “It’s a very nice design, easy to walk and it should be fun to play.”
