Grand Traverse Resort & Spa

The course was beautiful and my wife commented how nice the fairways and greens were. We ran into some slow play right before it rained and the golf course assistant was quite helpful in telling them to get moving and later found out they were employees but we finished just as the rain started and ended up leaving both our water bottles by the bag drop. Highly recommend this course and next time we will try the Bear course.

Hole layouts were very creative with tons of bunkers and amazing views of the resort and bay. Course conditions were pristine and the greens were rolling VERY fast. I four-putted for the first time in my whole life so that was unpleasant but still had a great time!

Great course and friendly staff. Worth every penny!

Course in good shape and staff were excellent. Although a good course, nothing special except for the name.

Treat of a course to play. Challenging, but not un-fun. Wide open fairways with difficult, technical approaches. Though missing the fairway will put you in a mogul filled rough (almost certainly a challenging lie). Hazards come into play on most holes — water or some serious thick s&!t. My favorite stretch was #8-9. Hole #8 was a fun approach with water all over the right side, followed by #9, a par 3 with a peninsula green.

I wish that the course had proper red(lady) tees that didn’t require so much power. The carry required on a number of holes was plain in-accessible to novices. My girlfriend (a novice) had no chance at getting a ball in play off the tee on many of the holes. Still, she had a great time and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

Well maintained and decent value. Solid course to play as a warm up to the more challenging and expensive course next door — the Bear. The greens are in great shape and fast. The layout is fairly forgiving. I had easy shots to the green after hitting a few tee shots into the trees. On the other hand, hitting into the fairway bunker on #4 forced a layup because I didn’t dare try to carry the water. Another layup was forced on #5 because of the big tree in front of me on the fairway. #7 is drivable if you can get it over the trees. The back nine was shorter (par 34) and included a couple short drivable par 4s (#12 and, if you can bend it right, #13).

Overpriced compared to others in northern Michigan. Played it because I was told it was tough, Jack just likes small greens. Nothing special here in terms of layout or condition.

The Bear course at Grand Traverse is one of the finest golf courses in the country. I have played many great courses around the United States.,I would rank the Bear as one of the best. Challenging, great shape with a beautiful layout. A must-play course in northern Michigan.

Fairways were in excellent shape. Greens suffered from lack of rain/watering. About 5 minutes travel from front to back 9 as they are disconnected.

The good: check-in guys friendly; layout is challenging but fun if you play the right tees; course well maintained, fairways and greens excellent; lunch at the clubhouse grill was excellent

The bad: breakfast sandwiches at the snack shack warmed in a microwave are soggy w cold centers; afternoon bag drop crew of young guys who need training, some had resort shirts, some did not, none seemed interested in earning any tips; range and practice area are a little small for a resort of this size, don’t care for paying for warm up balls before $150 round.

Overall great course and facilities, would play again.

The Bear is a Jack Nicklaus course from his target golf period. The fairways are not difficult to find but the challenge is being in the optimum position to attack these small and very difficult greens. The Bear is well laid out and a traditional parkland style. The course is relatively flat compared to other courses but has many standout holes that require shots over and around lakes and marshland. Bring your best approach game or your scorecard will suffer, if you can hit it high and land softly you might shoot your lowest score, if you play it low and on the ground...sorry. The course is one of three courses at the Grand Traverse Resort and is considered the most difficult and flagship course. The course comes in at a fair price compared to other surrounding courses and a great test of your game. The conditions were a little patchy but it is a high traffic course, and by that estimation, it was not bad. The Bear starts off with a seemingly easy par 4 but after your approach, you get a firm grasp that the greens are fast and your approach is important, no simple aim to the center of these very small greens and most flags are in sucker pin position. I would definitely recommend it if in Traverse City but I might not recommend driving out of your way to play. Note: The pace was solo but to be fair I was right behind a corporate outing that they mismanaged the start and might not be a fair example of regular play