Shanty Creek

Absolutely beautiful it’s very long and very tough

Vacationing on lake Bellaire, this course is conveniently located and is a pleasure to play.

The Good: The Cedar River course at Shanty Creek Resorts is another solid Tom Weiskopf Midwest design that has as tremendous “Up North” feel as it is carved beautifully through Michigan Northwoods near Traverse City. A design that is every bit as pretty and interesting as the Treetops courses in Gaylord, it has spectacular Par-5’s (particularly to close each nine) and very nice Par-3’s, but I was most impressed with the design variety and shot value of the Par-4’s. Nicely conditioned as you’d expect for a $100+ resort course, with greens putting true. Nice on-course amenities including a halfway half that is accessible after the 1st and 9th holes. The breakfast sandwiches they make there are incredible! Decent value, particularly if you can get a discounted GolfNow tee-time like I did.

The Bad: As we were playing as a twosome and one of the first tee-times out on a Sunday morning, we can had to contend with the maintenance continuously mowing the greens while were playing. The course shouldn’t be sending twosomes out that early if their maintenance crew can’t keep up. It really ruined the experience of an otherwise fantastic golf course. The clubhouse and practice areas are a little outdated and oddly placed within the resort. No GPS on carts.

The Verdict: The Cedar River course is another Weiskopf Michigan gem that shouldn’t be overlooked amongst the slew of great courses in the greater Traverse area! Despite the lack of service, I’d definitely go back in the future. Just might book a tee-time later in the day.

Best Hole: There are many standout Par-5’s and the 8th hole is a pretty Par-3, but there is something about the look of the “cape-esque” 7th hole. A short Par-4 that requires a drive to carry a small pond with a right fairway bunker that forces you to bite of more than you’d like to chew. The approach is to a peninsula green that is one of the most demanding on the course.

Greens were even better than the last time. We all enjoyed the round

Greens were fairly fast and true. Fairways were excellent and all holes are different requiring several kinds of shots. All that good is hard to appreciate when the pace of play is so slow. 5 hrs to play and as a twosome we played at our own pace until number 5.

First time playing the course, it was in great condition, fair fairways and greens. My only complaint was the pace of play. I can’t stand 5 hour rounds of golf but that seems to be the norm in Northern Michigan. I would definitely play here again though.

Back nine is very hilly and a bit of water

Very fun course for the average player

Well maintained

Hard greens to figure out but in great shape

Nice course. It was way too wet to play the day we were there. Will have to play again when course conditions are better to give an honest opinion

I've played this course five times now...I think I like it more each time I play it. The course is always in great shape and it just has a lot of fun, beautiful holes. I particularly love the stream running near the 12th and 13th holes.

The only downside with any of the Shanty Creek courses is pace-of-play. We teed off at 9:00 a.m. every day and waited nearly every shot.

Played this one last in our rotation of the 4 Shanty courses. I thought this was the best one in terms of total experience - strategy/creativity, greens, and conditions. Pace of Play was slow, but that did not ruin the day for me. The course is SUPER spread out, and I can't imagine playing 9 is an option as the 10h hole is out in the middle of nowhere, but they did have a beverage cart and a snack shack at 10.

The layout is absolutely fantastic. It requires good driving off the tee, and if you put it in play, there a plenty of holes to score on. Hole 2 has a big cliff drop off on the right that you can't see from the tee or scorecard. You can hit driver if it's up the left, but laying up isn't a bad option. Being able to shape your ball both ways off the tee is a huge advantage as most of the holes dogleg one way or the other. Some of them, the easy play is just hitting a iron or hybrid, and playing from 150, but you can get creative and shape it around the bend (most of which are protected by trees). Driving it poorly here will almost certainly lead to frustration, lost balls, and a bad score.

4 was a great par 3, especially with the pin tucked back right over top of the bunker. 7 is a great par 5. If you hit a good drive, you can take it on in two over the creek. Otherwise, a bad drive brings the lake into play on the tee ball, and would require a layup short of the creek. 11 and 12 is a fun back to back stretch, with water and bunkers in play on both. 5 is the hole that perhaps creates the most options off the tee. The easy play would be to play a mid iron to the 150 post and play from there. However, if you can shape it right to left, or hit it high over the trees, you can try and take out parts of the dogleg and have nothing more than 75 yards in. The hole really is a 90 degree dogleg left. 18 is a narrow par 5, with a chair lift and ski slope (old?) right next to the tee box. It is reachable in 2 but requires two good shots.

The creativity is what made the course so enjoyable to me. It's an Arnold Palmer design and you can see why. The greens were the quickest we played of the 4 courses at Shanty, and basically every putt had some movement, and they moved true to their line. Great views, great price, great course. MUST PLAY!

Played this second in our rotation of the 4 Shanty Courses. I would say it is in the best shape of the 4, with the second best setup. For $50ish it's certainly a good price to play. We had 4 straight tee times starting at 4:30pm. No one was behind us yet the starter was hounding us on pace of play (even though we finished in about 4:30-4:40, which is a little slow but nothing crazy). Then, at the clubhouse, the pro shop lady was telling us we played too slow, and that we'd need to "play faster" the next day. I think she just wanted to go home. Other than the staff issues, the course itself was awesome. Would've been 5 star had not been for the staff. Like all the courses on the resort, they had COVID cups, so you couldn't take the pin out - but that should't be a huge deal for most players.

The course itself has some big greens, and I've heard they run really fast usually, but unfortunately the rain slowed them down some. Lots of undulation in the greens, and lots of elevation changes throughout the course. 13 and 14 are two awesome holes. 13 is a risk reward par 4 (can drive the green if you hit it well, otherwise it's a layup), and 14 you hit from an elevated tee to a small, undulated green. Some other good holes are 5, 7, and 15. For the most part you need to drive it well, but there are some holes that you can miss it off the tee and still score.

Most in our group said this was their favorite of the 4 Shanty Courses. I liked the Legend a little better, because it required lots of creativity, but Cedar is in the best shape, and while it requires good course management, is a course you can score on. Definitely recommend playing this one at the resort.

Played this third in our rotation of the 4 Shanty Courses. I'd rank this one as third best of the 4, but that's more because Cedar and the Legend are fantastic. Course setup here requires some creativity, as there's lots of doglegs, but not a ton of water, and open enough that you won't be searching for balls all day in the woods. All the courses on the resort have good amenities, but they are EXPENSIVE. I'd recommend not eating at the courses.

Front 9 is pretty straight forward, with some doglegs - mostly left. Back 9 is much more picturesque and features some really cool holes with undulation changes. 18, is a good risk-reward par 4, but the right play is to NOT hit driver. Most of the par 4's aren't super long, and other than hole 5 - the par 5's are reachable in two with two good shots.

Greens were a bit faster than the Summit, but still not super fast. We played on a perfect day, with sun and a little wind.

We had some issues with hospitality over the course of the trip. At the Summit there were no issues, but here, there was no attendant for the range - so one of our groups took range balls with the intention of paying later. Shortly after, a person chased them down and scolded them. I thought it was unnecessary considering there was no attendant, and we fully intended to pay for them.

Other than that instance, I felt this was an enjoyable round.