Author: Tim Branco

America’s Summer Golf Capital Just Keeps Getting Better

The Lower Peninsula of Michigan is one of America’s most spectacular destinations, featuring hundreds of miles of great lakes waterfront and countless small classic American towns. It is also home to Boyne Golf and its spectacular “Michigan’s Magnificent 11” Golf courses and resorts, offering the very best experience in golf vacations, an epic place to make great golf memories!

Everett Kircher, founder of Boyne Resorts, emphasized service and loyalty in everything he created, he knew customer experiences were the key to success in the resort business, and he valued his employees so much that after developing the Boyne Highland’s Ski facilities in Northern Michigan, he wanted to find a way to keep all his employees and staff year-round. This led Kircher into the world of golf, he used his dads farm tractor and built a nine-hole golf course at the foot of Boyne Mountain Lodge to transform Boyne into a four-season resort business as he continued to expand offerings for vacationers. It was a classic example of Stewardship in business, the practice of safeguarding an organization’s resources, culture, and relationships for long-term sustainability.

In 1966 Boyne opened their first championship 18- hole course, The Heather at The Highlands, in Harbor Springs, Michigan. It was designed by legendary architect Robert Trent Jones, Sr., The Heather effectively launched the Northwest Michigan golf boom and was named the National Golf Course of the Year in 2019. Today Boyne Golf is home to “Michigan’s Magnificent 11”. making Boyne Golf Resorts 171 golf holes, just 18 holes behind Pinehurst Resort, who has 189 holes, the most of any golf resort in America. What makes Boyne so uniquely different is the location, along the shores of Lake Michigan’s turquoise waters, with sandy beaches, small town charm and long summer daylight, that allows golf to be played 15-16 hours each day. You can play 36-holes and still have ample time to freshen up for a spectacular sunset dinner along Lake Michigan.

Boyne Golf in Michigan encompasses a collection of 11 championship-caliber courses spanning three resort properties in the northern lower peninsula. These 11 courses are distributed across three distinct locations: The Highlands (Harbor Springs): Features 5 championship courses including The Heather, Arthur Hills, The Moor, Donald Ross Memorial, and Doon Brae, a slopeside par-3 course. Boyne Mountain Resort (Boyne Falls): Home to two scenic mountainside courses: The Alpine and The Monument. Bay Harbor Golf Club & Crooked Tree Golf Club (Bay Harbor/Petoskey): Offers 27 holes at Bay Harbor (broken into three 9-hole combinations: Links, Quarry, and Preserve) alongside the 18-hole Crooked Tree layout. There are woodland courses, slopeside courses, links courses, and mountainside courses here at Boyne, all very playable for every type of golfer. At Boyne Golf you will find some of the very best designs by the very best course architects in the game, Donald Ross, Robert Trent Jones, Arthur Hills, Bill Newcome, Harry Bowers and Ray Hern who designed the new slopeside Doon Brae course.

Boyne headquarters for all resorts is located Petosky Michigan is simply one of the most spectacular places in America, it was the summer home of Earnest Hemingway for decades, the region inspired his first book, The Torrents of Spring, and many other notable titles. Petosky is the essence of small-town America, along the Northwestern Shores of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. Nearby is Boynes Bay Harbor Golf Club and on the shoreline of Little Traverse Bay adjacent to the Inn at Bay Harbor, an Autograph Collection Hotel. The hotel is reminiscent of turn of the century Victorian charm and modern-day elegance and opened in 1999. In 2002, Golf Digest recognized the Inn at Bay Harbor as one of the “Top Ten Coastal Resorts” in the country ranked at #5 and alongside the nation’s best seaside resorts, including Pebble Beach and Bandon Dunes. Also in 2002, the magazine named The Highlands, Boyne Mountain and Inn at Bay Harbor in the “Top 75 Resorts in America”.

The Quest to Family Resort Greatness

The philosophy and leadership of the Kircher family grew Boyne Resorts into North America’s largest privately owned four-season resort company through acquisitions and natural growth initiatives. Along the way the founding formular of customer service and over the top friendliness of all staff and employees became a formidable building block for the company and is what stands out the most with the Boyne Resort brand even today. Everyone is so amazing helpful, informative and dedicated to being part of what makes this company so great!

Boyne Resorts Today

Boyne Resorts portfolio currently includes Michigan’s two premier mountain and golf resorts, The Highlands, Boyne Mountain, and the Inn at Bay Harbor in Michigan; Big Sky Resort in Montana — founded by the late Chet Huntley in 1970; Brighton Ski Resort in Big Cottonwood Canyon near Salt Lake City, Utah; The Summit at Snoqualmie in Washington; Loon Mountain in New Hampshire; Sugarloaf, Sunday River, and Pleasant Mountain in Maine; Cypress Mountain near Vancouver, British Columbia — official freestyle skiing and snowboard venue for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games; Gatlinburg SkyPark near the Great Smokey Mountains National Park in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The Boyne family of resorts offers the very best in golf, ski, tennis, biking, hiking and cross-country skiing together with luxurious accommodations, fine dining, cozy restaurants and lounges and exquisite spa facilities, Boyne Resorts remains a leader in the industry spanning North America from British Columbia to Maine that offer outdoor experiences for every season and everyone. Today Boynes Magnificent 11 Resort Golf Courses highlight the very best in Michigan Golf, some of the most spectacular courses in America. Visit Boyne Resorts to stay & play today Boyne Resorts