Here I go again with yet another posting about golf courses in Michigan which are now closed. I don't know why hearing reports of their demise bothers me so much, it's not like there aren't any other places to play. Maybe it is because I have this (unattainable?) notion that I could play every course in the State and if one of them closes before I get there, it somehow spoils the idea. Never mind that the lack of adequate free time already spoils that idea.

 

Anyway, here are a couple more that are no longer open for business:

 

Sparrow Hawk in Jackson

High Pointe in Acme

 

The link for Sparrow Hawk takes you to a real estate page which shows the listing for the property. Listed at $690,000 ($3.5M for all 120 acres), a prospective buyer would likely be interested in it for other commercial purposes besides a golf course operation. This is because the place appears to have been closed for quite some time. The grass is knee high and you'd never know that there was ever a golf course there by looking at the property. (It's like a scene out of Life After People.) It especially seems like such as waste as Jeff Gorney added another 9 to the place as early as 1996.

 

The closure of High Pointe is particularly surprising/distressing. Designed by Tom Doak, it was among the more memorable places that I've played. I am sort of hoping that the course will reopen for the 2010 season. Their web site states that "due to difficult economic times in the country, especially Michigan, we have decided not to open High Pointe Golf Club for this 2009 golf season". I had heard that the owners (the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians) of the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa made an offer to buy it, but were turned down. Maybe they or someone will keep the place going before it becomes a field/wildland like Sparrow Hawk.