The Arnold Palmer designed Northville Hills golf course has been sold to Wilson Golf Group. Wilson Golf owns and manages nine courses in Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconson, and now—Michigan.

Northville Hills, located in the suburban Detroit Northville, is a daily fee course. The 7,003-yard course has a slope of 132.

I had a chance to play a couple of holes there once when I was coaching my high school’s golf team. It’s a nice layout, with lots of water. Particularly terrifying is the par 3 seventeenth, which requires a 160+ yard carry over a pond to an unforgiving green backed by a couple of bunkers.

Golf balls sitting on the iced over surface of a water hazard at Lake Forest, Ann Arbor, Michigan

The weather was unusually warm for February yesterday, and even more unusually, with no snow polluting the ground, several local courses were open. I played nine at Lake Forest. Not surprisingly, it was a rough beginning. I took a double on the first, and a bogey on the second. Then I then settled down a bit and made it around in 45. I felt pretty good about the whole thing, especially considering the strong wind coming out of the west.

Officially, the temperature yesterday reached 50 degrees. That wasn’t a record though: it reached 56 on that day in 1938.

My goal is to play in every month this year. So far, so good.

There are lots of contests out there offering a dream trip for your foursome. Here’s one that offers a golf trip for you and twenty three of your closest friends. You can sign up online for this one.

Enter the 2012 West Michigan
Golf Show Giveaway! 
The West Michigan Golf Show will take place at DeVos Place in downtown Grand Rapids, Feb. 10-12, 2012!  One lucky winner in the Golf Show Giveaway will receive the Ultimate Group Golf Outing at Treetops Resort!

PRIZE PACKAGE DETAILS:
24 players total
1 overnight stay in the Inn or Chalets at Treetops Resort based on double occupancy in room, 12 rooms total.  Upgrades are available.
18 holes on the Tradition with cart.  Upgrades are available.
18 holes on their choice (based on availability) with cart.
Overnight stay must be on a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.
Winners must provide their own transportation to and from Treetops Resort.

I just received this press release from the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame:

(Dexter , Mich. ) Sadly the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame notes the passing of Bob Babbish who was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1989. On January 24, Babbish died in hospice care in Florida with his wife, Del and children Byron and Happy at his side.
“Bob was one of the classiest guys around,” Hall member Glenn Johnson said. “He was an all-around player, long hitting and had all the shots.”
Babbish won many tournaments, including the 1935 Michigan Amateur and his top victory was the Western Amateur. He’s the only Michigan player to ever win perhaps the most rigorous test in amateur golf. He won the year after legendary Michigan amateur Chuck Kocsis was defeated in the Western final.

Group portrait of Capt. Filker, Bloomfield, Kidston, Becker, and Smoot, golfers, University of Michigan, sitting on porch stairs of a clubhouse in or near Chicago, Illinois.

From the Library of Congress

From the Library of Congress.