Black Lake is as pretty and enjoyable a course as you will ever want to play. Built across three hundred acres of Northern Michigan pine, hardwood and marsh, it’s ranked by GolfWeek as Michigan’s ninth best, as number 34 on Golf Digest’s Top 100 You Can Play, and appears on many other “Top” lists.

Those accolades are well-deserved. Each hole at Black Lake is as pretty as a postcard, and I have only rarely found a course where every one was worth playing. Even better: after playing three times in three days, I found the course revealed something different each time.

At 7,046 yards from the tips, Black Lake is a big course and a challenging one, but fair. Fairway bunkers abound, but the landing zones are generous. Other than a couple of par threes, there are no forced carries to speak of. The course was, I found by the third playing, less about hitting it long than about hitting the right locations.

Even the most brutal of par threes has a way out. At 235 yards, the par three fourteenth is the courses’ signature hole. At first glance, the hole is set beyond a frightening chasm, guarded at the bottom by a long of a waste bunker. On the first play, I pulled out a driver and tried to smash the ball over the dragon and land it on the safe green beyond. I failed, and the ball was swallowed.

Upon walking up, though, I discovered that I had been distracted by the danger. Running to the left of the chasm is a think stretch of fairway, and a landing area that shortens the carry by forty yards. (its more obvious in the photo than it is in person) On subsequent playings, I parred the hole by hitting an iron to the left, which left me a pitch and putt.

My favorite hole actually was the first (top left). Like a great hors d’oeuvre, it whets the appetite and sets the tone for the repast that follows. From an elevated tee, the tree lined fairway sweeps down and slightly right, the up again to the green. A fairway bunker lies midway on the right, and two others surround a two tiered green.

But my appreciation for the first is not meant to devalue any of the others. I truly enjoyed each and every one.

It’s worth mentioning that there are any number of rumors surrounding the course. It’s true that Black Lake is owned by the United Auto Workers. Their gearlike logo (it’s actually people holding hands in a circle) is on the tees on every hole, and other places as well. And it’s true that the Course adjacent to the union’s Walter and May Reuther Family Education Center.

But you don’t have to be a union member to play. The course is open to all at very reasonable rates. There are no Union security at the course gates (although security is all over the Education Center). And no one checks to see if you are driving an American car.

The only downside to the course is its location. “Up North” in Onaway, Michigan, it’s well off the beaten track. You have to make a special effort to play the course. But it’s worth it.

You can see more photos of the course here.

From the Lake Forest Golf Club. Mrs. GolfBlogger points out that there are neither lakes, nor forests present in this picture.

The Buick Open this year is scheduled for July 27 - August 2 and tickets are on sale now. You can save $5 on day tickets by ordering now.

With the demise a couple of years ago of the Ford Senior Championship, the Buick is the only professional Tour event in Michigan. And given the trouble that GM is in lately, I’m sure that it’s continued existence is iffy, at best. The best way to keep the Buick in Michigan is to fill the stands.

You can see some photos of my visit to the Buick two years ago here. For a tour of Warwick Hills, visit here.

The ten yards from cart path to putting green apparently was too far to walk. Later, I saw them drive up and park their carts on the tee box.

Photo taken at Green Oaks Golf Course on Saturday, with a Panasonic DMC-ZS1

The Michigan High School Athletic Association has decided that high school teams cannot sell ad space on their uniforms to offset costs.

Given the financial crisis Michigan education finds itself in, this is a very shortsighted ruling. Revenue gained by selling advertising on football and basketball jerseys may be the only thing that saves some of the “minor” sports in cash strapped school districts. Collegiate athletic teams prominently display the logos of athletic equipment companies. The University of Michigan gets $7.5 million a year to sport the Adidas logo. Professional European teams—especially soccer—have corporate logos plastered all over their uniforms.

What’s the harm if Joe’s Pizza wants to have a patch on the sleeve of a small town football team’s jersey?

Interestingly, golf, tennis and bowling apparently are not included in the ruling because they are governed by outside agencies. Bowling shirts apparently can have ads on the sleeves. Advertising on golf shirts apparently has not yet been an issue. It presumably would be up to the USGA to determine if that was allowed for an amateur team.

I wish I’d thought of that when I was coaching High School golf. One thing that bothered me was that—unlike football—the kids on the golf team had to provide their own equipment (clubs) and purchase their own uniforms. That’s enormously expensive. It was expected that we would run fundraisers to pay for such “incidentals” as uniforms and balls. The problem I found was after the football, basketeball, cheerleading, drama and other school groups have run through their fundraising programs, there just isn’t a lot of space on the calendar, or money left in people’s pockets for the golf team. On the other hand, I’m sure that I could have gotten one of the local custom embroidery shops to donate the golf shirts if they could put their name and web address on the sleeve.

I’m not coaching now, but what I’d really like is to become the first classroom teacher sponsored by Nike (or Adidas). They’d provide me with a stipend to get classroom supplies and supplement my income, as well as an official wardrobe of slacks, shoes and shirts to wear every day to work. I’d even be willing to start every day’s PowerPoint presentation with a display of their logo.

So what about it Nike? Adidas? Any takers?

Too close to home ....

I missed the excitement while I was in Florida. It turns out that a single engine plane made an emergency landing on the fifth hole of a golf course just a couple of miles from GolfBlogger World Headquarters. No one was hurt and the course apparently suffered little damage. The plane then drove back to the airport, which is just a few hundred yards away.

I wonder if anyone was on the fifth hole at the time. Imagine their surprise!

I also wonder if the USGA has ever had to make any rulings about planes landing on a course during play.

They’re lovely to look at, but any golfer in Michigan knows that Canada Geese actually are a major course menace. The sky rats descend upon our courses, parks and lawns in vast numbers, leaving behind mountains of excrement and aggressively going after children and golfers alike.

(BTW, it’s Canada Geese, not Canadian Geese)

I’ve always wondered why they were a protected species, since they seem more common than pigeons and sea gulls. And it turns out I was right about their numbers. The DNR says that in the past four decades, the number of geese has grown from 9,000 to more than 200,000.

COurses that I know have tried a variety of ways to discourage the birds, including setting dogs loose to chase them off. And there apparently have been efforts to capture and relocate the geese. But now the DNR is planning on reducing the population by killing excess birds. The harvested geese will be distributed to various soup kitchens.

Any environmentalist who objects can do the right thing and volunteer their home as a location for displaced geese.