Roscommon, MI – Forest Dunes, the award-winning golf destination in Northern Michigan, has been named one of the four finalists for the 2015 National Golf Course Owner Association’s (NGCOA) Course of the Year Award.
The award recognizes member-owned courses that excel in four categories: course quality, ownership and management, contributions to the community and contributions to the game. The Course of the Year winner will be announced on Feb. 10 at the Golf Business Conference, hosted by NGCOA, in San Diego.
This recognition comes following Forest Dunes winning the Michigan Golf Course of the Year, which qualified them for the national honors joining a group of distinguished modern courses; Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club in Arizona, TPC Boston in Massachusetts, and Sea Pines Resort in South Carolina.
Forest Dunes was a natural selection for the recognition, thanks to the recent growth and vision for the future established by owners Lew Thompson from Huntsville, AR and Sam Mathias of Fayetteville, AR, who acquired the 1,300-acre facility in 2012.
“We are thrilled for this honor of being recognized by the NGCOA alongside three other very worthy national golf destinations,” Thompson said. “This opportunity to be the golf course of the year is a testament to our dedicated staff who have taken great pride in the vision we have set forth in developing Forest Dunes as a leading national golf destination.”
Thompson’s first move was the addition of high-end lodging with the Lake AuSable Lodge, a 14-room and suites facility that compliments the beautiful Adirondack style clubhouse facility. This past season he also broke ground on new golf villas that will comfortably house groups of as many as eight people with four and two-bedroom options.
In what could be described as one of the most anticipated moves in golf course design and development in the last century, Thompson brought in the most sought after course designer in the world, Tom Doak, who used all of his knowledge and experience on a new design concept that will challenge the conventional thinking of golf course architects for generations to come.
Doak and his Renaissance Golf Design team have created the first ever reversible golf course – two distinct layouts using the same greens but playing clockwise one way and counter clockwise the other way.
“This is a concept I have thought about for 30 years,” Doak said. “You needed the right site and the right client to understand the appeal of it. At Forest Dunes we finally have both.”
Thompson’s vision extends beyond the new course. Long-term plans include additional lodging, new restaurants and more golf.
“We are creating a world-class golf destination that is attracting the discerning golf aficionado who believes location is not as important as the quality of the experience,” he said.
About Forest Dunes
Nestled on 1,300 acres of heavily wooded land within the Huron National Forest, Forest Dunes has become one of the country’s premier golf experiences. In this pristine setting, 1973 Open Champion Tom Weiskopf designed one of his top layouts featuring rugged native dunes, scruffy sand areas and water features. The course has been consistently ranked among the best courses by the leading golf publications. Golf Digest, which ranked it the Best New Course in the Country when it opened in 2002, currently ranks it No. 23 among its top public courses, and GOLF Magazine and Golfweek have also ranked it among their Top 100 courses.
In addition to the award winning Forest Dunes course and the new Doak course, the property features the beautiful Adirondack style Clubhouse with Sangomore’s restaurant, Lake AuSable Lodge with 14-rooms, golf villas, and six lakeside cottages.
For more visit www.forestdunesgolf.com or follow them on Twitter @forestdunesgolf.
Contact:
Forest Dunes Golf Club
Chad Maveus – General Manager/Director of Golf
(989) 275-0700
cmaveus@forestdunesgolf.com
Fusion Media Strategies
Kevin Frisch – Public Relations
(989) 614-0241
kevin@fusionmediastrategies.com