Boyne Highlands — Heather

The Heather is the flagship of Boyne Highlands' four courses, a Robert Trent Jones Sr. design that opened in 1966 and still carries the hallmarks that made his work recognizable across hundreds of layouts. Recent renovations have sharpened the design without altering its fundamental character. You're playing through northern Michigan hardwood forest with enough elevation to keep the terrain interesting without exhausting the walk.

You're playing 7,143 yards, par 72, slope 147. Serious golf in a resort setting. Trees frame the holes tightly on several par 4s, creating driving corridors that reward accuracy, while the par 5s open up enough to let the longer hitter think about reaching in two. The Jones green complexes are the distinctive feature: large, contoured, built to accept a variety of approaches but punish the one that lands on the wrong side. The contours push balls toward collection areas that leave difficult up-and-downs, and the green speeds magnify any error in distance control.

Identify the correct quadrant of each green before selecting a club, and you'll save strokes throughout the round. The course doesn't try to replicate tournament conditions, which is the right call for a resort layout. The maintenance strikes a sensible balance between challenge and playability.