Course Breakdown: Grandview

Grandview is a tree-lined, tight golf course that features some of the most fun shots to hit in Northern Michigan. This course holds a special place in my heart because the par 3 3rd (now the 12th) is where I had my first hole-in-one, and the owners were kind enough to make me my own plaque. Last year, you could play for less than $50 per person, and in today’s golf landscape, this is one of the best deals in Northern Michigan.

Much like Elmbrook, hitting driver on every par 4 or 5 isn’t the best option for a large number of holes here. The breakdown will be from the blue tees, which are the furthest back tees at 6,600 yards. The main defenses at Grandview are the par 3s and par 5s, which isn’t usually the case for most courses. Follow along to get a professional golf caddie's perspective on the best practices for playing your best the next time you find yourself at Grandview.

GV #1

Looking at Grandview's website, the scorecard they have posted shows the front and back nines reversed from the routing they had us follow last year. I’m going to write this based on the route guests played last year, with the first hole being the one right next to the entrance driveway.

This dogleg-right par 4 should be a gentle introduction to Grandview, but it certainly has areas you need to avoid. The hole doglegs around a bunker that is 210 yards to reach and 230 yards to carry. Anything right of the bunker that doesn’t carry 250 yards will end up in a low area with pine trees and long grass — definitely not where you want to be. Be cautious if you’re aiming left and can hit a drive over 250 yards, as the left trees will completely block your view of the green.

Off the tee, I usually ease my way onto the course with a 220-yard shot well left of the bunker. If all goes according to plan, I’ll have about 130 yards into the green.

The green has a slight false front, and the general slope is from left to right. A miss left has a chance of kicking your ball onto the green, so favor just left of center. If you miss right, you’ll be left with an uphill chip shot, but you’ll have a decent chance of getting up and down.

GV #2

I look forward to playing this hole every round, yet I feel disappointed after I walk off the green more often than not. From the tee to the green, this hole drops about 80 feet and has a very cool backdrop of an endless forest. At 510 yards, a good drive gives you a chance to reach the green in two, but this hole has trouble lurking all over the place.

The tee shot is blind, but the course has two different staircases that give you a view of the fairway to ensure groups are out of the way. The key here is that a miss right is better than left. The entire left side is tree-lined, with out-of-bounds (OB) coming into play shortly after. The fairway also slopes towards the trees/OB, so be extra careful.

Once you get inside 170 yards of the green, the fairway begins to tilt slightly to the left, with the terrain moving more dramatically from right to left. Just like the tee shot, your lay-up shot needs to be aimed at the right half of the fairway to protect against the trouble left.

What makes this hole particularly difficult is that the green tilts back to the right with a hard right-to-left slope. The best angle to attack this green is from the left side of the fairway, but that adds risk to your lay-up shot. I can’t tell you how many times I or my playing partners have laid up safely in the right rough, only to be left with an impossible approach. The ball may land on the green, but the combination of the right-to-left green slope and lack of spin from the rough leads to the ball releasing into the left bunkers.

As mentioned, the green slopes dramatically from right to left. The first couple of times I played here, I underestimated how much break there actually is. Now, I nearly double the amount of break I intend to play based on what I see. I’d suggest you do the same!

With a good drive on this hole, I prefer going for the green in two, with an emphasis on missing right instead of left. I’ve seen some crazy bounces off the right hillside, and I can live with trying to get up and down from around the green.

If I’m forced to lay up, I try to hit a shot that doesn’t fly too high so it can land and roll towards the left side of the fairway. I try to avoid the 110- to 70-yard range because of how steep the downhill is from this yardage. I’m fine with longer or shorter shots.

GV #3

The 3rd at Grandview is a pretty straightforward dogleg-left par 4. For most golfers, you should aim well right of the left fairway bunkers. These bunkers are 235 yards to carry and play slightly uphill. After the bunkers, there is a decent amount of rough, and you’ll have a downhill lie to an elevated green. This isn’t the easiest shot but might be worth the risk, with the front edge of the green only being 300 yards away.

It’s 250 yards to stay right of these bunkers and keep the ball in the fairway. I’ll either hit driver and try to carry the bunkers, or I’ll hit my 5-wood well right of them.

As long as your drive goes over 200 yards, you should have less than 140 yards left to the green.

The green complex has a tightly mowed low area in front of the green and a tough false front. The general slope is from front to back and right to left. Be careful not to miss long, as it falls off dramatically behind the green. A miss short/left is the best place to get up and down from.

GV #4

The shortest par 4 at Grandview also has the most trouble. Like the 2nd hole, this one has an elevated staircase to help you see what’s happening down the descending fairway. Even from the staircase, you can’t see the green because the fairway rises for the first 175 yards and then drops 23 feet over the remaining ~90 yards.

The key to this hole is to not miss left. Once you reach the downhill section, the fairway slopes from right to left, with the left side dropping into a heavily wooded area. It’s crazy how similar this 270-yard par 4 is to the last 270 yards of the par 5 2nd. The safe miss is right, but going right gives you a terrible angle to the steeply sloping right-to-left green. The saving grace here is that the green itself doesn’t slope as dramatically, and you can land the ball in the middle of the green, where it should stay.

I’ve changed my strategy on this hole many times over the years. Currently, my plan depends on my swing at the time. If I’m worried about missing left, I won’t hit a shot over 200 yards. The further you hit the ball, the steeper the left side feeds into the trees. If I know I’m going to hit a shot with a left-to-right flight, I’ll hit my 230-yard club and hope to land on the downslope for a decent kick toward the green.

On your approach, aim just right of center and make sure you don’t miss long. There are only a few feet beyond the green before the terrain drops off into the abyss.

GV #5

The par 3 5th is the most memorable hole at Grandview and one of the prettiest holes in Northern Michigan. The green sits about 90 feet below the tee boxes, offering a view of deep forest as far as the eye can see. As beautiful as this hole is, it’s really, really difficult, in my opinion.

You’d think that a hole playing downhill would be easier, but from the blue tees, it measures around 220 yards. It does play about 20 yards downhill, but with the ball being in the air for so long, you must hit a very straight shot. Otherwise, it has more time to move left or right before it hits the ground. I don’t have the actual data, but I feel like this is my worst scoring hole on the entire course.

The green runs from the front left corner toward the back right corner. With this in mind, you don’t want to miss short left, as a shot from here will roll out much further than you want. Once you reach the green, trees come into play pretty quickly on the right. In short, your misses are either long left or short right.

GV #6

Grandview doesn’t give you any relief once you finish the tough par 3 5th. The par 5 6th is the beast of the course at just under 600 yards. I’ve never seen anyone reach this green in two, and even reaching it in three requires three really good shots.

The tee shot starts off fairly wide but gets tighter the further you hit the ball down the fairway. You’re slightly better off missing right than left, but neither miss is ideal. The entire hole is tree-lined on the left side. Miss too far left, and you’ll have a terrible angle to advance the ball up the fairway, as the trees begin to intrude into play. Miss too far right, and you’ll be blocked by a large grouping of trees on that side. At least with a miss right, you have a chance to hit the ball over the trees, whereas missing left offers no chance. Finding the fairway is step one in succeeding on this hole.

The fairway ends at 315 yards, with a grassy/waste area extending an additional 55 yards or so until the next section of fairway. Once you reach this point, the hole begins slanting left at about a 35% angle, with trees lining the left side, but the right side is completely wide open.

This leads to the fact that a straight shot from the left side of the fairway could be completely blocked out from the green. Check out the overhead photo to see exactly where you are blocked, but you must favor a miss right instead of left on your lay-up shot. Even if you miss way right, you’ll at least have an angle to hit toward the green.

I can’t recall another golf hole where the tee box and the green complex sit at a 90° angle from one another. Looking at the green from the fairway, the complex slopes from the front right corner toward the back left corner. You don’t want to miss long or right.

GV #7

The 7th is a medium-length par 3 without too much trouble. This hole plays about 20 feet downhill, so I usually play about half a club less than the distance. The sneakiest part of this par 3 is that the short-right bunker is actually positioned halfway into the green. The front edge of the green is 145 yards, but the bunker is 155 yards to carry at its furthest point.

The green is a perfect circle, but there are two mounds in the back left and back right corners. With these mounds, the complex kind of looks like Mickey Mouse’s head, with the mounds representing his ears. You don’t want to miss long on this hole because your chip shot will land on the downslope of the Mickey Mouse ears and will be difficult to stop.

Short and left is the preferred miss.

GV #8

Either the first or second hardest par 4 at Grandview, this hole is a beast from the blue tees at 445 yards. Truthfully, I’ve had rounds where I step up to the tee box and say, “Screw it,” and play this hole from the next tee box up at 400 yards. The blue tees are placed in a position where you absolutely have to hit a dead straight drive, or you might clip some overhanging tree branches. Do as you please.

The big thing on the tee shot is that left is a no-go. Depending on how much rain they’ve had in Kalkaska, Michigan, there is a waste area all along the left side that may or may not have any water in it. Regardless, there is much more room on the right compared to the left, and this helps give a better angle to this dogleg-left hole. The aim is just left of the right edge of the fairway.

The green complex is elevated a few feet and has two separate tiers on this shallow green. Like the tee shot, you do not want to miss left. It would take more than one hand to count the number of times I’ve landed near the left cart path and received a horrid bounce into the left trees. If the pin is in the front left tier, there is a nice backboard you can use to get a chip shot close without taking on the false front. If the pin is in the back tier, make sure your miss is short left instead of long. I made the artwork before the write-up and now remember how awful it is to miss long to the back tier.

GV #9

One of my favorite holes at Grandview, the par 4 9th is a great dogleg-left hole that deceives you into aiming too far left off the tee. The hillside to the right of the cart path hides the right half of the fairway from golfers. Your aim off the tee should be right over the last part of the cart path.

I love talking about my screw-ups, and this hole is no different. I tend to miss left here, and it is so, so bad. You’ll see a very large red area marked “dead” on the overhead, and this is an understatement. Two-hundred-year-old trees intrude into the landing area at 250 yards, and if you manage to get blocked, your only option is a chip straight sideways back into the fairway. There’s no reason to miss left here with how much room there is on the right.

The green slopes from back to front and right to left. You cannot miss long on this hole; the chip shot from here is extremely fast. I’ll also say that this green tends to break more than you’d expect.

Congrats! You’ve finished the front 9. Go grab yourself one of my favorite golf course bratwursts and your drink of choice and prepare for the harder of the two nines!

GV #10

Whether this is the starting hole or the 10th, it’s one of the coolest holes at Grandview. The tee box is elevated about 50 feet above the fairway, and the cart ride to the bottom can get scary if you aren’t paying attention. This hole is a slight dogleg left, tree-lined up the left side, with a bunker to the right of the fairway. There are two water hazards beyond the fairway, starting at 280 yards.

I hit less than driver on this hole to avoid the bad miss of long and right. You can see from the overhead that if you drive your ball over the right bunker, you quickly get blocked by the trees. I usually hit my 5 wood, which typically leaves me around 130 yards into the green.

The green complex slopes from left to right and doesn’t have too bad of a miss. I will say that I’d rather miss right than left. I’ve been short-sided to a left pin and had no chance of hitting a chip shot close. Stay out of the trees and hazards, and you’ll do just fine on this hole.

GV #11

The 11th is a very scorable par 5, as long as you stay out of trouble. Sense a trend yet? Off the tee, you’ve got trees left and right, but a water hazard intrudes into the left half of the fairway at 275 yards from the tee box.

I hit less than driver here and usually go with a 5 wood instead of a 3 wood to avoid the temptation of trying to reach the green in two. Up around the green, there is another water hazard that starts 60 yards from the green and butts up against the front right part of the green. I remember attempting to reach this green in two once. I thought I hit a great shot, only to see my ball splash into the water. I ended up walking away with a 7 when I should have made no worse than a 5 if I had laid up.

The green is relatively flat and quite a bit larger than it looks from the fairway. My strategy on this hole is to hit something 230 yards off the tee, followed by a 170-yard layup. This gets me to a perfect lob wedge from around 100 yards.

GV #12

I can recall my entire outfit, down to even my underwear: gray polo, gray shoes, gray hat (sheesh), black shorts, and navy blue boxer briefs. (Clashes, I know.) This is what I was wearing for my first hole-in-one, which took place on this hole!

That day, it was an 8 iron from 157 yards that did the trick, but you need to remember that long is better than short on this hole. The front edge is protected by a false front on the right and a deep bunker on the left.

Until the back edge at 169 yards, the green slopes severely from the back right corner to the front left corner. My shot actually used this back right backboard and came back toward the middle of the green before it found the bottom of the cup.

So, take my advice as a hole-in-one maker: long is better than short!

If you take this advice too seriously and end up missing long into the bunker, don’t be afraid to pull the putter out of the bag and just putt through the bunker instead of trying to wedge it out.

GV #13

Since I had the audacity to talk about my hole-in-one, here’s the truth: I didn’t think after the 12th and strutted up to the 13th tee box feeling awfully confident. I then pumped my hole-in-one ball into the left trees and never found it. It’s a good thing I’m not much of a sentimental person.

The 13th is one of the tougher par 4s on the course, and this is especially true if you miss just a little too far left off the tee. The ground on the left side of the hole tilts toward the left trees, and you don’t want to be there. Driver is fine—just make sure to aim up the right half of the fairway.

The green is split in half by a ridge that creates a lower and upper part of the green complex. If the pin is in the lower part, it’s better to miss short. If the pin is in the back portion, I generally err on the side of missing long vs. short, but either is manageable. Like the tee shot, right is a better miss than left for the same reason: the ground slopes toward the left trees.

Good luck on this tough hole, and if you find a yellow Titleist Pro V1x #2 with the LEIST blacked out in TITLEIST, that’s my ball!!

GV #14

The easiest tee shot on the entire golf course is followed by the most severe green on the entire course. The 350-yard 14th is one of my favorite holes, but it doesn’t always treat me with the same admiration. The left fairway bunker is 247 yards, and there’s no reason to hit a club that might bring this bunker into play. I always hit my 230-yard club off this tee box.

I should have marked this on the overhead, but you do need to be careful up the right side of the fairway/rough. Balls tend to kick toward the right trees if you get unlucky.

The green slopes incredibly sharply from the back edge to the front edge. This is one of those greens where good golfers try to avoid spinning a wedge shot because a ball that lands in the middle of the green can spin off the front edge if your RPMs get above 10K.

Keep this in mind, and if you do find yourself on the back part of the green, putting toward the front, the putt is faster than you think and will break from your right to left. From the fairway, the green slopes left to right. Just making sure I give that visual correctly.

A good 5 wood, followed by a ¾ swing with my pitching wedge, is the goal on this hole.

GV #15

My goal with these write-ups is to only provide information and my plan of attack. I don’t like to get into course architecture because, whether I like a hole or not, it doesn’t change the fact that I’ll have to play it and try to score the best I can while doing so. That said, I'm not a fan of this hole.

It would really improve with some tree removal, but as of the last time I played this hole, you have to hit a shot with a left-to-right flight or you can only hit at a sliver of the fairway. A straight shot can’t go more than 235 yards, or you’ll be in the left bunkers. With the fairway dropping ~65 feet, that translates to hitting no more than a 220-yard shot off the tee.

It is possible to hit a big left-to-right shot and find the fairway, but take note that in the last year or two, a creek was installed 265 yards from the tee, running right across the fairway. So, make sure to hit something less than 250 yards, even if you are going to cut the corner.

The green slopes right to left and has a bunker short left. Despite the bunker, you’d rather miss short than long. Long slopes away, and a bad bounce can send you into the bush-lined hardwoods. Your ideal miss is short and right.

If I were in charge, I’d remove enough rows of trees on the right so a golfer can see the collection area of the creek off the tee. It’d certainly make this hole a bit easier, but as it currently stands, this is the weakest hole at Grandview.

As of now, I try to hit a hard left-to-right shot with my 4-iron. A perfect drive would leave me 140–120 yards and well short of the creek.

GV #16

Holy cow, back-to-back holes that absolutely kick you in the teeth. This is the second-longest par 5 at Grandview but might play even longer than the nearly 600-yard 6th. There are a few reasons for that.

Like the 6th, this hole is a giant dogleg left. The difference is that this hole starts turning after 200 yards instead of 350 yards. This creates a tougher hole because the bunkers through the fairway are only 210 yards from the tee box, with a forest behind them. For those who hit their drive over 240 yards, you must either hit a shot around the corner or go over the corner of the trees. I’ve accomplished this a few times but have tried many more.

I’ve learned to just hit a layup shot off the tee. Last time I played, I hit 4-iron just to stay short of the bunkers. From here, you’ve got an uphill, kind of blind shot. Just remember the hole continues to dogleg left, and your aim should be just right of the left hillside. I try to blast a 3-wood as far as I can since my tee shot usually leaves me 350+ yards remaining.

The green slopes from left to right and back to front. It is fair to assume that your ball will land softly, so don’t be afraid to fly a ball all the way to the hole on your approach.

GV #17

My typical rounds at Grandview involve me playing 15 holes well and the rest being complete disasters. The 17th has been one of those disaster holes far too many times. It's another really tough hole. The tee box and green are nearly at the same altitude, but everything in between sits about 15 feet below. To find the green, a ball must carry the front edge at 184 yards. Anything landing short will land in the upslope and tumble back towards the low area.

The left side always features a false front, but there is a little more excitement with a bunker anxiously waiting to gobble up anything just left of perfect. Sadly, the right tree line hugs your target line, so you’ll subconsciously aim more left than you probably intend.

Once you finally reach the green, it slopes from the back left corner to the front edge. From the middle of the green to the front edge is an extremely fast putt, requiring you to putt to the ridge and letting gravity do the rest of the work.

GV #18

The finishing hole is a sharp dogleg right that maneuvers around a low area to the right of the fairway. After the last three holes, I always feel the urge to smash my driver as far as I can. This is perfectly fine on this hole since the pine trees through the fairway are nearly 300 yards away. Just take dead aim at the left cluster.

The green is pretty straightforward, with the general slope being left to right. The green gets slightly larger the deeper into it you go, so I tend to err on the side of going long rather than short.

One thing I’ve always appreciated about Grandview is that the first and last holes are arguably the easiest on the course. I think this is great design because it eases you into the round and, hopefully, ends your round on a high note. If I ever owned a golf course, I’d make sure this was the case, as I believe it helps golfers mentally want to return to the game. Nothing makes me want to sell my golf clubs more than making a double bogey on the 18th hole.

CONCLUSION:

Grandview is always worth the trip out to Kalkaska for me. It’s a challenging course that doesn’t always suit my game, but that doesn’t change the fact that I thoroughly enjoy playing it. If you go through and count the clubs I hit off the tee on par 4s and 5s, it adds up to:

7 Drivers

4 5 Woods

3 Long Irons

I only hit the driver on half of the holes where I could potentially use it. Sure, I’m longer than average, but this is from their back tees at 6600 yards. The next set of tees is 400 yards shorter and would put the driver in my hands even less.

I mention this to highlight a key point: just because you’re on a par 4 or 5, it doesn’t automatically mean driver is the correct club to hit. Golf is hard enough—making poor decisions only makes it more difficult.

Stay classy,
Your Hat Caddies