Gaylord Golf Mecca offers America’s favorite summer golf playground

By Greg Johnson

It’s called the Gaylord Golf Mecca for a reason. The area promises a memorable pilgrimage for those who love golf, but also for anyone who enjoys being outdoors on perfect, extra-long summer days.

For 39 years the unrivaled top golf courses in Gaylord, Michigan and the surrounding area have marketed together as the Mecca and built a reputation as the ultimate summer golf destination. The Mecca answers the call with an elite combination of quantity and quality golf in the heart of northern Michigan’s beautiful land of lakes and trees.

“I’ve lived and worked in other parts of the state and country, but in the summer, this is Michigan’s best place for golf,” says Corey Crowell, the current Mecca chairman and the general manager at Indian River Golf Club, a classic and historic member of the Mecca.

There are courses featuring classical to modern design for all levels of golfers throughout the Mecca. Garland Lodge and Golf Resort, Treetops Resort, Otsego Resort, Lakes of the North, Michaywe’ Pines Course, Black Lake Golf Club, Gaylord Golf Club, Black Bear Golf Course, and of course, Indian River Golf Club, together provide 16 member courses. It takes more than one trip to play them all, but each visit can be customized with the cozy lodging, fabulous dining experiences and perhaps a hike, boat ride or great spot to watch a beautiful sunset at the right price point.

The Mecca has 21 lodging partners, who together count over 1,300 rooms. Visitors can have anything they want or desire, from luxurious to rustic, from traditional to modern, from a campfire to a fireplace that starts with the flip of a switch. The resorts offer wonderfully appointed options. Prefer hotel experiences? The major brands are here and more. Want something completely different? Mecca partners will find you a condo, vacation home or cabin.

As for dining, the area is not only known for excellent options at golf facilities, but features dozens of restaurants with something for every palette. Be sure to explore the extra-large selection of authentic downtown destinations.

Don’t eat too much, because in the Mecca, you’ll also find extra-long days for playing golf or enjoying nature in the area until almost 10 p.m. during the peak of summer. Gaylord is located in the heart of Northern Michigan and in the Eastern Time zone where Daylight Savings makes you wait just a little longer for a beautiful sunset over a grand selection of lakes, ponds and courses.

Gaylord, known fondly as the Alpine Village, started its genesis as a magnificent resort golf destination in 1987 when Harry Melling, an auto industry supplier and NASCAR team owner, felt the need to add a summer something to his ski resort on the edge of town. That led to the unveiling of the Masterpiece, the last major golf course design by the legendary architect, Robert Trent Jones Sr.

This award-winning course attracted golfers to what Jones and Melling decided to name Treetops Resort and quickly put Gaylord in the national golf conversation as the summer must-stop in the Midwest. That same year, the Gaylord Golf Mecca cooperative marketing group was formed, combining the shiny new resort with a surprising collection of golf that had been created over the previous decades.

Gaylord Golf Club, with roots dating to 1924 but developed on its current site in 1975, was a shining example of established golf in the region. The ever-developing Garland Lodge & Golf Resort had been welcoming golfers in some fashion since 1951 and the Classic course at Otsego Resort first opened in 1957.

After opening in 1972, Michaywe’ Pines Course started building a reputation as a championship venue. In 1991 and 1996, they proudly hosted the Michigan Amateur Championship.

Lakes of The North’s first nine holes opened in the early 1960s and another nine were added in the early 1980s.

The Gaylord Golf Mecca expanded even more, as the area was a central part of the golf course building boom of the 1990s.

Treetops Resort added the only Tom Fazio-designed course in Michigan, Premier. Signature, Tradition and star-powered Threetops of Par 3 Shootout fame (pictured at top) were fashioned by Treetops’ popular golf pro, renowned teacher and course designer, Rick Smith.

Black Lake Golf Club in Onaway made an award-winning splash with its Rees Jones-designed course opening in 2000. Following soon after, Otsego Resort added its must-play venue, The Tribute, in 2001.

Building was a theme for a while at Garland, where then owner/designer Ron Otto by 1995 had turned a one-course stop into a four-course full-service golf resort with the Monarch, Reflections, Swampfire and Fountains courses. Growth continued in 2025 with the opening of their par 3 short course, The Sawyer.

Black Bear Golf Course, a public course renewed and dramatically improved under new local ownership, is the latest to the group, having joined the Mecca in 2024.

And that brings us back to Indian River Golf Club, 25 miles north of Gaylord. It’s over 100 years old and semi-private but always welcoming to destination golfers. The original nine holes were first built in the 1920s by Wilfrid Reid, a legendary member of the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame.

Today, the Gaylord Golf Mecca is 16 courses strong in its membership with three multiple-course resorts and nine properties total, as well as 21 lodging partners. This year some 300,000 rounds will be played on the collection of courses, and there is room for more.

“I never envisioned the growth we have today,” said Paul Beachnau, executive director of the Mecca group since its inception. “I imagined us to be reasonably successful in developing a cool niche of the golf market, but what it has led to in terms of the number of golf courses here in Gaylord and in Northern Michigan, the quality and the number of world class designers that have found us, that is just amazing.”

Crowell worked previously at other Mecca partners, and in Florida and Chicago before being hired at Indian River. He said being part of the Mecca was something he immediately recommended to the club.

“It only makes sense,” he said. “The Gaylord area has this amazing group of golf courses and is a wonderful place for golf, so we needed to get the word out about us, and there’s still a need to let people know about us. Being part of a bigger group helps Indian River with a limited marketing budget be a part of a much larger marketing budget. It’s really a no-brainer.”

Crowell says the willingness to work together, and the commitment by the member golf courses, resorts and lodging partners to be America’s favorite summer golf destination, is impressive.

“I like that we share ideas, package together, all want to be successful and see the best way to do that is to keep working together,” he said.

Sunrise to sunset, golfers can experience the best vacation, buddy trip, family reunion, class reunion or any other type of gathering in the Gaylord Golf Mecca.