Welcome to the July 2026
Golf Up North Newsletter
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No More Repeat!
The weather is finally cooperating, well, sort of. I have been golfing two or three times a week. Personally, I would prefer ninety degree weather, but I’ll take the seventies if I can wear a light jacket and finally get out on the course.
I’ve played a few rounds at Interlochen Golf Course, but most of my golf has been at Elmbrook Golf Course in Traverse City. We have a membership there because that’s where Guy’s league plays.
I can honestly say I’m improving. The last few times I’ve golfed with a friend, or even by myself, I’ve stayed under one hundred. I even carded a 91.
That round was one of those days where everything just clicked.
I’ve always played Callaway golf balls because my clubs are Callaway. I know that makes absolutely no sense, but golfers aren’t always known for logical thinking.
That day I found a Srixon Soft Feel in the rough and figured, what the heck, I’ll give it a try.
Oh my gosh.
I was hitting the ball better than I had all season. I even made three pars in a row. Three! I also hit drives of 165 and 172 yards that set me up perfectly for those pars. I finished with a 49 on the front and a 42 on the back.
Before I left the course I stopped in the clubhouse and bought some Srixons. They happened to be running a buy two dozen, get one dozen free special, which felt like another sign. So far I’ve been really happy with them.
Although I still keep a dozen Callaways in my bag, just in case.
I ran into Guy on the next tee after my third straight par and naturally had to tell him all about it.
That was the last par I made that day.
Apparently golf doesn’t appreciate bragging.
Feeling pretty good about myself, I couldn’t wait to show Guy how much I’d improved.
Golf had other plans.
The next two rounds I played with him were a 111 and a 110.
Nothing brings your golf ego back to earth faster than thinking you’ve finally figured this game out.
Still, I’m making progress. If I keep heading in this direction, maybe I’ll break 90 before the season ends and finally give Guy something to worry about.
Elmbrook Golf Course
Elmbrook holds a special place in Traverse City golf history. It was the first public eighteen hole golf course in the area. Vern Nelson is credited with designing the golf course and was one of the founders in 1964. According to the plaque at hole 1 tee box, six local men including Vern helped make it happen before it officially opened in 1966.
The course sits on the hills south of Traverse City and offers some beautiful views of both East and West Grand Traverse Bay. There are plenty of rolling hills, valleys, and enough elevation changes to remind your legs you’ve been golfing.
There are four sets of tees, Black at 6,037 yards, Blue at 5,668 yards, White and Red at 4,926 yards, and Gold at 2,920 yards.
I play the White and Red tees.
Even when I was regularly shooting over one hundred, I figured that was where I belonged. If I played the Gold tees I’d probably break ninety.
If I am hitting in the 90’s then I should move to the Blues where Guy plays, start shooting over one hundred again, move back up, and spend the rest of my golfing life stuck in a never ending cycle.
It seemed much easier to stay where I was taught and simply become a better golfer.So far, that plan is actually working.
The course has changed quite a bit since I took most of the photos on our website. I golfed this past Sunday and was able to take our normal hole by hole photo series and have added them to Elmbrook Golf Course’s Photo Page.
Father’s Day Golf
Guy and his brothers used to take their dad to Elmbrook every Father’s Day. Since all of my kids were either out of town or spending the day with their own families, we decided to keep the tradition going ourselves.
I’m glad we did.
Guy was on fire, shooting a 40 on the front and a 43 on the back. Position night for league was coming up, so we decided to squeeze in another practice round a couple of days later.
The Practice Round
Unfortunately, that round didn’t go nearly as well.
We only had time to play nine holes because leagues were heading off on the back. The twosome in front of us was a little slow, but nothing unreasonable. They also had another group ahead of them, so everyone was moving about as fast as they could.
By the third hole they started hitting two and sometimes three balls each while waiting for the group ahead to clear.
That changed everything.
The twosome behind us caught up and, from where they stood, it probably looked like we were the slow group.
Somewhere behind me was a guy whose self-esteem seemed directly tied to how close he could land a golf ball to me. Sure enough, by the fourth hole he started hitting up on me.
Not Guy.
Just me.
By the sixth hole I was getting pretty frustrated. The only thing that kept me from picking up one of his golf balls and personally delivering it back to him was the fact that this is my home course, and I’d like to keep playing there.
Instead I turned around, gave him my best mom stance, complete with the look that every kid recognizes immediately, and yelled, “What the hell?”
I doubt he could actually see the glare from that far away, but it made me feel better.
Whatever worked, worked. I never had another ball land near me and they made sure to stay hidden. Pretty sure I scared the heck out of him. LOL
The problem was, by then the damage was done.
Every time I heard a club strike a ball I’d stop and look around. My brain completely left golf mode and switched into survival mode.
Then on the eighth hole another golfer from a different fairway drove over to our fairway. He came over to get his ball. No big deal.
Except he had hit 2 balls and both ended up in our fairway, one close to my ball. He parked his cart about fifteen feet away from my ball and sat there watching me.
I finally told him to go ahead.
He said, “No.”
Well…now what?
I know this is a me problem, but there was no way I was hitting a decent shot with someone sitting there watching me. I picked up my ball and moved on.
By the ninth hole, which is a par three that looks much easier than it plays, I managed to finish with a bogey.
Given how the round had gone, I considered that a victory.
In my perfect golfing world, people stay back while someone is teeing off, don’t park next to someone getting ready to hit, and if you’re driving up to the tee box…
Please turn down the radio.
My golf swing has enough distractions, and my brain is already off chasing squirrels before I even start my backswing.
Did You Know?
The small block of steel that connects the clubhead to the shaft is called the hosel.
Think of it as the socket where the shaft fits into the clubhead.
If you’re curious about the rest of the club, check out our Guide to the Parts of a Golf Club.
Golfing with Up Mid Kid at
Redwood Golf Course, Roscommon Clubhouse
I mentioned last month that I was meeting my Up Mid Kid on June 13 for a round somewhere between our homes.
Since Guy was on his golf trip and nobody else was available, it ended up being just the two of us.
We settled on Redwood Golf Course in Roscommon. It was about an hour and a half for me and a little over an hour for him.
I’m glad we picked it, it was a fun course and day.
One thing I really enjoy about golfing with Alex is that he’s always willing to drive a little farther to try somewhere new. That’s how we’ve found courses like Caberfae Peaks in Cadillac and Pine View Highlands in Houghton Lake and a few others that we really liked. Redwood can now be added to the list of courses we want to golf again.
The only excitement before the round came when the course address worked perfectly in my Google Maps but not his.
I’m still blaming user error.
He eventually made it with time to spare, although for the first time ever I arrived first.
At first glance the course looked pretty forgiving with wide fairways and a park-like layout.
Looks can be deceiving.
The greens all seemed to have their own personalities. Some were fast, some were slow, some were small, and the cool misty morning made reading them even more interesting.
Redwood Golf Course, Roscommon Hole 8
Alex said it best. The course looked easy until you started playing it. The greens were not always as they appeared.
This was only his second round of the year. The first was our Mother’s Day round and came while he was still recovering from surgery. This one came after a log hit him in the knee while cutting wood.
You could tell he was protecting it, it did have some nasty bruising.
I finished with a respectable 100, although I left a few shots out there. We also managed to lose several golf balls in some very open fairways. We’d both watch them land, drive right to the spot, and somehow, they had vanished.
Golf has its mysteries.
The best part of the day wasn’t my score.
Alex told me how much he enjoyed spending the morning with just the two of us. He realized we didn’t need a bigger group to have fun.
That might have been the nicest compliment I’ve ever received on a golf course.
👉 See all the pictures from our round at Redwood Golf Course.
Quote of the Month
This quote perfectly explains what happened when I started thinking I had golf figured out.
My ego showed up, my nerves followed, and suddenly those scores jumped back over one hundred.
Bruce Crampton is an Australian professional Golfer. He won the Vardon Trophy for the player with the lowest stroke average on the PGA Tour in 1973 and 1975. He had 14 career wins on the Tour between 1961 and 1975 and was runner up in four major champions. One Masters, one U.S. Open, and two PGA Championships and lost all of them to Jack Nicklaus.
Latest Blog
This month I’m sharing two blogs.
The first is the one I promised last month about fairway woods.
For whatever reason, fairway woods have always been the easiest clubs for me to hit. I was told that when I first learned the game, and I’ve believed it ever since. Maybe golf really is that mental.
Next month, we tackle Hybrids, your secret weapon to replace those tough long irons.
The other blog I want to share is about a style of golf I recently discovered but have yet to play. It was invented in 1983 in Makubetsu, Hokkaido, Japan and is called Park Golf.
There are over 1,300 courses in Japan and was brought over to the U.S. by professional wrestler Dick “The Destroyer” Beyer in 2013. He opened the first American Park course in Akron, New York.
Between the International Park Golf Association of America and the North American Park Golf Association there are around 70 courses in the United States. It is very intriguing game, sort of a cross between putt putt and a full size course.
If you would like to learn more about this unique version of golf, click below.
The weather is turning
It is getting warmer
Still waiting for those hot summer days of golf
May you hit them long, straight and findable.
See you on the course!
Click here to see all the pictures we have taken of courses over the years.
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