Bay Meadows Family Golf Course Photos
Bay Meadows Family Golf Course in Traverse City really does offer a little bit of everything for golfers.
The first thing that always gets my attention is the driving range. It’s one of the largest I’ve seen. Add in golf simulators, a very well stocked pro shop, practice areas, and the golf course itself, and there is a lot happening here.
The course is especially well suited for families and newer golfers.
The front nine consists entirely of par 3 holes, while the back nine is the executive course with longer holes. That gives golfers the option of playing a shorter round or working their way into something a little more challenging.
The Learning Center
Bay Meadows also puts a lot of emphasis on learning the game.
The Learning Center provides indoor and outdoor practice opportunities, PGA instruction, Trackman technology, and other teaching tools for both kids and adults. It’s also home to the Traverse City Junior Golf Association, and local high school golf teams use the facility for practice.
Knowing all of that, we decided Bay Meadows would be the perfect place to take the grandkids golfing while they were visiting this summer.
So Grandma, their dad Patrick, 9-year-old Anna, and 7-year-old Brayden headed out for a day of golf.
Grandpa Guy had to work. Somebody apparently has to support our golf habit.😊
We played all 18 holes, and the staff couldn’t have been nicer to us.
The front nine was perfect for the kids. Once we moved to the longer back nine, we made our own little adjustments. Instead of always having Anna and Brayden tee off from the regular tee boxes, we’d move them farther up the fairway and let them start closer to the green.
Nobody was keeping score for the USGA. The goal was to play golf, keep moving, and have fun. And that’s exactly what we did.
For most of the round, the other golfers we encountered were great. We saw quite a few young golfers on the course, including some who appeared to have been dropped off with their clubs to play without an adult. Most were polite, respectful, and seemed happy to be out golfing.
Unfortunately, toward the end of our round, we encountered a group of teenage boys who thought it was funny to loudly make fun of a 7-year-old learning to golf.
That wasn’t so great.
It certainly wasn’t Bay Meadows’ fault, and I don’t want the actions of a few kids to take away from all the other young golfers we saw behaving exactly as they should.
But if you’re bringing very young children here, it is something worth being aware of. A family friendly course naturally attracts young golfers at many different ages and skill levels, sometimes without adults accompanying them.
Thankfully, that was one small part of an otherwise really good day.
Anna and Brayden had fun, Dad had fun, and Grandma had fun.
And the kids got another 18 holes under their belts and both Anna and Brayden got a few pars on the front 9!
That’s a win in my book.
Golf can be intimidating when you’re learning, especially for kids. Courses like Bay Meadows give families a place where we can introduce them to the game, move them forward when a hole is too long, celebrate the good shots, laugh about some of the other ones, and just let them play.
That’s how you grow the game.
We’ll be sharing more about our round with Anna and Brayden, including some of the fun and challenges of taking young golfers out for 18 holes, in an upcoming Golf Up North Newsletter.
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And if you happen to be playing behind a 7-year-old someday, remember that you were a beginner once too.
Give the kid a chance.
You might just be looking at your future golf buddy. ⛳
Bay Meadows Family Golf Course – Traverse City, Michigan
In all the excitement of the day I forgot to take a picture of hole 7 on the Par 3 course. Will get it next time.
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