Just a hundred yards or so from the scenic first tee of The Alpine Course at Boyne Mountain Resort in Northern Michigan, you’ll find the entrance to SkyBridge Michigan, an engineering marvel that extends 1,200 feet, connecting the peaks of McLouth and Disciples Ridge. The billboards promoting SkyBridge on the road leading into Boyne Mountain don’t prepare you for the scope of the project.
Opened just in time for fall foliage, SkyBridge – already known as Michigan’s “second bridge” (Mackinac being the first) – is billed as the world’s largest timber-towered suspension bridge. It sits near the peak of the Hemlock ski run, where Boyne founder Everett Kircher launched his business 74 years ago. There’s a symmetry there – guests can ride Boyne’s original ski lift to enjoy its newest attraction – but more importantly, it reflects the continuity and culture that has defined Boyne since its founding.
Kircher was a bold risk-taker who trusted his instincts, and as projects such as SkyBridge show, his children, who now run the company, share those traits.
There is a sense at Boyne not just of expansion, but of constant rejuvenation. I stayed at the slopeside Chalet Edelweiss, one of Boyne Mountain’s original lodges, and it has aged gracefully thanks to a 2021 overhaul. It’s spacious rooms are now outfitted with all of the modern amenities that guests could hope to find and more. (Really, how many U.S. resorts include a complementary Nordic sauna with a therapeutic hot-cold cycle?)
That theme extends across Boyne’s three Northern Michigan resorts. At The Highlands, the Donald Ross Memorial Course has been tweaked to make the architect’s replica holes more similar to his original work at Seminole, Aronimink and some of his other classics. The new rooms at The Highlands’ Main Lodge – hit by fire several years ago – are getting strong early reviews. Three courses – the Arthur Hills, The Monument and Crooked Tree Golf Club – will get new bunker sand in 2023, as well as several miles of new cart paths at each resort. The list goes on. One suspects that Everett Kircher would be pleased with how his children have carried out his vision.
That doesn’t just apply to the resorts’ physical assets. Kircher wanted his resorts to be gathering places where guests could enjoy their families and make new friends.
“We want people to feel the togetherness,” Kircher told SportsIllustrated in 1961. “We don’t want them to have to look elsewhere for anything.”
In the early days, Kircher encouraged Boyne’s hostesses to seat strangers together (though part of his strategy was to connect single men and women). These days the connections between guests and staff happen organically.
“It’s small-town community. The people who work there have lived there forever, or they grew up, moved away and came back and are really happy that they did,” said Debbie Waitkus, a Golfweek course rater who visited Boyne in August for the magazine’s Women’s Rater’s Cup. “They genuinely had that joyous nature. They helped me feel like I was valued and at home. So it felt special.”
As Kircher suggested years ago, he wanted to overwhelm his guests with entertainment options, so they never felt the need to go elsewhere. That’s never changed. Swimming pools, ziplining, mountain biking and horseback riding are just some of the activities available to families and couples taking a break from golf.
These days, however, the staff often encourages guests to explore surrounding towns such as Harbor Springs, Petoskey, Charlevoix and Walloon Lake. They reason that the more time guests spend exploring these quaint lakeside villages, the more reasons they’ll have to return.
Harbor Springs just oozes history and classic Americana with its elegantly maintained waterfront homes. The town’s gated Harbor Point peninsula is where the Midwest’s old money summers, but Boyne guests can still enjoy all that Harbor Springs has to offer.
“It’s adorable with lovely shops, some very good restaurants and just a cute town to wander through and shop,” said Golfweek rater Liana Chirichella, who also made her first Boyne visit in August.
Over a century ago, Ernest Hemingway summered at Walloon Lake and frequented the City Park Grill, then known as The Annex, in Petoskey. (Our bartender was especially animated in explaining this history.) Guests still covet Hemingway’s seat at the left end of the bar and often leave with T-shirts of “Papa” with the quote, “I drink to make other people more interesting.”
These days if Hemingway were alive, you might find him drinking at the Barrel Back Restaurant in Walloon Lake, just a few blocks from the Hemingway Memorial Marker, overlooking the town marina and Walloon Lake.
It’s little wonder the Boyne staff likes to share those moments with guests, many of whom probably are planning their next visits even before they checkout.
(For more information on BOYNE Golf, visit https://boynegolf.com or call 855-688-3286.)