Tim Gavrich Golf Advisor Article
Golf Advisor senior writer Tim Gavrich recently spent some time in southwestern Michigan. Often overlooked in favor of points north – Traverse City, Harbor Springs, Boyne, Mackinac Island and others – the southwestern part of the state offers its own slate of interesting golf destinations. This is the second in a three-part exploration of this region.
AUGUSTA, Mich. – Where might you expect to meet the owner of an expansive golf resort where you were staying?
A boardroom or executive offices? The bar of the nicest restaurant, perhaps?
How about beside the 11th tee of one of the resort’s six golf courses, wearing overalls and a Michigan State Spartans-logoed green polo shirt, holding a shovel, smoothing freshly-laid cart path asphalt?
That’s what Gull Lake View Golf Club and Resort owner Charlie Scott was up to when we met. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Scott,” I said.
“Call me Charlie,” he responded. “Mr. Scott is buried at Fort Custer.”
That told me all I needed to know about the character of Gull Lake View Resort. The Scotts – Charlie, his son John and many longtime employees who comprise a professional extended family – like to do things themselves.
The resort’s homegrown ingenuity doesn’t stop there. Charlie designed three of Gull Lake View’s six golf courses, taking after his aforementioned father Darl, who laid out the resort’s original West course in 1966
And while the self-starter attitude is admirable, so too is the ability to take a step back and seek expertise from outside.
That was the genesis of Gull Lake View’s sixth and far-and-away best course, Stoatin Brae.
While Gull Lake’s existing golf product – the original West (Darl Scott) and East (Charlie) courses at Gull Lake View; the Stonehedge South and North courses (both Charlie) three miles east; the William Mitchell-designed Bedford Valley, a former private club acquired by the resort in 1988 – was solid, their collective value-golfer orientation made the resort a strong one on a local and regional scale.
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