Grand Traverse Resort & Spa - The Spruce Run Course

well laid out, fun course. Well maintained. Starter was excellent, not so much for the staff in the clubhouse or the cart guys. Greens were zip fast. Would definitely play again.

This course is very nice. 12 of 18 holes can almost hold up to the bear. There is gasoline carts out there, which I think is out of time. Considering the very acceptable green fee, this is a course totally on level with the bear.

Our group of 7 showed up about 45 minutes before our tee times and everyone was exceptionally nice before we started our round. The starter asked if we had ever played there, which we hadn't, and explained the course very well and made us even more excited. He mentioned that we had a group of 2 in front of us and a mentioned that after hole 1 we would have a wide open course in front of us. We had a great first 8 holes, but as we came up on the tee box of hole 9 the ranger came up and so we started some small talk as we were putting on sun screen. He seemed nice at first but soon he changed his attitude and said that we need to start playing up to the group in front of us. I explained that there was a 2 some in front of us but he didn't care and said we needed to close the gap to keep the pace of play. And then he drove away really loudly around us and went towards the front of the tee box as soon as one of the guys in our group was in his back swing. Extremely unnecessary. Our pace of play was on track for 9 holes in 2 hours. We were annoyed but didn't think much of it. We started to play faster and we were halfway through hole 15 and he came up us us again. I asked how he was doing and he stated that himself and everyone behind us on the golf course would be doing a lot better if we just picked up the pace of play. At this point we were really confused and I said that no one was even on the tee box behind us. Again he just said we needed to hurry up. We started to get stressed and rushed for the last 4 holes of the course and finished the round in less then 4 hours. We waited for the group behind us which was our friends. We told them about the ranger and they said he told them to hurry up as well and there was NO ONE EVEN BEHIND THEM waiting for them at all. This was one of the rudest rangers I have ever met. We are not the best players but we always keep up our pace of play and respect every course we play and we do not really plan on coming back to a course with a ranger this uptight when we finished our round in under 4 hours.

The Wolverine and The Bear are worth playing. Spruce Run is not. The layout is not player friendly with many tight tee shots and forced layups, as well as instances where a player is blocked out to a green from the fairway. Some of the greens are too severely sloped for the modern game, making many pin positions unusable. This course is soft/soggy and plays very, very long. The entire course needs attention to be firmer and take care of the sand traps, which are inconsistent, and the greens, which have a serious ant problem with ant hills budding up even in the late mornings. This course could stand to lose at least 200 trees, too. Just not a fun experience.

They have three courses at GT resort. I went in to the clubhouse which is very nice and well stocked with great apparel. I told the guy my time and course and he directed me to the appropriate course. I went to the starter hut and the guy asked me if I checked in. I said yes and he asked me for my receipt. I showed him my golfnow receipt and he said, “that doesnt tell me if you paid, you need to check in. I said yes it does, and I thought I did check in. I also told him that He did not have to take a tone with me as he acted like I was trying to sneak on or something. Im almost. Senior citizen and he talked to me like I was a kid. After I got through all that bs, I teed off and all was good.
The course is wide open but if you hit out of the fairway, they are lined with weeds that are thick and pickery and thorny. You can’t look for an errant ball. The fairways were awesome bentgrass. Greens were nice. It is an up north course but you do hear and see traffic, lots of maintenance going on, people coming and going and out if the resort so not exactly a peaceful setting like most up north courses.
I did speak to a 80 year old gentleman cutting grass and he was very nice.
I will be back and make sure I “check in” formally so I don’t get chastised by the spruce run starter.

Good course to play. Course conditions were good. For the price, I was hoping for a little more. Greens rolled true, not as fast as I would have liked them. Spruce Run is only 6204 from the tips, which is what we played. Need to be accurate off the tee, as many fairways are narrow. It is the old course of the three at the resort and not the top one. Fun course to play. Recommend it, but wouldn't probably need to go back for that price point.

NOT an exceptionally long course but challunging to the intermediate player like myself. Staff and crew friendly and helpful really enjoyed my day of golf thank you for the memory.

The course was nice with good greens and well taken care of fairways. The layout is good with some challenging holes on the front 9. The only areas that could be improved are signage and food options. You don't go by the clubhouse once you're on the course, so you have to depend on the food/drink cart to come to you, but it's came around 3-4 times during the round. The signage can be confusing in a couple of spots which led to us and the other guys we were paired with going the wrong way on a couple of holes. Anyway, you won't be disappointed and it was a good day on the course.

The course and staff were excellent. I wish the club house was available to grab a drink and hotdog after the turn. The course also needs restrooms on the course.

Very nice course! Hold 2,3,4 are very tough. Great layout