Course Breakdown: Grandview holes 1-5
Grandview is a tree-lined, tight golf course that features some of the most fun shots to hit in Northern Michigan. This course holds a special place in my heart because the par 3 3rd (now the 12th) is where I had my first hole-in-one, and the owners were kind enough to make me my own plaque. Last year, you could play for less than $50 per person, and in today’s golf landscape, this is one of the best deals in Northern Michigan.
Much like Elmbrook, hitting driver on every par 4 or 5 isn’t the best option for a large number of holes here. The breakdown will be from the blue tees, which are the furthest back tees at 6,600 yards. The main defenses at Grandview are the par 3s and par 5s, which isn’t usually the case for most courses. Follow along to get a professional golf caddie's perspective on the best practices for playing your best the next time you find yourself at Grandview.
GV #1
Looking at Grandview's website, the scorecard they have posted shows the front and back nines reversed from the routing they had us follow last year. I’m going to write this based on the route guests played last year, with the first hole being the one right next to the entrance driveway.
This dogleg-right par 4 should be a gentle introduction to Grandview, but it certainly has areas you need to avoid. The hole doglegs around a bunker that is 210 yards to reach and 230 yards to carry. Anything right of the bunker that doesn’t carry 250 yards will end up in a low area with pine trees and long grass — definitely not where you want to be. Be cautious if you’re aiming left and can hit a drive over 250 yards, as the left trees will completely block your view of the green.
Off the tee, I usually ease my way onto the course with a 220-yard shot well left of the bunker. If all goes according to plan, I’ll have about 130 yards into the green.
The green has a slight false front, and the general slope is from left to right. A miss left has a chance of kicking your ball onto the green, so favor just left of center. If you miss right, you’ll be left with an uphill chip shot, but you’ll have a decent chance of getting up and down.
GV #2
I look forward to playing this hole every round, yet I feel disappointed after I walk off the green more often than not. From the tee to the green, this hole drops about 80 feet and has a very cool backdrop of an endless forest. At 510 yards, a good drive gives you a chance to reach the green in two, but this hole has trouble lurking all over the place.
The tee shot is blind, but the course has two different staircases that give you a view of the fairway to ensure groups are out of the way. The key here is that a miss right is better than left. The entire left side is tree-lined, with out-of-bounds (OB) coming into play shortly after. The fairway also slopes towards the trees/OB, so be extra careful.
Once you get inside 170 yards of the green, the fairway begins to tilt slightly to the left, with the terrain moving more dramatically from right to left. Just like the tee shot, your lay-up shot needs to be aimed at the right half of the fairway to protect against the trouble left.
What makes this hole particularly difficult is that the green tilts back to the right with a hard right-to-left slope. The best angle to attack this green is from the left side of the fairway, but that adds risk to your lay-up shot. I can’t tell you how many times I or my playing partners have laid up safely in the right rough, only to be left with an impossible approach. The ball may land on the green, but the combination of the right-to-left green slope and lack of spin from the rough leads to the ball releasing into the left bunkers.
As mentioned, the green slopes dramatically from right to left. The first couple of times I played here, I underestimated how much break there actually is. Now, I nearly double the amount of break I intend to play based on what I see. I’d suggest you do the same!
With a good drive on this hole, I prefer going for the green in two, with an emphasis on missing right instead of left. I’ve seen some crazy bounces off the right hillside, and I can live with trying to get up and down from around the green.
If I’m forced to lay up, I try to hit a shot that doesn’t fly too high so it can land and roll towards the left side of the fairway. I try to avoid the 110- to 70-yard range because of how steep the downhill is from this yardage. I’m fine with longer or shorter shots.
GV #3
The 3rd at Grandview is a pretty straightforward dogleg-left par 4. For most golfers, you should aim well right of the left fairway bunkers. These bunkers are 235 yards to carry and play slightly uphill. After the bunkers, there is a decent amount of rough, and you’ll have a downhill lie to an elevated green. This isn’t the easiest shot but might be worth the risk, with the front edge of the green only being 300 yards away.
It’s 250 yards to stay right of these bunkers and keep the ball in the fairway. I’ll either hit driver and try to carry the bunkers, or I’ll hit my 5-wood well right of them.
As long as your drive goes over 200 yards, you should have less than 140 yards left to the green.
The green complex has a tightly mowed low area in front of the green and a tough false front. The general slope is from front to back and right to left. Be careful not to miss long, as it falls off dramatically behind the green. A miss short/left is the best place to get up and down from.
GV #4
The shortest par 4 at Grandview also has the most trouble. Like the 2nd hole, this one has an elevated staircase to help you see what’s happening down the descending fairway. Even from the staircase, you can’t see the green because the fairway rises for the first 175 yards and then drops 23 feet over the remaining ~90 yards.
The key to this hole is to not miss left. Once you reach the downhill section, the fairway slopes from right to left, with the left side dropping into a heavily wooded area. It’s crazy how similar this 270-yard par 4 is to the last 270 yards of the par 5 2nd. The safe miss is right, but going right gives you a terrible angle to the steeply sloping right-to-left green. The saving grace here is that the green itself doesn’t slope as dramatically, and you can land the ball in the middle of the green, where it should stay.
I’ve changed my strategy on this hole many times over the years. Currently, my plan depends on my swing at the time. If I’m worried about missing left, I won’t hit a shot over 200 yards. The further you hit the ball, the steeper the left side feeds into the trees. If I know I’m going to hit a shot with a left-to-right flight, I’ll hit my 230-yard club and hope to land on the downslope for a decent kick toward the green.
On your approach, aim just right of center and make sure you don’t miss long. There are only a few feet beyond the green before the terrain drops off into the abyss.
GV #5
The par 3 5th is the most memorable hole at Grandview and one of the prettiest holes in Northern Michigan. The green sits about 90 feet below the tee boxes, offering a view of deep forest as far as the eye can see. As beautiful as this hole is, it’s really, really difficult, in my opinion.
You’d think that a hole playing downhill would be easier, but from the blue tees, it measures around 220 yards. It does play about 20 yards downhill, but with the ball being in the air for so long, you must hit a very straight shot. Otherwise, it has more time to move left or right before it hits the ground. I don’t have the actual data, but I feel like this is my worst scoring hole on the entire course.
The green runs from the front left corner toward the back right corner. With this in mind, you don’t want to miss short left, as a shot from here will roll out much further than you want. Once you reach the green, trees come into play pretty quickly on the right. In short, your misses are either long left or short right.
