There is no shortage of play and stay options on a Northern Michigan golf vacation.

Michigan has been one of America's leading golf states since the game took root on this side of the Atlantic, and got its spot on the map when Alister MacKenzie built his acclaimed Crystal Downs and University of Michigan courses, while Donald Ross laid out the now famous Oakland Hills.

Today it is the public golf courses, not these famed private ones, which draw vacationing golfers and contemporary architects, the most prolific of whom is local Arthur Hills.

While the pros play events like the Buick Open in the south, near Detroit and Grand Rapids, it is the region natives call "up north," which is actually the upper half of Michigan's lower peninsula, that has become a rich playground for resort and daily-fee golfers.

Generally, the top golf courses are found at a whopping collection of 36, 54 and even 72-hole resorts, usually with very average lodging and very modest green fees. In other words, Northern Michigan has a large number of low-key golf resorts for high-intensity golfers, and we struggled to play our way through more notable golf courses than we have ever found in such a small area.

Northern Michigan is blessed with great golf topography, deep, lush forests, and amazingly, its position at the far western end of the eastern time zone means it stays light until almost 10 pm in summer. The "golf belt" here sits exactly midway between the Equator and the North Pole, with signs to mark the spot.

The quality facilities are spread throughout a sparsely populated, pristine region, but the best are grouped with short driving distances in between. They are very diverse in their style and setting, and most have multiple layouts. This makes it perfect for a golf trip, since the longest stretch here — coast to coast from Lake Michigan to Lake Huron — is only about 2 1/2 hours.

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