lgherweyer

I don't know what happened to the Tribute. I played it back in 2013, and since then have told all of my friends that it ranks among the best courses in Michigan. I was really looking forward to playing it on this latest golf trip we took. We had not been back to the Gaylord area for a while because our group had played there so often that we needed to spend some time in other areas of the state. Anyway, we thought we had a great golf trip planned-- Black Lake on Friday, Michawaye Pines and the Tribute on Saturday, the Tradition and the Fazio on Sunday, and Gaylord Country Club on Monday. I anticipated that the Tribute would be the highlight of the trip, and we were all pretty focused on it. What a disappointment. The course is a wreck, and you can tell that Otsego Club does not really care about golf or golfers anymore. I think they want to focus on skiing in the winter and being a venue for weddings and conventions in the Summer, and the Club only (and barely) tolerates golfers. They moved the pro shop from the beautiful facility they had a few years back to stinkhole. The guy in the pro-shop explained that it was closer to the cart barn so it saved them (i,e, the club) time and effort. He waited until we paid ($65 for twilight) and then gave us $20 coupons (for our next visit) because the course "has suffered from some dry spots." Good grief, when we played it, it was absolutely terrible. I would not have payed $20 to play it, let alone $65 (or $89 prior to twilight kicking in). There is no way we will ever use the $20 coupons. Everyone there was rude, and it was clear that they did not know what was going on.

By the way, the other courses we played were all in great shape, and each of them (except, maybe Black Lake) experienced the same weather as the Tribute. So, how could it be that only the Tribute could be in such rough shape? My guess is that Otsego Club has decided that maintaining golf courses is too expensive, so they just stopped doing it. They're glad to take your money, but I suspect that will soon dry up as more golfers experience their new business model. I feel like I need to seek out everyone I told that the Tribute was a great course and apologize to them