The first round of a golf trip is a crucial opportunity to form lasting impressions about a destination. It’s important to settle in, immersing yourself in the overall character of a resort while also allowing for ample relaxation after long travel days.

In my experience, playing the original course at a destination may be the best way to kick off an epic golf trip. At an OG, you’ll see a resort’s original character, similar to how it was experienced by its first visitors. Also, original courses are often located conveniently next to main lodging and dining options, a huge plus after hours of travel.

On our recent WiscoGolfAddict team trip to BOYNE Golf Resorts, this is exactly how we kicked off the festivities after seven hours of driving, with our first round on arrival afternoon coming at The Heather Course at The Highlands, the resort’s first splash into the golf business circa the mid-1960’s.

By that time, Boyne was famous for its towering ski hills (by Midwest standards, at least), sprawling out over a dramatic northern Michigan landscape. However, with skiing a definitively seasonal activity, it faced several slow months per year with little to offer in the way of warm weather attractions.

The booming game of golf made for the perfect warm weather addition for Boyne Resorts, and property next to the ski slopes at The Highlands was selected for its first golf course.

It was a fitting start to the trip, for as we were about to find out, BOYNE Golf does everything of the utmost quality across its portfolio to curate an exceptional guest experience. This foundation of excellence was laid in its inception, and no expense was spared as the foremost architect of the time, Robert Trent Jones, Sr., was enlisted for its first golf project.

BOYNE Golf would go on to accumulate ten golf courses in its portfolio, with an 11th in short course Doon Brae set to open in 2025. But its OG, The Heather, continues to shine as one of its finest golf properties.

The Heather feels like the resort’s home course, located just steps away from the main lodging at The Highlands resort. Its rustic, homey clubhouse invokes a sense of timeless charm as you’re about to embark on a loop.

While my experiences at Robert Trent Jones, Sr. layouts are relatively limited, I certainly had an idea of what to expect coming into this round. Annual trips to South Carolina often include golf at his Crooked Oaks design at Seabrook Island, and I have several rounds under my belt at the RTJ-designed original course at The House on The Rock.

Long, demanding holes with intimidating bunkering and challenging greens are hallmarks of RTJ’s design style, as are extensive uses of water hazards placed in strategic locations. At a Jones layout, you better be striking the ball well, and The Heather is no exception to that rule.

A collection of tight doglegs adds to the challenge considerably, with the corners often bordered closely by towering trees, encouraging conservative play to the outer sides of fairways. There were several tee shots that I hit relatively straight to the inner corners of doglegs, only to find myself blocked out by trees.

Ultimately, the stout difficulty of The Heather proved to be a fitting warm-up for a trip filled with challenging golf courses, and with lodging plans at The Highlands that night, it couldn’t have been a more convenient start to our trip.

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Course Overview

The Heather Course at The Highlands

Harbor Springs, MI

Architect: Robert Trent Jones, Sr. (1966)

Par 72; 7143/6647/6207/6013/5743/4845 Yards

Course/Slope Rating: 75.4/147, 72.7/143, 70.3/139, 69.4/135, 68.3/130, 64.0/120

Course Highlights

The front nine tours a natural area in the southern section of the property, gliding through marshland and dense forest. With the terrain relatively flat on this side, the main challenge is one of execution, as club selection will be straighforward but precise shots are essential.

There isn’t a single “easy” hole on site, but the first is as close to a gentle handshake as you’ll get on this course. Subtly bending to the right next to the resort entrance road, this mid-length par four encourages a soft fade off the tee before playing slightly downhill to a narrow green. While three bunkers circle the putting surface, the front trap is placed about 10 yards short of the green allowing for some run-up on approach.

Heroic carries can be found throughout the property, sometimes of the forced variety, but the par five fifth offers some options. Doglegging nearly 90 degrees to the left, a pond lines the entire inner corner, and anyone hoping to get home in two will need to take it on headfirst. As a shorter hitter that wasn’t even an option, so I appreciated a bit of room to the right for the layup and proceeded to make a routine par.

Speaking of forced carries, you’ll find a few of them on The Heather‘s par threes, including the sixth which features marsh from tee to green.

While we played the demanding purple tees that day (one tee up from the tips), we wisely chose to play all par threes one box up. This proved to be the correct decision to shorten the distance of forced carries, and at the sixth I was able to hit 8-iron safely onto the green.

The par five ninth snakes back to the clubhouse, first through the woods before heading dramatically uphill past a pond. After a duck hooked tee shot, the pond at the corner of the dogleg stifled me, positioned exactly where I would’ve preferred to lay up. With no good options to work with, I predictably stumbled to a double bogey to close out the front nine.

The back nine wanders through the forest and over subtle hills, with a lighter touch and some more scorable holes. With tight, tree-lined fairways throughout, you’ll need to bring your best play off the tee to take advantage.

A good example of this is the short par five 15th, a dogleg left that is reachable in two especially for those who hit right-to-left. Even though I was battling my usual fade, this was still a good scoring opportunity as conservative play can still yield a short wedge in for the third shot. Deep forest lines both sides, setting the stage for bold lines off the tee for longer hitters.

The 18th is an iconic closer, perhaps the best-known hole at The Heather, and one that’s no stranger to controversy.

The sweeping view from a hilltop tee location is certainly breathtaking, with the golf course, main lodge and ski slopes all in sight. But with a giant pond cutting in around 250 yards off the tee and also guarding the front side of the green, the sheer challenge of this long par four might overwhelm the senses.

Serving as a water source for the resort’s extensive snowmaking operation, this pond simply couldn’t be avoided in the routing, so a local rule was introduced allowing a free drop for tee shots entering the hazard.

We didn’t actually know about that at the time of playing, and it certainly altered our decision-making off the tee. We still played the hole well, carding three pars in our group, and I had my best shot of the day striping a fairway wood over the pond and onto the green in regulation.

Closing Thoughts

While this was a very challenging course, I still played one of my best rounds of the trip at The Heather, even after a long day of travel. This shows that the course will reward good shots, and is perhaps less penal than it appears.

With gorgeous views of the surrounding hills from a heavily wooded setting, the scenery of this property is on par with the rest of BOYNE Golf’s outstanding courses. We also enjoyed perfect course conditions, something we’d come to expect across all of the resort’s excellently-manicured layouts.

The Heather captures the essence of BOYNE Golf as its original course, one that set the stage for it to become one of the nation’s largest and most underrated golf destinations. It was the ideal opening round for our golf trip and is a must-play for anyone visiting the area.

The Highlands at Harbor Springs Resort Website

All original photography in this article by Paul Seifert, Troy Giljohann and Brian Murphy for WiscoGolfAddict.