{"id":2625,"date":"2019-01-14T22:14:19","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T22:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/?p=2625"},"modified":"2019-01-19T14:16:39","modified_gmt":"2019-01-19T14:16:39","slug":"marketing-michigan-golf-in-the-postcard-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/golf\/2625\/marketing-michigan-golf-in-the-postcard-era","title":{"rendered":"Marketing Michigan golf in the postcard era"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Indian<\/a>

Indian Trails GC, circa 1926<\/p><\/div>\n

Last spring, I attended an informative presentation on Grand Rapids history at the main downtown library. It was about how Grand Rapids and the region were marketed and publicized throughout the Midwest and the country as a travel destination in the early half of the last century. In fact, Grand Rapids was positioned as the \u201cgateway\u201d city to northern Michigan and its rich assets of outdoor attractions. Expertly given by Christine Byron, a retired GR Librarian and a former high school classmate of mine, the presentation also included many golf references which made my ears perk up. Christine and her husband Tom Wilson are well-known collectors of vintage postcards and as such she highlighted her talk with a number of postcards and other images from the era.<\/p>\n

\"Manistee,<\/a>

Manistee, circa 1920<\/p><\/div>\n

A travel booklet, credited to the Manistee Board of Commerce circa 1920, delightfully depicted three golfers extolling \u201cManistee in the Summer Time.\u201d Although the woman golfer has a backswing longer than John Daley in his prime, I love how she\u2019s fully coiled (and coiffed!) behind the ball. Also noted in the background, is the clubhouse of Manistee Golf and Country Club. It opened in 1901.<\/p>\n

What intrigued me most was how golf was an important part of the area\u2019s tourism message. One brochure from 1926 listed a long roster of public and private golf courses \u201cavailable to all tourists.\u201d The list went from St. Joseph in the south to Mackinac Island in the north. On the public or “open to all\u201d side, 45 courses were cited with number of holes and yardage. The most\u00a0 exotic sounding course was the Coryell Islands Golf Course which I had to use Google maps to locate. Its locale is northwest of Mackinac Island in Lake Huron and not far from the town of Cedarville in the U.P. Alas, it\u2019s no longer in existence.<\/p>\n

Six private clubs were also mentioned\u2014Cascade Hills CC, Highlands GC, and Kent CC in Grand Rapids as well as Muskegon CC, Battle Creek CC and Kalamazoo CC. Above this listing, this wording was included: \u201cVisitors are allowed to play by proper introduction or membership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another brochure, from 1948, encouraged visitors to \u201cPlay Golf\u201d at Highlands GC in Grand Rapids. Greens fees were $1.00 per round and $1.50 all day for weekdays and a half buck more for weekends. (Darn, no senior rates!)\u00a0At today\u2019s equivalent dollar values, those fees are $10.54 weekdays and $15.80 weekends.<\/p>\n

\"Play<\/a>

Play Golf, circa 1948<\/p><\/div>\n

Other courses seen and mentioned in the presentation were Indian Trails GC in Grand Rapids, White Lake GC in Whitehall, Northport Point GC in Northport, and Petoskey and Bay View CC in Petoskey.<\/p>\n

All in all, the presentation was an enjoyable trip back in time. As much as one might like to think the Pure Michigan <\/i>campaign initiated efforts to entice out-of-state golfers and travelers to visit Michigan, vintage postcards and historical photos prove the impetus started a long, long time ago.<\/p>\n

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Images courtesy of Christine Byron and the City of Grand Rapids Archives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last spring, I attended an informative presentation on Grand Rapids history at the main downtown library. It was about how… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":2626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,18,17],"tags":[1013196,2862,2898,822260,1013191,488417,976607,1013194,498928],"class_list":["post-2625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-lifestyle","category-courses-and-travel","tag-manistee-golf-amp-country-club","tag-michigan-golf","tag-pure-michigan","tag-terry-moore-amp-golf","tag-grand-rapids-history","tag-golf-history","tag-postcards","tag-golf-marketing-of-1920","tag-mackinac-island"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2019\/01\/unnamed-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2625"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2636,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2625\/revisions\/2636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/teemoore\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}