Despite Being Ranked Top 10 Nationally, This Golf Course Near Traverse City is So Remote, Few Ever Play It

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Downs_Country_Club,_Michigan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Downs_Country_Club,_Michigan

Despite being consistently ranked among the top courses in the United States, the only tournament of note it has hosted has been the 1991 U.S. Senior Amateur, due to its location far from population centers and the corresponding lack of sufficient facilities (lodging, transportation, infrastructure) needed to accommodate the crowds attracted by major tournament events.

C'mon now. This is only one county away from Traverse City and very near Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, one of the top tourist spots along Lake Michigan. Really, no one is seeking out this club?

The course sits in between Lake Michigan and nearby Crystal Lake, nearly touching the shores of both bodies of water, a pretty spectacular piece of property, no doubt.

Membership at the club? Well, it sounds exclusive. The website describes the process of joining:

To apply for membership at Crystal Downs, candidates must be proposed by a current member. That member may only propose a new member once every five years, and is the conduit of information to and from the candidate. The candidate needs to be well known and supported by a number of current members before being considered for membership.

Translation: neither you nor I are becoming members any time this century. So perhaps this golf course's obscurity is just the way they want it.

Take a flyover of the course from this video:

Looking for some accessible golfing communities, seek these locations out:

Something tells us members at Crystal Downs may be familiar with these locations: