White Pine National

Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula has long been one of the Midwest's most fertile grounds for golf, where the sandy, glacially worked soil drains beautifully and the tree lines are thick with the white pine and hardwood that give this region its identity. Spruce sits in Alcona County, a quiet stretch of the Lake Huron shoreline that doesn't attract the same crowds as Traverse City or Petoskey but offers that same fundamental appeal: cool summers, clean air, and land that seems made for the game.

The name White Pine National suggests a course that leans into its surroundings, and in this part of Michigan that typically means tight, wooded corridors, firm fairways, and holes where trees are a genuine factor rather than decoration. A par-72 layout in this terrain tends to reward patience and local knowledge over raw power.

This is a corner of Michigan where golf remains an honest, unhurried pleasure rather than a destination spectacle — the kind of place you hear about from someone who grew up nearby and has been playing it quietly for years.