Yesterday we enjoyed great weather for playing golf, and for the Father’s Day Golf Tournament. Below are the top 3 finishers for the golf tournament:

• 1st: Paulie and Paul Jr Mihelich — 41
• 2nd: Bill Sr and Bill Luokanen — 43
• 3rd: Jack and Gary Kilpela — 46

The prizes that the teams won:

• 1st place: 1 night stay in 1-bedroom cabin*, with $50 food voucher (for each person on the team)
• 2nd place: $50 food voucher (for each person on the team)
• 3rd place: $25 food voucher (for each person on the team)

More info about the tournament and prizes can be found here.

This past Tuesday (June 11th) and Wednesday (June 12th), the Women’s and the Men’s Golf League at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge kicked off the 2019 summer season on the golf course.

The two days entailed a practice round for each league, and enabled us to find out who will be playing in the leagues, and to be able to work on the schedule for the matches over the next 9-10 weeks.

If you signed up this past week during league practice round, you will be on the list. If you still want to play in the league, you can sign up by sending an email to golf@keweenawresort.com, calling the Lodge at 906-289-4403, or stopping by and signing up.  You will need to do so before next Tuesday accordingly.

KML Men’s Golf League | KML Women’s Golf League

Some of you have noticed that we have put up a yellow fence next to the putting green. 

To help the grass grow, we ask that if you are to using the restroom or walking into the Lodge, you keep the golf carts in the dirt area close to the cart path. By keeping off the grass, you are helping make the golf course and the overall facilities at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge a much more inviting place for everyone to enjoy.

Future Plans: We have plans to make the dirt area a place where people can hang out and sit outside (e.g. a Beer Garden). However, before we do that, we need to have the grass grow where it is currently growing, and to work on the drainage.  That way we can put landscaping in the location where the dirt is currently located.  This will entail putting in gutters and down spouts on the Lodge so the water coming off the Lodge roof is redirected away from Ocha Potter’s Pond (which appears where the dirt is currently located after a heavy rain).

The days of summer are starting to begin at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge. The sun is coming up early in the morning and staying out late in the evening, the grass is growing on the golf course, and greens are getting mowed (new greens mower). As such, the 2019 summer season golf leagues weekly play will be begin next week.

The Women’s Golf League will start this Tuesday (June 11th), and the Men’s Golf League will begin this Wednesday (June 12th).

Information about the leagues can be found on the web site: https://keweenawmountainlodge.com/golf/golf-leagues/

To register, call the Lodge at 906-289-4403 or send us an email at golf@keweenawresort.com. Organizer: John Mueller.

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It has come to our attention that non-Keweenaw county residents have asked why the Lodge makes a distinction between golfers that are from Keweenaw County and golfers that are not Keweenaw County as it relates to our green fees.

First, to point out the difference which individuals are questioning: Keweenaw County residents pay $3 and $5 less than non-Keweenaw County residents to play 9 or 18 holes of golf at the Lodge respectively. [ see current green fees ]

Our reasoning for charging Keweenaw County residents $3 (9-holes) and $5 (18-holes) less is that all Keweenaw County residents prior to the change in ownership in 2018 had supported the Lodge operations through their taxes, including the golf course. So we felt it was best to provide those residents with a small benefit when playing the KML golf course.

It is sad that individuals are concerned about this difference, as the green fees are still lower than what it costs to operate the golf course currently.

Average green fees for privately-owned golf courses is $40 for 18 holes on weekends. Our highest green fee for 18-holes currently is $30. If we keep at this rate, then the KML golf course has a higher probability of not surviving — the majority of the golf courses that closed in 2016 charged below $40 per 18 holes.

To better understand this situation, it costs the Lodge more than $500 in labor per day to keep the golf course in its current shape. This means to cover only the golf course maintenance costs, the Lodge needs to have at least 28 nine-hole rounds of golf (assuming the average green fee for 9-holes is $18). And this calculation does not include any other labor costs related to golf, nor material costs, nor equipment costs (e.g. fuel for the greens mower, purchasing a new greens mower, maintaining the greens mower, etc.).

To help individuals better understand how much goes into running a golf course, going forward we want to provide additional information and be transparent in our operational decisions so golfers have a better understanding of the decisions we are making for the golf course at the Lodge.

Note: the staff at the Lodge is looking to grow the entire Keweenaw, and the owner has investment in Houghton county. So this decision is not to create a difference between Houghton and Keweenaw counties. Rather, and to reiterate the point above, the decision is to provide a small benefit to those that kept the golf course going over the years.