December 2013
| Business World Magazine | 63
grass is growing strong. It’s a challenge to
maintain a good product in a more com-
pressed time period, and once the snow
goes we’re in a mad dash to get things
ready.”
“It might appear to be in disarray, but
it is very organized disarray. In the past
year, I’ve probably learned more about
golf and turf and turf management than
most people know in their whole lives.
We have our challenges, but the set-up is
top notch.”
The golf side of the operation goes dor-
mant during Michigan winters and only
a sliver of the skiing portion of the club
overlaps one of the golf holes. The rest
of the golf layout is open for snowshoe-
ing and cross-country skiing during those
stretches, which allows nature to take the
course, literally.
“We put the golf course to sleep,”
Ringgenberg says. “There’s very little in-
teraction from our side during the winter.
We try to leave it as natural as possible.
You can go out there and snowshoe in
pure Michigan nature, which, to us, is just
a huge selling point for that area. You just
can’t beat that.”
