The Loop

Deal of the Week: Stay and play at Arcadia Bluffs

July 29, 2014
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Northern Michigan's Arcadia Bluffs has million-dollar views from its position high above the Lake Michigan shoreline. Now, it can be had for a good bit less.

Normally, you'd pay $180 to play one of Golf Digest's Top 100 public courses in prime summer season. But with Arcadia's Sunday Night Special, you can book a Sunday tee time and stay overnight afterward in one of the 15 guest suites on the second floor of the clubhouse for $270 per person, double occupancy. That's $140 off the regular rate, and good through Sept. 28. The deal also includes breakfast for two in the Sunset Grill, which has panoramic views of the lake both inside and out on the patio. Stop by after your round as well, as it's perennially listed as one of the best 19th holes in golf for the view, big-screen televisions and comprehensive list of craft beer, bourbon, scotch and wine.

Arcadia's front nine plays like a sweeping Scottish links, with the lake tumbling into view as you crest a rise on the fourth hole. The back nine tightens up through gullies protected by mature heather and deep bunkers. If you turn to your left on the lakeside 12th tee box and hit a ball, it wouldn't make landfall for 60 miles, in Kewaunee, Wis. Four of Arcadia's most severe greens -- the seventh, 10th, 17th and 18th -- were given facelifts over the winter to make them slightly more accommodating. The 10th was a particularly nasty welcome to the back nine, with a false front and horizontal ridge on either side of a giant sod-faced bunker.