Lakewood Shores Resort, Gailes Golf Course

Lakewood Shores Resort is a 72-hole golf facility located in Oscoda, Michigan. The facility has three outstanding eighteen hole courses and an eighteen hole par 3 course.

Their Gailes Course is a links-style design that features sod-faced bunkers and tall heather rough lining all its fairways. There are two double greens like those at Saint Andrews in Scotland.

The Serradella Course is beautiful with flowers and trees. A wide variety of wildlife populates this course.

The Blackshire Course was designed to emulate the style, look, and feel of Pine Valley C.C. in New Jersey. The course has a rugged and natural feel. The Blackshire's 18 holes are cut through hardwoods & pines, and there are large sand waste areas along the fairways, trees and greens.

In addition to the three championship courses, the resort also has the Wee Links Par 3 Course. The Wee Links Course has small greens, except for two that are double-tiered. Deep bunkers hug the greens, and numerous holes are surrounded by tall fescue. A water hazard stretches the length of the back nine and four holes play over it. If you are staying at the resort, there is no charge to play this course.

Designed by Kevin Aldridge, The Gailes recreates the look and feel of the famed seaside courses of Scotland. Golfers will experience large double greens, meandering berms, sod faced pot bunkers and long fescue grasses.

When Kevin's father, Stan, bought Lakewood Shores in Northern Michigan, Kevin was tapped to design its second course, the Gailes, which opened in July 1992.

Kevin was only 25 years old at the time and was working for a course construction company, but had never designed a course. Given the site, a sandy expanse less than a mile from Lake Huron, he and his family decided to replicate the naturally firm, fast conditions of a links course.

The Gailes was voted the No. 1 new resort course in the U.S. in 1993 by Golf Digest, the first Michigan course to garner such a prestigious honor. The same magazine rated the course No. 7 on its 2000 list of the state's top courses, ranking it the second-best public course in Michigan, behind only the famed Bay Harbor.

Par for the course is 72. From the back tees the course plays to 6,954 yards. From the forward tees the course measures 5,246 yards. The longest hole on the course is # 8, a par-5 that plays to 586 yards. The shortest hole on the course is # 12, a par-3 that plays to 140 yards from the back tees.

Watch out for # 5, a 459 yard par-4 challenge and the #1 handicap hole on the course. The easiest hole is # 16, a 165 yard par-3.