This course is in our GSPro library — pull it up in any bay and play it wall to wall.

"The U.P.'s marquee public course -- worth surfacing when a member wants Michigan golf beyond the well-known Gaylord/Treetops cluster."

Jerry Matthews — often called the grandfather of Michigan golf architecture — carved TimberStone out of the Upper Peninsula woods at Pine Mountain Resort, with Paul Albanese as project architect. Opened in 1997, it plays 6,937 yards, par 72, through dense treelined corridors studded with iron-ore deposits and granite boulders left over from the region's mining days. Golf Digest named it among the best new courses of 1998, and it remains the U.P.'s marquee layout — remote, dramatic, and worth the drive.

Northwoods trip planners, players who love tree-lined isolation and elevation drama, and anyone collecting Michigan's best. Pairs naturally with a Gaylord-area golf swing through the state.

The signature par-3 17th plays 215 yards straight downhill to a fiercely contoured green — the kind of hole you talk about in the parking lot. Throughout, granite outcrops and cascading, tumbling fairways give almost every hole its own postcard.

Tough for beginners: tight tree-lined fairways, forced carries, deep bunkers, and big elevation swings. Forward tees help, but crooked drives disappear into the woods fast.

In GSPro — a community recreation of TimberStone (Iron Mountain) is on the public course server. The elevation changes translate beautifully to the sim, and the tight corridors punish spray off the tee. A good pick for Clubhouse members who want a hard-but-fair hidden gem instead of another famous name.

Fully public at Pine Mountain Resort in Iron Mountain. Green fees are reasonable resort-Midwest money (roughly $70-110 peak with cart), and stay-and-play packages make it easy. Remote location means tee times are rarely a fight.