There is a moment on the drive into Pine Mountain Resort in Iron Mountain when you catch your first look at the 18th hole. It runs straight down the mountainside toward the clubhouse like a ski run somebody sodded with bentgrass, stepped and terraced with rock walls, finishing at a green fronted by a pond. Before you have parked the car, TimberStone has already told you what kind of day this is going to be.
TimberStone is the fourth leg of the Upper Peninsula's Perfect 4-Some, the course that rounds out a trip built on Sweetgrass, Sage Run, and Greywalls. It is also the one that a lot of people underrate on the way in and rave about on the way out. Jerry Matthews, the architect with his name on more Michigan courses than anyone alive, laid it out over 240 acres of Pine Mountain in 1997, and Golf Digest handed it five stars in Places to Play. It is still the only five star rated course in the area, and it plays like it.
Up the Hill, Down the Hill, Through the Pines
The whole course plays up and down the mountain in ski hill sized swells and mounds, and every fairway is lined with massive mature northern Michigan pines. Red pine, white pine, oak, granite boulders, and iron ore deposits the size of a golf cart. Water comes into play on six holes. It is tight, it is dramatic, and it demands accuracy over length. If your game is spray and pray, TimberStone will eat your golf balls and ask for seconds.
From the tips it plays 6,938 yards at par 72 with a rating of 74.5 and a slope of 150. That is not a typo. Six sets of tees bring it down to something reasonable, and the whites at 5,832 are where most weekend foursomes belong. The bentgrass fairways are as good as any you will play in the Midwest, and the greens are big, fast, and true. On a UP trip, TimberStone is the course where the conditioning surprises you.
The Holes People Talk About
The first hole gets your attention immediately, a tree lined tee shot with almost no room for error. Welcome to Iron Mountain. Get a good one away and the course opens up a bit, but it never stops asking questions.
The fourth is a par 3 that is all carry, about 200 yards from the back, and anything short funnels into a pot bunker the locals call the Pit from Hell. It is exactly as much fun as it sounds. Take enough club, and then take one more.
Sixteen is a 370 yard par 4 that plays downhill off the tee with a fairway bunker on the left that needs to be avoided at all costs. Your approach then climbs back uphill to a blind, wildly elevated green that measures more than 60 yards from front to back. Not 60 feet. Sixty yards. Par is a good score and a three putt is a real possibility even from the correct tier.
Then comes the signature hole, and it earns the title. The 17th is a par 3 of 215 yards from the tips that drops 110 feet from tee to green. From the tee box you can see two states and three counties, with Bass Lake sitting below and a row of trees hugging the right side of the green. Club selection is the entire hole. The scorecard says one thing, your eyes say another, and the ball hangs in the air long enough for you to reconsider both. Take a picture before you hit, because you will be too rattled afterward.
Eighteen is the finishing hole you saw from the parking lot, a par 5 of more than 625 yards from the championship tees that plays so far downhill it is reachable in two with a good drive down the left center. The fairway cascades down the mountain in terraces, the green is generous, and the back third falls away sharply. Putting from above the hole here is a bad idea. Ending your round with an eagle putt in front of the clubhouse deck is a very good one.
Stay, Eat, and Look at the Ski Jump
Pine Mountain is a real ski and golf resort, not just a course with a parking lot. The lodging was fully renovated a few years back and everything is walking distance to the first tee. You can book standard Lodge rooms for a couples trip, Mountain Haus condos that sleep four, or Alpine Haus condos that sleep six to eight and come with full kitchens for a buddy trip that wants to spread out. Stay and play packages with lodging, golf, and cart start around $195 per person, and you book them by calling the front desk directly.
Dinner is at Famers, the resort's restaurant and bar, and it sits inside the Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame. You eat a burger surrounded by the plaques and memorabilia of every UP athlete who ever made it big, which is a longer list than you would think. Two of the biggest names grew up right here in Iron Mountain. Tom Izzo and Steve Mariucci were high school teammates in football, basketball, and track, roomed together at Northern Michigan, and went on to a national title at Michigan State and a head coaching job with the 49ers, respectively. George Gipp, the Notre Dame legend Ronald Reagan played in the movie, is a charter inductee from Laurium up in the Copper Country. And for the golfers, Dennis Tiziani, the longtime Wisconsin coach and Steve Stricker's father-in-law, is on the wall too. It is a lot of hardware for a town of 7,000, and it makes Famers the rare sports bar where the memorabilia is worth reading. The Sitzmark bar looks out over the ski hill and is the right place for a post round beer. And do not leave without driving up to the Pine Mountain Ski Jump. It is one of the largest artificial ski jumps in the world, and the American distance record of 459 feet was set right there. Stand at the top and look down and you will never complain about the 17th tee again.
Prices and the Punch Card Trick
Summer rates from late May through mid September run $149 with cart, seven days a week. Spring and fall drop to $109 on weekdays and $129 on weekends, and twilight after 3:30 knocks it down further. The same day replay rate is $49 to $79 depending on the season, which is the smart move on a course you want a second crack at.
If you live within a few hours and plan on making TimberStone a regular stop, the punch card is the play. Eleven rounds with cart and range balls for $850, good Sunday through Thursday any time and after 2:00 on Fridays and Saturdays, with no expiration date. That works out to about $77 a round on a course that charges $149 in July.
The Time Zone Tip Nobody Tells You
If you are using Island Resort and Casino as base camp for the Perfect 4-Some, write this down. The casino in Harris runs on Eastern time. TimberStone in Iron Mountain runs on Central time. The drive is about 50 minutes, but the clock in your car and the clock on the tee sheet will not agree, and I have seen more than one foursome roll in an hour early looking confused, or an hour late looking worse. Confirm which time zone your tee time is in when you book, set an alarm on both, and leave Harris with time to spare.
One more thing. Island Resort's package rounds at TimberStone were sold out for the 2026 season, so if you want it on a casino package, get your 2027 request in as early as the calendar allows. Or just call Pine Mountain and stay on the mountain. Either way, do not skip this one. It is the course on the UP trip that sends you home talking.
