Dennis Grall | Daily Press A former Upper Peninsula highway bridge connecting tee boxes on No. 17 at Sweetgrass Golf Course is one five bridges that provide a unique look to a golf course that continues to receive national recognition. Another course, Sage Run Golf Course eight miles northwest of the Island Resort and Casino, is expected to open around Labor Day.

ESCANABA — Sweetgrass Golf Club continues to draw national attention, even though no one has played there since October.

The site of an annual Symetra Tour tournament has received Platinum billing from golfvacationinsider.com, a website devoted to golf news and notes.

To give you a better idea of what that means, Sweetgrass has been placed in a group of courses across the country that draw far more customers because they are located in high-volume areas, such as Las Vegas, the East Coast and the Gulf Coast.

Sweetgrass is placed right up there wiith Wynn Golf of Las Vegas, MGM Resort and Shadow Creek Golf of Las Vegas, French Lick Resort (which was featured in the Daily Press recently), Foxwood Resort & Casino and Lake of Isles G.C. of Leyard, Conn., which is billed as the world’s largest casino, Beau Rivage Casino and Fallen Oak G.C. near Biloxi and Harrah’s of Lake Tahoe.

Those are some huge players in anyone’s book, and for Sweetgrass to earn that attention is unbelievable and also speaks of the high quality product available near Escanaba.

It is priceless to think of the number of travelers who will visit Sweetgrass just based on the attention it is receiving, and the money spent on those trips will definitely trickle throughout the area.

To be a platinum resort/casino/golf course, golfvacationinsider.com looks at the best overall golf and gaming experience, bucket-list, properties for golf travelers who seek top quality golf, lodging, gaming and other activities.

The website also displays pictures of No. 7 green looking back toward No. 6 tee, No. 15 green and pond and the water tower reflected in the pond by No. 18 green.

On the same website in a another article, Sweetgrass is one of three golf courses given honorable mention for Best Golf & Casino. No. 8 bunker-green is also displayed. Ten other courses, including some of the other ones mentioned previously, are the only other layouts to be ranked.

Again, pretty prestigious company.

“Those are some pretty big names in the casino and resort industry,” said Island Resort & Casino general manager Tony Mancilla. “That is a pretty good list to be on. A lot of those courses were leaders (in the industry’s early days). It is a big honor to be considereed with those courses.”

That group of 13 comes from comments by golf travelers who rate the facilities on golf, lodging, dining and gaming. It also looked at Yelp and Trip Advisor to get upscale lodging and food/quality dining locations.

Another HM course in that list of 13 locations is Tatanka Golf Club in northeast Nebraska, which was ranked in 2015 as the best new resort course in the country by Golf Magazine. Tatanka translates to buffalo in Lakota, and buffalo roam close to the course.

Paul Albense of Albanese and Lutzke Golf Designs of Plymouth, Mich. designed Tatanka and Sweetgrass and is also handling the Sage Run Golf Course that is another part of the Potawatomi Tribe’s operation eight miles northwest of Island Resort and Casino that will likely have a soft opening this fall.

Sweetgrass is also cited for an interesting aspect on the course, the carved eagles on No. 13 green. Somehow the five former highway bridges, highlighted by the old Nahma span that goes to the No. 15 island green, were not mentioned.

Mancilla appreciates the attention the complex is receiving.

Referring to “head hunters” who check out various lists for visits, Mancilla said “we are getting a lot of different clientele. Our line-up of shows has been outstanding,” noting top artists like Martina McBride and Dwight Yoakim performing.

That same website is an excellent location to follow top-notch golf news. Another listing had two courses within four hours of Escanaba about remote, isolated courses. Listed were The Rock on Drummond Island, which it said has new owners, and Madeline Island Golf Club in the Apostle Islands, a 1967 Robert Trent Jones design that has seven double greens and numerous shared tee areas to make the best use of limited terrain.

Also mentioned was Forest Dunes Golf Club near Roscommon, which highlighted the new Loop course, a reversible 18-hole layout designed by Tom Doak that will open full-time this year. Golfers play clockwise one day and counter-clockwise the next day, 36 holes in an 18-hole layout.

Sand Valley Golf Resort outside Wisconsin Rapids, designed by the highly acclaimed team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw that will open this year, was also featured. The owner is Mike Keiser, who built fabled Bandon Dunes in Oregon. Another track will open near Rapids next year designed by David McLay Kidd, who is considered one of the country’s foremost architects.

It is phenomenal to think something in our own little backyard is drawing that kind of attention and respect that normally spotlights the big guns.