Crystal Downs Country Club

Crystal Downs Country Club is located on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, about seven miles north of the small city of Frankfort and forty miles west of growing Traverse City. The golf course and clubhouse are situated on a narrow strip of sandy, rolling land between the big lake and inland Crystal Lake, affording expansive views of both lakes, ever-differing sunrises and sunsets, and fairly constant, invigorating winds. Some commentators have expressed that the land itself exudes energy. The name Crystal Downs was bestowed on the course by Benjamin P. Merrick, a Grand Rapids lawyer who first visited the site in 1926 and, with Mr. Ewing, likened the view from the hilltop where the clubhouse now stands to an English “downs.”