Several hours to the west, the Island Resort & Casino in Harris boasts, without a doubt, Michigan's best golf-casino package. Michelle Wie once played Bay Mills as a teenager during a Canadian Tour event. A ridge through the 7,056-yard course provides views of the bay and a cool driving range looking down on target greens in the shape of a heart, diamond, spade and club.
Architect Mike Husby added the final piece, the Wild Bluff Golf Course, three years later. The tribe's earnings eventually helped build the 142-room Bay Mills Resort & Casino, Michigan's only waterfront casino on the shores of Waishkey Bay, in 1995. The Bay Mills Indian Community claims to be the first in the nation to open a tribal casino, way back in 1980. Michigan's gaming industry began north of the Mackinac Bridge in the Upper Peninsula. Birdies and Blackjack in the Upper Peninsula