Don't You Wish There Were More Places Like This...

Dave Hackenberg tells the great story of 3 couples buying and turning around Cherrywood Golf Course in Ottawa Lake, Michigan.

Three months after Germain got his tip, Cherrywood had six new owners. They also are Cherrywood’s only six employees — Ben and Kara, the Germains, and Hire and his wife, Kathy.

It’s a 24/7, sunup to sundown thing for Ben and Kara, who live on site and run the show. But it’s truly a second home for the other four. Everybody takes turns behind the counter, or pulling weeds, or servicing machinery, or grabbing a paint brush, or planting flowers, or washing down the carts, or spreading fertilizer, or cleaning the clubhouse, or picking up brush after a storm, or, well, you name it. You tend to take things seriously when you’ve taken a deep dip into your savings account and there’s a mortgage call every month.