Rockford — I was about to shoot a giant foam grizzly when I realized: This is so much better than golf. There are dozens of 3D archery courses scattered around our state, like the West Michigan Archery Center, and each trumps chasing a white ball across a perfectly manicured lawn. This game is cheaper, brings you out into nature, and lets you sling arrows at targets shaped like dinosaurs, grizzly bears, and giant elk.
Golf has nothing on this.
Let’s start with the wallet. You can easily burn $50 to $100 per person for a few hours of frustration on some sterile fairway. WMAC? $15. There are more than 25 foam critters scattered along a wooded trail, and not a sprinkler-soaked green in sight. No cart rentals, no caddy tipping. It’s just you, your bow, and your friends. Golf’s a money pit. 3D archery is a steal.
Beyond the cost, there’s the setting. To me, a manicured golf course is nature’s version of lip filler. At places like WMAC, you’re crunching through real dirt, ducking branches, and trying to avoid poison ivy. It’s real, and we need more real.
And the fun? Golf is so terribly serious. Dress like a dandy, don’t talk when someone’s swinging, rake that sand trap, don’t walk through someone’s line. It’s a litany of rules that just results in you tossing a wedge into the pond.
At the archery course, we were taking questionable shots through the brush at foam game and laughing when someone shanked an arrow into a tree. It’s a competition, no doubt, but it’s fun and relaxed.
Last weekend, I watched my brother pinwheel a caribou at 40 yards. I accidentally stuck an arrow into a caribou antler, trying to thread the needle between a group of trees at 60 yards. We laughed our butts off.
I’ve got lots of friends who golf. They tell me it’s a classic sport, the kind that gets you outside. That’s bull. A sand trap isn’t an adventure. The great outdoors deserves better than a nine-iron.
Forget the fairways. I’ll take a foam T-Rex at 50 yards.
James Zandstra is an experienced outdoorsman with a passion for the Mitten State. Follow his work on X @TheFairChase1.
