Dacotah Ridge Golf Club – Minnesota’s Open Venue

There are debates about the best golf course in the Twin Cities, and debates about the best golf course in every corner of the state… except one. There is no debate as to the best golf course in southwest Minnesota. The winner is Dacotah Ridge.

Giants Ridge – The Greatest Of These…

We have ski runs scattered here and there throughout the state, a few of them “mountains” by name, and they’re great but… Giants Ridge… that’s the best of the best. It’s the upper class of Minnesota’s mountains and, incidentally (according to the publications of note), the upper echelon of Minnesota’s golf courses.

Meet The Man Behind The 3M Open-Hollis Cavner

Twin Cities golf fans have seen Hollis Cavner for many years driving around at TPC Twin Cities during the 3M Championship. Now that Hollis has brought the PGA TOUR to the same course for it inaugural tournament, hear what some of his thoughts are on this special new event.

KPMG Women’s PGA Championship Recap

The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, held at Hazeltine National Golf Club last month, features more story lines than a suspense novel. Varying weather conditions, the best women players in the world and a golf course that, when the wind blows, shows it’s teeth like few other courses can.

The Truth About Golf Courses

Golf courses come in basically three categories:

Member owned country clubs
Publicly owned public golf courses
Privately owned public golf courses

If I Was… In Charge Of Marketing The LPGA Tour

The recent KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club showed the world the best women players on the planet on one of the finest courses in the country. One would think that attendance would be through the roof. After all, Minnesotans love golf!

Accolades And Recognition At Troy Burne Golf Club

For those of you with a subscription to Golf Digest you probably already know this fact, but for those who don’t – spoiler alert…Troy Burne Golf Club has made ‘America’s Top 100 Greatest Public Courses’ listing again. I’m not sure what is in that Wisconsin soil, but Troy Burne is in some lofty company.

Data Driven At Club Champion

Swinging like a PGA TOUR Player probably isn’t going to happen for 99% of us, but if Club Champion has any say in it, we will all be given the best chance possible.

Fairways & Greens

Whispering Pines Golf Course – The Comeback Kid

The author of this particular comeback story is Mark Dvorak, and he started writing the comeback story of Whispering Pines Golf Course in Annandale seven years ago. How is it going now? “It’s going great,” Mark says.

Old World Charm – The Links At Northfork

Vast stretches of fescue, large waste bunkers, serpentine fairways, long carries and undulated green complexes. News flash – The Links at Northfork has been bringing this type of golf for years!

Pebble Creek Golf Club – A Stone’s Throw Away

Many locals, with enough firsthand experience to know, insist Pebble has more character than several TOUR stops. The difference is, people outside of Minnesota don’t know about Pebble Creek, which only leaves more tee times for the rest of us.

History Marches On At Les Bolstad Golf Course

There are a handful of blue-chip historic courses across the greater Twin Cities area and the University of Minnesota Les Bolstad Golf Course is certainly in that league. Having morphed and reinvented itself several times since opening as a nine-hole course in 1915.

At The End Of My Days, I Want To Come Back A Caddie

Many of us started playing this game caddying either for a parent, family member, friend, or a complete stranger who hopefully tipped you well! Or at minimum gave you a few life long stories!

The Wilds Golf Club – Realizing Their Potential

If a change can do you good, then several changes should make you really good, right? The Wilds Golf Club is primed to find out. Head Golf Professional Scott Reuter is an ambitious man, and success has followed him throughout his golf management career.

Stairway To Deer Run Golf Club

At Deer Run Golf Club, there is a clear sense that someone has their eye on the big picture and someone has an eye on the small details. You notice it as you pull into the well-organized layout, make your way up to the clean clubhouse and check in for what is about to become a truly first-class golf outing.

Best Reasons To Visit Crystal Lake Golf Course

If you are going to build a golf course, the smart money says to plant stakes in a community that is positioned to grow. When Crystal Lake Golf Course in Lakeville opened in 1995, the city’s population was around 40,000 residents. In 2019, Lakeville is one of the fasting growing suburbs in the Twin Cities area with a population percolating at over 61,000.

Predicting Blue Skies At Timber Creek Golf Course

Chances are good that if you’ve played 18 holes at Timber Creek Golf Course in Watertown you’ve met or arranged a tee time with Vonnie. If a golf course has only one chance to make a good first impression, then Timber Creek is golden when Vonnie is the first smiling face, voice, or personality you encounter in the clubhouse.

Stillwater Oaks Has Got Game

I’m hard pressed to find a course in the eastern suburbs that offers a collection of golf holes with more variety than Stillwater Oaks. Within each nine-hole stretch on the card you will find open prairie style free-swingers, tall tree-lined narrow fairways, perplexing doglegs and the always fun, short par 4.

The Greatest Golf On The Greatest Lake Now Even Better!

Experience spectacular and untamed natural beauty paired with unparalleled golf at Superior National at Lutsen. It’s on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior, famous for its rocky shores, rugged wilderness, and outdoor recreation.

Dacotah Ridge Golf Club – Minnesota’s Open Venue

GreyStone Golf Club – Sauk It To Me

Fans of the board game TriBond might imagine a card in the box that reads: Troy Burne, Somerby and GreyStone. Minnesota golf lovers would be jumping at that answer, throwing out words like “bucket list” and “excellence” and “Golf Digest Best Places to Play.”

Giants Ridge – The Greatest Of These…

Breezy Point Resort – Built For Summer

Resorts like Breezy Point don’t mind the winters as much as others do, considering they stay open and active year round, but when you spend a weekend, week or any extended period of time at Breezy Point Resort during June, July or August… yeah, you know the place was Built. For. Summer.

A “Super” Task

When Mark Michalski started on the grounds crew at his local course in Silver Bay, Minnesota at the age of 16, he never dreamed that he would be where he is today.

An Interview With TPC Twin Cities’ Chris Weinhold

A recent interview with Chris Weinhold proved to be very informative – not only do we learn about Chris, but also the TPC, the company where he has worked his entire career.

Meet Alan Cull – General Manager Of TPC Twin Cities

Golf fans will never feel the presence of Alan Cull during the 3M Open. Unlike the erratic gyrations of the director of a symphony orchestra, Alan Cull, General Manager of TPC Twin Cities, has the education and experience to host a successful PGA TOUR Event and go completely unnoticed.

Making It To The Big Time

Leading up to the inaugural 3M Open at the TPC Twin Cities in July, I had the opportunity to talk to long-time Team Cavner staffer Jenifer Hines. Hines’ role this year is Assistant Tournament Director. Given her experience with the former 3M Championship on the PGA TOUR Champions, the changes she has seen and new challenges she faces are large.

The Man In Charge

When Hollis Cavner and his team decided they wanted to replace the PGA TOUR Champions tournament with a PGA TOUR regular event, adjustments needed to be made and experienced people needed to be added to ensure success. Enter 3M Open Tournament Director Peter Mele.

Improving Your Approach

According to Peter Sanders, golf statistician and founder of www.ShotByShot.com the average golfer (15-19 handicap) will have 20 approach shots per round. These approach shots are shots that are hit from 51 yards or more from.

Does Your Improvement Puzzle Have Too Many Pieces?

How many pieces did your first childhood jigsaw puzzle have? I’ve seen them in toy stores with as few as 4 pieces. How many pieces were in the puzzles you bought as you got older and became an adult? More? Why?

Data Driven At Club Champion

Swinging like a PGA TOUR Player probably isn’t going to happen for 99% of us, but if Club Champion has any say in it, we will all be given the best chance possible.

Turning Four Shots Into Three

You always hear that short game is the easiest way to lower your scores and if you look at it statistically, it truly is. According to golf statistician Peter Sanders, founder of Shot by Shot players who shot in the 90’s on average, hitting less than five greens in regulation and save par from off of the green less than 20% of the time.

SWING LIKE A “10”

From an early age, we become aware of the “rating” scale of 1-10. It has been used in everything from attractiveness to truthfulness. “On a scale of 1-10…” How can you use this scale for your golf development?

Choosing The Correct Tee

Golf is always a lot more fun when we play well and shoot a good score. One of the reasons long hitters have an advantage in the game is that they are hitting shorter clubs into greens.

Assessing Your Game

A good friend of mine always says, “A goal without a plan is nothing but a dream!” As we approach the golf season, what are your goals?

Golf Is Fun…When You Know What You Are Doing

Not that long ago I was teaching a beginner golfer. He told me right away about a big work tournament he had coming up in a couple months. Like most golfers new to the sport he thought it was important to get the ball into the air with some regularity.

Screen Golf

Over the course of the golf season, each month in this column we will be sharing ideas to help improve your golf game without changing your golf swing. We will talk about things like efficient practice methods, equipment, course management and new technology.

Making The Most Of Winter

October/November means the end of the golf season for most of us in Minnesota. But just because the season is ending, it doesn’t mean that you have to stop working on your golf game.

From Spritzers To Sangrias

Everyone needs a good sangria and/or spritzer recipe for the summer, am I right?

Perfect Pairings For The ‘Dog Days Of Summer’

Sure beer is pretty easy to match up with most things that come off the grill. But wine, on the other hand, always seems a bit more complicated for some folks to match up with those summer cookouts.

Dad’s Day Bevis

As we head into the month of June, and our weather finally turns true to its season, we know we can prepare to gear up for a few things – more time for grilling outside and more libations for pairing!

Going Green

Everywhere you turn these days, producers from every label are touting ‘organic’. From cereal to mac n cheese, wine, and into the world of liquor. But have we really ever stopped to think about what all of this labeling really means?

Don’t Ignore The Reds When The Temps Rise

For most, nothing screams summer and spring like a crisp, refreshing glass of white wine – am I right? We live in Minnesota, so it’s fair to say that it gets pretty darn cold in the winter time.

Beyond Chardonnay And Pinot Grigio

According to the country’s most recent wine industry reports, Americans really only consume approximately four grapes. Considering there are over 10,000 varieties of wine grapes in the world, we have a considerable way to go before we can begin to categorize ourselves oenophiles.

Going Green

Perfectly Pairing Your ‘Reds’

It should come as no surprise that the instinctive wine choice for a mouthwatering pan seared or perfectly grill marked steak hot off the grill is red, but have you ever truly analyzed the exact choice of red grape when pairing to your favorite cuts of meat? I

Golfers And Wine – A Perfect Blend

As many know we are fortunate to be hosting the 2016 matches of the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine National and the U.S. team is captained by golf professional, Davis Love III. A gentleman that not only shares great passion for the game of golf, but of another subject that happens to be quite near and dear to my own profession and passions, wine.

King’s Walk Golf Course – Royal Fun

I can’t say I’d walk 300 miles to play The King’s course in Grand Forks, North Dakota, but I’d certainly drive it (again). I wish I lived even closer, but four and a half easy hours of interstate is all that separates the Twin Cities golfer from North Dakota’s only Arnold Palmer Signature Course.

Hawktree Golf Club – Better To Be Lucky

How often do you realize your dreams? Depends on the dream I guess. A dream to me might not be a dream to you, and vice versa, but it was always a dream of mine to play Hawktree Golf Club in Bismarck, North Dakota until I realized it.

MEDORA, NORTH DAKOTA & BULLY PULPIT GOLF COURSE – Explore It. Adore It.

Ely is the gateway to the Boundary Waters. Estes Park is surrounded by Rocky Mountain National Park and Medora… well… Medora just might be the most unique small town in America.

Destination Extraordinaire – The Resort at Pelican Hill

From the moment you pass through the vaulted lobby for that first look at the Pacific, The Resort at Pelican Hill is calling for your attention. What is found spread out below you is the stunning, infinity designed Coliseum pool in all its Italian Renaissance splendor.

Island Resort & Casino From Sweet To Sage

Island Resort & Casino in Harris, Michigan doesn’t just have a BRAND NEW course at Sage Run (opening in full this Spring), and it doesn’t just have another course that’s an annual contender for “Best in State” at Sweetgrass.

Tournament Club Of Iowa – The King Reigns On

I miss Arnold Palmer, and how could I not. Meeting him, listening to him, watching him… each opportunity left me wanting more opportunities. I have similar feelings when I play golf courses I love.

Otter Creek Golf Course – Otter This World Fun

2019 marks the 10 year anniversary of my first visit to Otter Creek – not anything for the world to celebrate, by any means, but something I marvel at, just as you might looking back on your own golf travel history.

Amana Colonies Golf Club – Emerging Target

Not all golf courses like to be considered a “hidden gem.” It implies, somehow, that you have to really dig to find the value. In that instance, Amana Colonies is NOT a hidden gem. Its value is blatantly obvious.

ALOHA FROM KAUAI Home Of The Ultimate Golf Trip At Jurassic Park Country Club

The Island of Kauai, where Jurassic Park and other Hollywood blockbusters were filmed, is a wonderland filled with tropical treasures. The island contains more golf courses than you can play in a week.

MEDORA, North Dakota – Explore It. Adore It.

It’s a trip you have to take… at least once. At least twice. It’s a place you have to spend a night… at least one. Okay, at least two. Really, at least three. Medora may geographically, for all intents and purposes, be in Montana, but it’s also a lot closer than you would think to the Twin Cities.