Tee Times’ Time Machine – Bigger And Better

The 1980’s and 1990’s is often remembered for its consumerism and that was certainly true of the Minnesota golf scene. The rise of the “yuppie” provided golf course developers with a demographic bubble of ready-made players. Not only were the baby boomers renting blockbuster movies and driving to the mall in their mini-vans, they were also hitting the links in record numbers. As the 1980’s gave way to the prosperous 1990’s, Minnesota golf continued its expansion and growth in popularity. On a global scale, East and West Germany were reunited after 45 years and the Cold War officially came to an end under Gorbachev with the fall of the Soviet Union on Christmas Day in 1991. All-in-all, a peaceful backdrop for a new era and a youngster named Tiger to take ahold of the public’s attention and run with it.

Between 1980 and 2000 there were nearly 180 golf courses opened in Minnesota, which represents the single largest 20-year expansion period in the state’s history. Many of these courses would be considered upper-tier public courses and true-to-form the first of the Minnesota ‘modern classics’ opened in 1995 in Prior Lake at The Wilds Golf Club. The Tom Weiskopf design would be the icebreaker for a long run of new, high-end, public courses that continue to amaze, challenge and entertain Minnesota golfers to this day.

A short list of the public courses opened within five years of The Wilds reads like a players bucket list – Rush Creek, StoneRidge, Chaska Town Course and more. This era also saw the full-on entry of top-notch resort courses, especially in and around the Brainerd area. Clearly the resort-based golf vacation concept had taken hold as Cragun’s opened two courses, The Classic at Madden’s, Izaty’s, Deacon’s Lodge, Dacotah Ridge near Morton, The Preserve and The Legends at Biwabik all saw openings. Not surprising that this continues to be a vibrant business given the typical day in vacationland goes something like this… walleye fishing in the morning, golf in the afternoon, fine dining in the evening.

This period in history was blessed with the opening of the Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame in 1987, which recognizes Minnesotans for their outstanding contributions to the game of golf. The Hall of Fame is operated through a task force that meets annually to determine nominations and ultimately inductees. The Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame is housed in the beautiful Bunker Hills Golf Club clubhouse in Coon Rapids, and is operated and supported by the Minnesota Golf Association and the Minnesota Section PGA. The first year of inductions included four inductee’s which included two well-known giants of Minnesota Golf, Patty Berg and Les Bolstad. Through 2018 there have been a total of 103 inductee’s. If you haven’t visited the Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame I highly recommended it.

Another standout HOF inductee getting their start in this era and continuing into the new millennium is Edinburgh’s Director of Golf and PGA Professional Don Berry who may be the most decorated golf professional in Minnesota golf history. A rundown on Don’s career is staggering: Minnesota Section PGA Player of the Year for 14 consecutive years, National PGA Club Professional Player of the Year in 2002, played in a U.S. Open and four PGA Championships (made the cut at Hazeltine in 2002), 21 Minnesota professional “majors” to date and he continues to compete at the highest levels and win. A true inspiration for those of us still trying keep our games intact.

Minnesota saw several memorable Major Tournaments during the 1990’s and the beginnings of an annual visit from the PGA TOUR Champion greats. That Senior event would later evolve into an announcement this year that the PGA TOUR is coming to Minnesota again starting in 2019 as the 3M Open.

The U.S. Open was held at Hazeltine National Golf Club for the second time in 1991 (the first was in 1970). It was a rousing event capped by an 18 hole playoff on Monday where Payne Stewart defeated Scott Simpson to win the first of his two U.S. Open titles. It would become the second of Stewart’s three major championships. The Tournament would be infamously remembered because play was interrupted during the first round due to severe thunderstorms in the Chaska area. Six people were struck by lightning while crouching under the mature trees near the 11^th tee, and tragically one person was killed. On a national level this news tended to overshadow the spectacular ending to a great tournament. Of note is Phil Mickelson winning low-amateur honors for the second consecutive year, finishing in 55^th place overall.

In 1993 Interlachen Country Club hosted The Walker Cup, which is a prestigious biennial team event that includes two days of singles and alternate-shot matches between the top male amateurs from the United States, Great Britain and Ireland. It seemed that Minnesota was destined to host the event as Minnesotan’s John Harris of Edina and Tim Herron of Wayzata led the U.S. team to a commanding 19-5 victory, the largest winning margin in the event’s history. Harris and Herron made Minnesota proud by using long drives and a delicate touch around the greens to secure the alternate-shot win during the second day.

The PGA’s love for Minnesota golf continued in 1993 as they introduced The Burnet Senior Classic at Bunker Hills. An energetic Puerto Rican named Chi-Chi Rodriguez stole everyone’s heart becoming the first winner of this Senior Tour event. To this day he is revered as a spokesperson for the event and has visited many times over the years as an ambassador. It would turn out to be his last win on the Senior Tour, a capstone win in a career with 37 professional titles! Bunker Hills continued to host the Burnet event for 8 years. The final three years the event would be played under the Coldwell Banker Burnet Classic name. Hal Irwin won in 1997 and 1999 becoming the only repeat winner in those first 8 years. He went on to win a third at the 2002 3M Championship. The event would change venues and sponsorship after the 1999 year moving down the road to Blaine at the newly opened Tournament Players Championship course (TPC) and thus becoming the 3M Championship. This year marked the 26^th anniversary of the Burnet, Coldwell Banker Burnet, 3M sponsored event and was its final year as a PGA TOUR Champions event.

No history discussion from this era would be complete without a significant call-out to Minnesota’s own Tom Lehman who was born in Austin, Minnesota and raised in Alexandria. Tom enjoyed a winning collegiate career at the University of Minnesota and played extensively in both Asia and Europe. He won the Minnesota State Open Championship in 1989, 1990, and 1993. Fellow Minnesotan and USGA Amateur Champion John Harris won that same title in 1994 and 1995. Tom continues to be the most visible Minnesota player in the golf industry today. He is still competing and competing well on the PGA TOUR Champions schedule. The pinnacle of his career was winning the British Open in 1996 and in that same year was named PGA’s Player of the Year. Tom was also instrumental in helping the U.S. win the 1999 Ryder Cup. In 2010 he received the Payne Stewart Award, an award given to the player who shared Stewart’s respect for tradition and stewardship of the games classic protocol. Recently Lehman was Vice Captain of the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine National. Tom continues to be a consummate professional who has left his mark on both Minnesota course design and it’s most prestigious tournaments. Tom has five PGA TOUR wins and 11 PGA TOUR Champions wins. Hats off to you Mr. Lehman.

Keep in mind this era closed out against the backdrop of a game changer in the name of Tiger Woods. The mid-to-late ‘90’s saw the perfect storm of economic optimism, a charismatic young athlete boldly taking the stage and a growing desire among the playing public to embrace the game. As they say, “build-it and they will come” and that is exactly what happened in the era of bigger and better.