Fairways & Greens - Minnesota

I don’t know if you’ve taken notice or what golf magazine you subscribe to, but municipal golf is enjoying a resurgence in respect. This type of allegiance to muni-golf is on the rise (as it should be) and we are lucky enough to have two outstanding examples of it right in our midst – Phalen Park GC and Como Park GC.

Look to your left and look to your right, you’re probably sharing the range with an NHL or NFL standout or two. The pro athletes like to take their swings here and why wouldn’t you? The Wilds in Prior Lake is that kind of place.

Royalty can be a tight rope walk. It requires that you put on a good public face while taking care of business in the back end. To accomplish this, you need to have your ship in order.

I’ve gushed plenty about Deer Run over the years and as I look back and wonder if I haven’t oversold its pristine playing conditions, or its best-in-class practice facility, its charming old-school meets contemporary clubhouse atmosphere and its second-to-none customer service experience.

When Crystal Lake Golf Club opened in 1995, the golfing summer was dominated by names like Daly, Elkington, Pavin, Crenshaw, and Norman. In 2023, golfers flocking to Lakeville, will learn the names of Orlando, Maize, and Temple.

The winter was long and the snow was deep in this part of the state. It’s no small economic thing when the snow fly’s and the skiers begin to pour into this stretch of the Sawtooth Mountains along Minnesota’s North Shore.

New is good. Different is good. Fun is good. Challenge is good. Hole-in-ones are beyond good. The newest addition to the Brainerd golf destination collection has embraced all these philosophies and wrapped them up into a tidy two-hour round of golf that over-delivers on all fronts.

There is so much that can be said about Golden Eagle Golf Club. We can start with its jaw-dropping northern Minnesota setting on 210 acres and the minor miracle that this 18-hole championship design was carved out of the raw wilderness. 

When word got out that there was a Top 100 Public Course in northern Minnesota no one really believed it. In seemingly unmapped and very untapped golf territory, with two six-month seasons, why should they have?

I had no idea what ruggedly beautiful hole it was that I saw first, but it wowed me to the point I pulled off the road and took a picture of it (before Instagram). Turns out it was the Par 5, 8th. “That’s awesome. Look at those cliffs and all that water.”

June 30, 2023 will mark a milestone in Minnesota’s latest and largest golf course renovation project happening at Cragun’s Legacy Courses. On this day this project that started in the Spring of 2021 will be more than 80% complete with 36 holes of the 45-hole project open for play.

Nestled to the north of Brainerd and many of its signature lakes, Breezy Point is an extension of the “Big Bobber” town of Pequot Lakes, and while you don’t need to leave the resort for entertainment, Pequot Lakes does host quite the assortment of shops, restaurants and entertainment options.

What would you say if I told you that The Best Conditioned Public Course in the Twin Cities Metro might be in Buffalo – a lake-locked paradise just 30 minutes northwest of Maple Grove?