Fairways & Greens - Minnesota

With our COVID enhanced sense of enjoying the great outdoors, more and more golfers are making the drive to Timber Creek Golf Course in Watertown, MN. Just 20 minutes west of Minnetonka, Timber Creek is an 18-hole haven for golfers looking to get away from it all on just a quarter tank of gas.

Sitting just a hop, skip and jump south of the Twin Cities is another of those Joel Goldstrand designs that seem to surprise and challenge at every bend in the fairway.

Chaska has a center of gravity when it comes to golf. Without naming names, we all know the big hitter, deep pocket tracks that populate this corner of the Twin Cities. Thankfully there is also a family orientated, value-priced option for those of us that seek out some of that ‘old school, at home feeling’ when we pull the clubs out of the trunk. Dahlgreen Golf Club has cultivated that vibe for years… 51 to be exact.

At 99.4 miles from the epicenter, Wedgewood Cove Golf Club in Albert Lea is the southernmost green pin on my map. (Green = Course Worth Playing) That’s right, Wedgewood Cove is the furthest I will drive within my 100-mile circle to play golf.

The more of the trip you can stick to interstates and major highways the better, of course, and if you head northwest out of the Twin Cities 100 miles (on I94) you’ll hit Sauk Centre. If you’re in, or anywhere near, Sauk Centre there’s one course that had better be on your map – GreyStone Golf Club.

Up. Everything is up. Everything is looking up, too. “This has been a crazy, unpredictable year,” General Manager, Eric Ritter, says. I nod. He doesn’t really need to elaborate. We all can relate.

How do you win in golf? The short answer is: “Play at Victory Links.” By virtue of the name, every visitor is a winner there.

Playing golf at The Links At Northfork is a true links golf experience – just like you were in Scotland! Joel Goldstrand, designer of the Links At Northfork, did a masterful job creating a golf course that plays fast and firm the exact conditions found on seaside links courses.

It’s comforting to know there are golf courses out there that deliver year-after-year. They bring a series of exciting holes and enough variety to keep you guessing on club selection. That’s why we keep going back.

50 Years. In 2019 the semi-private Purple Hawk Country Club just north of Cambridge, Minnesota – 50 miles north of the Twin Cities – celebrated 50 years of existence.

While hoisting a pint after a round of golf in Scotland, you may find yourself singing, “Ye take the high road, and I’ll take the low road.” After 18 holes at Mississippi National Golf Links in Red Wing it would be fitting to slightly alter the lyrics honoring Loch Lomond’s bonnie banks.

In this year of uncertainty, I’d like to offer up a golf course you can count on: Majestic Oaks. I’ve written about Majestic Oaks in these pages before, and it really is a place for everybody.

Most successful golf courses have a secret ingredient that pushes them from the everyday variety into the extraordinary where only a few golf courses ever operate. Crystal Lakes Golf Club has two such ingredients.

As they like to say, “Those birdies don’t putt themselves.” The same can be said about a 4½ star golf course… it doesn’t just happen. Smart decisions and plenty of rolling up your sleeves every day when you get out of bed adds up over time.