Fairways & Greens - Minnesota

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.

Have you ever been reluctant to play a golf course… for whatever reason? Maybe there was another course in the area you loved that kept pulling you away. Maybe you only play Top 100 or private golf courses? Whatever the reason… have you ever been reluctant to play a golf course, then played it, and kicked yourself hard for the number of times you missed out on playing it earlier?

The New Richmond Golf Club is as solid as they come. It features some of the best golf holes in Western Wisconsin, a practice facility with few equals and a clubhouse that echoes the stately atmosphere of those types of places that beckon you to hang out after a round. On top of all that they’ve added a new set of eyes with a philosophy that target’s adding more fun to the whole mix.

I found one such cat in a bag 35 miles south of St. Paul – in Cannon Falls – at a course whose name indicates that they might wish I’d actually found a cat there – Gopher Hills Golf Course. You’ve heard about them before… it’s not like they’re a “best kept secret” anymore. But I don’t think people realize just how much good golf you can get in there.

As you wind along the Apple River on your approach into Bristol Ridge country it might feel like you’ve arrived into the backwoods of rural America but in fact you are only minutes from the newly opened St. Croix River Crossing Bridge. That feeling gets another boost from the fact there are no houses on this course. So, the bridge… is good for The Ridge.

Northfield, Minnesota offers golfers one of those “just rural enough” escapes. At only 30 miles south of Bloomington, just off I35, Willingers Golf Club is a course that’s easy to get to and even easier to enjoy, making repeat “escapes” there essentially a given. “But there are rural golf courses everywhere,” you say. True. But most of them aren’t like this one.

It’s comforting to know that under the ‘new normal’ fairways will still climb and fall providing landing zones that challenge our accuracy. It’s also reassuring that greens will roll and tilt requiring a keen eye to read the nuances on slope. These are the basics, the same tests that have been in place since modern golf emerged from the Scottish Highlands in the 15th century.

On a very recent visit in mid-May we rolled into the parking lot under the bright sunshine, we unpacked our clubs and were guided to our luxury carts under the new check-in procedures smartly in-place. We hit a round of warmup shots on the no-touch driving range and then sank a few putts on the large, well-spaced practice green. You could feel the positive vibe in the air.