Fairways & Greens - Minnesota

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

In 1969, Chomonix Golf Course opened as a private nine-hole course. Today’s Chomonix is a wooded 6,500-yard, 18-hole beauty owned and operated by Anoka County.

I LOVE hidden gems and I LOVE to write about them. Minnesota has a handful of them and when you get down to southeast Minnesota there’s a 9-hole gem in La Crescent, and an 18-hole one just up the Mississippi River in Winona – The Bridges.

Perhaps it’s a bit odd to introduce one golf course by introducing three (all under the same ownership). If you live in the Twin Cities and haven’t heard of the River Valley Golf Trail, you should look it up. Right now.

There is no golf course on the Minnesota side of the Mississippi River with the vista’s and panoramic views quite like Mount Frontenac. It’s their calling card so to speak.

The regal drive up to the clubhouse should be a dead giveaway that you are about to embark on a special round of golf. With those enticing fairways on both sides of you framed by the mature maple trees lining the drive, you will find yourself in a picture perfect, dare I say Irish countryside setting, be assured Kilkarney Hills will deliver on your anticipation.

There is always a palatable energy at Clifton Highlands. Whether you are out on the course taking on those undulating greens, or sitting around the horseshoe bar with friends enjoying a refreshment, things are always buzzing.