Summers are short in Minnesota, but the days
are long, and golf-mad locals make the most of them. With daylight lingering
until 9:30 in peak season, locals find it easy to get a round in after work or
play 36 on a day off. In fact, Minnesotans are more passionate about golf than
everything else but fishing. Angling, especially for walleye, is more religion
than pastime in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Not by coincidence, a majority of the
state’s premier public courses are located on or near bounteous fishing
spots.
These pleasures are well-suited to vacationers as
well, even in the fall, when temperatures are still agreeable and the foliage
has turned to vibrant colors. Most full-service Minnesota golf resorts are clustered in the Brainerd Lakes region around the town of Brainerd, located about two hours north of Minneapolis and St. Paul. A visit to Brainerd Lakes is a step back in time, one in which you can
experience something akin to the lazy days of New York’s Catskills. More like summer camps
than hotels, Brainerd’s resorts feature supervised children’s programs and
outdoor activities such as horseshoes and volleyball. Each has a wide assortment
of lodging options, from quaint lakefront cabins to modern condos to standard
hotel rooms, and most offer old-fashioned rate plans that include all meals.
Vacationing families are abundant here throughout the summer, but you don’t need
children to enjoy Brainerd. In fact, with spacious lodging and bargain-price
golf—to a Minnesotan, green fees over $100 are an absurdity—these resorts are
ideal for an autumn getaway after the kids have trudged back to
school.
Madden’s on Gull Lake has the area’s best course and its
most old-timey, camp-like feel. Cabins, villas and hotel rooms are scattered
along a lake and throughout the vast property, along with a tennis and croquet
center, bonfire pits, a barbecue pavilion and other outdoor facilities. But the
main attraction is the Classic, the first and only design by Scott Hoffmann, the
resort’s longtime course superintendent, who knew the terrain intimately from
hunting and hiking it. The wonderful opening hole, a par-5 with a welcoming tee
shot to a wide-open fairway, is a good way to get in the swing of things. From
the landing area, the fairway drops downhill and the green is offset behind a
small lake. Those who want to take a risk right out of the gate can go for it,
but a short lay-up and wedge approach allows for a respectable opening par. Next
comes a short par-3 over water, then another fine risk-reward hole, a drivable
par-4 requiring all carry over water to get home in one. The Classic continues
in this wonderfully rhythmic vein, weaving one unique hole after
another.
Madden’s two other courses, Pine Beach East and
West, are the area’s oldest, and are so different from the Classic as to suggest
schizophrenia. The latter is an upscale daily-fee facility with a beautiful new
stone-and-timber clubhouse, while the other two are unkempt municipal-style
tracts. But the Pine Beach courses are open to guests on the
American Plan and ideal for occasional or first-time golfers (e.g., a
non-golfing spouse). Madden’s also offers the Social 9, a surprisingly difficult
par-3 layout that will quickly sharpen your short game.
Grand View Lodge offers the most golf in the area,
and there’s even more on the way. Most of the guest rooms here are in the
impressive log cabin-style lodge itself, but large lakeside cottages with decks,
kitchens and fireplaces are also available. Additional lodging options are
offered at two of its golf complexes, the nearby 27-hole Pines and the Deacon’s
Lodge course, situated 20 minutes away. Deacon’s Lodge is an Arnold Palmer
design, one that’s unique in the region for its plateau fairways cut from dense
forest and wetlands. Seemingly removed from civilization, it sprawls through a
nearly 500-acre parcel with a private and primordial feel. Fairways and greens
are generous, but the greens are severely undulating and easy to
three-putt.
Grand View also has two other first-rate golf
facilities. Laid out by Minnesota’s own PGA Tour veteran Mike Morley,
the Preserve is a wide-open, rollicking course that’s good for the ego (with 11
friendly downhill tee shots). The 27-hole Pines is another pleasant and playable
resort course with three distinct nines. The Marsh, teeming with murky water
hazards, is the best, and the choicest combination is Marsh and Lakes. A new
nine is on the drawing board at the Pines, which, when completed, will yield a
golf complex of two 18-holers. Finally, for those short on time, there’s the
nine-hole Garden course.
