Golf, Just for Fun

Nobody ever said golf had to be tackled in hungry-man helpings of 7,000-yard championship courses with pot bunkers, massive hazards, and the machismo of Brock Lesnar in a wrestling singlet. The game, remember, should be fun, and it can be. There’s proof virtually in your back yard. Here’s the long and short of fun golf in the Twin Cities.

Short Stuff
Hone your stroke at the Centennial Lakes Park putting course in Edina, which offers an eighteen-hole round played on bentgrass greens (i.e. the real thing). Holes range in length from fifty-seven to one hundred and twenty-five feet, and there are sand traps and ponds to boot.

“It’s unique, not your typical putt-putt course,” says Tom Shirley, the park manager. “There are beautiful settings, and the holes always play a little differently because we’re able to move the cups around.”

Holes-in-one are tough to come by, though. If you can navigate eighteen holes in fifty strokes or less, you might be the next Ben Crenshaw.

Country Air Golf Park, just off Interstate 94 in Lake Elmo, might be the best place around for the four-year-old Michelle Wie-in-waiting. It’s an eighteen-hole pitch-and-putt course (real fairways, bentgrass greens) with a longest hole of less than ninety yards and is a great fit for the raw beginner or for an hour or two of family bonding.

If you’re into the really short courses—in other words, miniature golf—a couple of favorites are Adventure Gardens in Richfield and Island Lake in Shoreview.

Medium-Sized Fun
Under this heading fall dozens of metro-area par-3 and “executive” courses, the latter term referring generally to courses of 2,000 yards or less and pars of 32 or less. There are gems all over the place.

One is the Eagle course at Eagle Lake Youth Golf Center in Plymouth, with a par of 31 and a longest hole of 312 yards. As with many par-3 and executive courses, “the big thing with Eagle Lake is that it’s a fun environment,” says golf operations supervisor Troy Nygaard. “You don’t have to feel any pressure. You’re welcome no matter your level of golf.”

Eagle Lake also has a par-3 Birdie course, with a longest hole of ninety yards and lighting that allows you to play until 10:30 on summer nights.

Executive golf is an unrecognized treasure in the Twin Cities. Dozens of courses present consistent challenges, but not withering ones. Best of all, nine holes usually takes two hours or less.

Applewood Hills, just off Highway 36 west of Stillwater, is the East Metro’s version of upscale executive golf. The par-62 layout winds through an apple orchard, has water on several holes, and is finely conditioned. Green fees are $13 for nine holes on weekdays, $15 on weekends.

If executive golf is an unrecognized treasure, then the West Metro is the treasure chest. Start with Chaska Par 30, which combines beauty (water, sand, tree-lined fairways), pedigree (designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr., who also designed a modest little place down the road called Hazeltine National Golf Club), and economy ($7 to $13, depending on age, date of play, and residence).

The booty continues with the Evergreen Course at Baker National in Medina, Theodore Wirth Par 3 in Minneapolis (excellent location and access), and the Fred Richards Executive Course in Edina (two flagstick positions, one easy and one harder, on each hole).

Golf & Gamble
Casino golf makes for an outstanding day trip—or day/night trip, if the slot machines beckon. Dacotah Ridge Golf Club, located in Morton, 110 miles west of Minneapolis, was ranked fourteenth among Minnesota golf courses (public and private) in 2005 by Golf Digest.

Renowned architect Rees Jones, son of Robert Trent Jones Sr., contoured Dacotah Ridge into a course befitting the western Minnesota prairie. “It’s a 240-acre setting, so there’s a vastness,” says Peter Kurvers, the club’s PGA professional. “Its strength is the variety of the holes and the cadence.” Holes sixteen through eighteen, through the trees and ridges surrounding Wabasha Creek, make for a strong finishing touch. The $55 twilight rate (with cart) is a nice value.

Along with the typical golf-and-gamble packages offered by casinos, Dacotah Ridge plans this year to offer a poker-and-golf package, tailored to groups of eight to twelve or more, with a private Texas hold-’em tournament held at adjacent Jackpot Junction. “You can mix two passions together in two days,” Kurvers says.

The newest casino course is also the closest to home for Twin Citians. The Meadows at Mystic Lake Golf Course, attached to Mystic Lake Casino in Prior Lake, received limited play last fall and expects to hold its grand opening in May or June. At 7,144 yards and a slope (difficulty factor) of an imposing 142, The Meadows will be a handful from the back tees. But with five sets of tees, less intrepid players shouldn’t feel too intimidated.

Those who remember The Meadows’ site, the former Lone Pine Golf Course, might be surprised at the transformation: more than 1,000 trees added; water on thirteen holes, including twenty fountains and five waterfalls; and eleven acres of native flowers planted in waste areas. Tee times will be set at a relatively leisurely interval of twelve minutes.

Fair-Weather Golf
The long and short of golfing for fun in the Twin Cities can be found in one place: at the half-dozen or so venues with golf simulators, technological contraptions that, well, simulate an actual round of golf from tee to green. Whack the ball into a large TV screen that displays a golf hole and play the round, shot by shot, in rain-or-shine indoor comfort.

“A lot of people call us the bowling alley of golf,” says Ed Boeve, of the Bunker Indoor Golf Center in West St. Paul. “There are TVs next to each simulator. It’s kind of a sports bar atmosphere.”

The Bunker’s two metro locations, in West St. Paul and Minnetonka, feature twelve simulators each. For a time, Boeve says, these were the largest simulator venues in the world. There is league play, and the two locations are busy enough that tee times are suggested for weekend play.

There’s no way to simulate a thirty-mile-per-hour crosswind, but otherwise, the simulators are generally true to life. “If you hit an 8-iron one hundred and fifty yards outside, you’re going to hit it one hundred and fifty yards here,” Boeve says.

The thrill of simulator golf is the pantheon of championship courses that can be played—Pebble Beach, Riviera, St. Andrews, Kapalua, and Torrey Pines, to mention just a few. “You bring all your clubs and play a course just like you would outside,” Boeve says. “We have some of the nicer places from around the world, and it costs you thirty bucks instead of three hundred.”