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).