Reconnecting with our golf mecca
What an August it was.
For the Labor Day Dream 36, Glen Hasselberg and his daughter, Dana Hasselberg, and I played almost every golf course in the Brainerd lakes area in search of the best golf holes.
We started July 16 with temperatures hovering around 50. I, in my stocking cap, Dana, in two pairs of pants and three shirts, and Glen, wearing every piece of clothing he had in his large golf bag, played Golden Eagle in Fifty Lakes to start our journey.
From there we played at least 27 holes a day for eight days with a break once in awhile so Glen could play in the Senior MGA Northern Tour, I could go to the dentist and Dana could move into a new apartment.
During this tour the majority of our conversations revolved around golf. Glen is the longtime girls' and boys' golf coach at Staples-Motley. He's in the Minnesota Golf Coaches' Association Hall of Fame and is a former president of the organization.
The Dispatch golf panel gave the view from the clubhouse at The Preserve at Grand View Lodge top honors among lakes area golf courses.
Dana, a math teacher at Sartell High School, will head into her second season as a junior high golf coach. The former Cardinal was a member of two state championship teams and one runner-up finish. She's a tournament organizer for the Minnesota Junior PGA.
Me. I just like golf. So it was enjoyable to hear golf stories and watch how good players attack downhill putts on lightning-quick greens.
After each round of golf, we would find a quiet place to select our dream holes. At each venue that spot usually came with a great view. So we decided to rate the best clubhouse views. Winning this award was The Preserve at Grand View Lodge. The complete view of the first and 10th holes and the ninth and 18th greens is amazing.
Close seconds went to the Legacy Courses at Cragun's, The Pines, Ruttger's Bay Lake Lodge and Cuyuna Country Club.
Many hours were spent in golf carts so we decided to rate those, too. The winner of the best golf carts goes to the Legacy Courses at Cragun's. The GPS is very nice. Just getting GPS units this year were the Pines and Preserve so they got honorable mention with Breezy Point Resort's Whitebirch also in the mix thanks to all the storage space.
As a group we liked to play fast, but fortunately for the courses and unfortunately for us we would run into slower groups. This gave us time to sneak into the woods and find golf balls. That or one of my drives would force us in there. So we rated which courses were the best to find golf balls. Winning this prestigious award was the Preserve again followed by The Legacy, Deacon's Lodge and The Lakes Course at Ruttger's.
If we were finding a lot of balls that usually meant other people were losing a lot of them. So we decided to rate the hardest course to lose a ball. That pick was Eagles Landing. Pine Beach East, Whitebirch and Little Falls Country Club were close behind.
We experienced all sizes of greens from the largest green in Minnesota at Emily Greens and what many would consider its closest competition at Eagles Landing to the small greens of Birch Bay, Black Bear and Pine River Country Club.
The fastest greens, however, belonged to the Legacy Courses at Cragun's. Honorable mention went to The Classic, Pine Beach West and the Pines.
It's been 10 years since I last did a tour of the lakes area golf course like this. It was when I first started writing about golf. I wanted to acquaint myself with all the courses and so I went and played them all. During this recent tour, however, there was one thing that kept catching my attention and that was how much each course has grown or improved.
I'd like to think if Golf Digest Magazine ever did another list of the world's top golf destinations that the lakes area would move up on that list now that the courses have had time to mature.
jeremy millsop, sports writer, may be reached at jeremy.millsop@brainerddispatch.com or at 855-5856.