Minnesota Golfer - Directory 2025 - 21

see Tim Bergland, former Gophers and
NHL hockey player and former longtime
boys' hockey coach at hometown Thief
River Falls High. Walk out of the clubhouse
and you'll see an 18-hole public
golf course built around both sides of the
serpentine Thief River.
Half the holes are doglegs on a course
that manager Dusty Carlson calls friendly
to lefthanded players. The club was established
in 1922, with a 1993 iteration
designed by Tom Haugen, whose credits
also include Stonebrooke in Shakopee
and Siren National in Wisconsin.
Carlson calls TRGC " underappreciated, "
with a front nine that's traditional
and a back nine that continues to grow on
him. " The vast majority of our out-of-town
golfers like the back nine the most, " he
says. " It's a lot more challenging. You can
get yourself in trouble back there really easily,
but it's also pretty wide open as long as
you don't make any crazy mistakes. "
No. 8 is a scenic 206-yard par 3 that
drops to the river, crosses it and rises back
up to the green. No. 18 is a par 4-431
yards off the back tees-that twice crosses
the river. Frequent flooding is being mitigated
by raising the fairway by up to 4 feet,
under a plan approved by the Minnesota
Department of Natural Resources.
More to Explore
Don't forget to check out these other
courses in northwest Minnesota.
Karlstad Golf Club
Karlstad
Just up the road from its namesake town
and the intersection of US-59 and MN-11
is a public nine-holer, the Karlstad Golf
Club. Opened on the eve of World War
II, the venerable layout maxes out at 2,845
yards, and the strategically placed trees
and multiple doglegs (there are four all
together) make the par-35 a challenge to
match. Karlstad saves the best for last, as
the penultimate and final holes-the 528yard,
par-5 eighth and the 355-yard, par-4
ninth-play as the Nos. 2 and 1 handicap
stroke holes. Bring your A-game.
Twin Pines Golf Course
Bagley
Twin Pines
in Bagley,
established in
1960, is a public nine-holer, 3,242 yards
off the back tees. The course is mostly
unadorned except for narrow tree lines
alongside many fairways. No. 4-380
yards-calls for a drive down the left side
and to the top of a hill. A water hazard at
the bottom of the hill is reachable off the
tee for long hitters. Large spruces guard
both sides of the green. No. 5, at 540
yards off the back tees, is the longest hole
and has the largest green. The course is
named for a pair of trees that narrow the
approach to the ninth green.
Negotiate that approach, landing by
the pin, and it might feel like you've split
the pipes and hit the back of the net.
Valley Golf Course
East Grand Forks
This public, par-73 course in East Grand
Forks
features
two distinctly different
nines: a front that's links-style with large
greens and 24 bunkers, and a back that's
parkland-style. The course was established
in 1971 and expanded to 18 holes
in 1987, but nine holes were abandoned
after by the infamous Red River flood of
1997, and a new nine, designed by Martin
Krueger, was built a few hundred yards
east of the river.
Morgan Hetletved worked her first year
as clubhouse manager in 2024. She won the
North Dakota girls' high school championship
in 2017 and the women's Birchmont
International in Bemidji in 2023. Her favorite
hole at Valley is the first, a par 4 that features
a tee shot to lay up short of a bunker,
then a sharp right turn and an approach of
about 160 yards to a green protected by a
bunker on the left and water on the right
(it's a mallard-shaped pond, so don't hit a
duck hook).
Water comes into play on 12 of Valley's
18 holes. The course rating is 73.9 off the
back tees, and the slope is 134.
Valley Golf Course
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21
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Minnesota Golfer - Directory 2025

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