Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2017 - 12
DRIVING
MINNESOTA
* BY JOSEPH OBERLE *
LEGENDS CLUB
G
olfers in the Twin Cities are spoiled,
and they may not even know it. We
have some incredible choices when it
comes to daily fee golf in the metro.
And for golfers who are always looking for a new
challenge, a little drive time and extra gas money
are all that's needed for a new challenge every week.
It wasn't always like this. Municipal courses were
the bastion of public golf until we began seeing
privately owned public courses open (including
Lakeview Golf in Orono in 1956 and Daytona Golf
Club in Dayton in 1964). But beginning in the late
1980s and early '90s, golf became a good business
proposition (just like the current craft beer industry,
see page 14). Tiger Woods joined the Pro Tour in
1996, and suddenly the golf business was booming.
We saw huge growth during that period-144 new
courses were built in the state from 1988 to 2010,
and 93 of them were daily fee courses.
Nowadays, Woods' game isn't exactly booming,
as he struggles to regain his form after numerous
injuries, and golf as a business is a more challenging
proposition. But what we gained from that
boom never really went away: Excellent facilities,
top-notch course conditioning, varied and beautiful
natural locales, and exciting golf challenges all
remain, and, in fact, have improved. Competition
among golf courses has created an incredible environment
for golf consumers to decide where and
in what format they want to play-like at Ridges at
Sand Creek in Jordan, which formed in 2000, near
the end of the boom.
" There have been a lot of changes, " Ridges owner
and director of golf Mike Malone says. " The demand
was heavy around 2000. [But] you had to get creative
to get people out golfi ng during the recession. "
Courses were built with multiple tees to attract
every sector of the golfi ng public. Special events
(such as a women's clinic followed by three holes of
golf and a social) and updated equipment (a new
fl eet of golf carts this spring) are just some of the
ways Ridges has worked to bring back golfers.
" Continuous improvement, " Malone says. " Find
out what the players want and try to provide it. "
12
MINNESOTAGOLFER Summer 2017
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Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2017
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2017
Contents
Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2017 - Cover1
Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2017 - Cover2
Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2017 - Contents
Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2017 - 2
Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2017 - 3
Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2017 - 4
Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2017 - 5
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