We played The Summit Golf Club in Cannon Falls yesterday for the first time this year. It’s been one of my favorites the past few years, as there are a number of interesting holes, no houses on the course and all bentgrass tees, fairways and greens. It’s usually not very crowded and that was the case yesterday on an otherwise beautiful Saturday morning.

The first thing we noticed was the newly paved entry road and parking lot. There were also several new cement cart paths and they were starting to build a deck off the back of the small clubhouse. I joked with the manager at the desk that green fees must be going up this year. He said they had sold two more 1% ownership shares (now $50,000 each) and they put all of the money back into the course as capital improvements.

Originally priced at $40,000 per share, buyers received a 1% ownership share and 150 passes each year that could be used however you wanted. You could play all 150 rounds yourself, give them away, us them for business or sell them. The course, which was named Best New Affordable Public Course in Minnesota by Golf Digest in 2002, was built on land costing about $3500 per acre. Asking price of land for sale now next to the course: $40,000 per acre. Not a bad return for the original investors, eh?

As for the round, I played well on the front nine, but tired out quickly on the hilly back nine and closed with three triple-bogeys in a row–something I haven’t done in a long, long time. The trees along holes 1, 6 and 10 are maturing nicely and will really change the nature of those holes in a few more years. The greens were really fast and the closing holes still have my number. I need to get back there again soon to get my revenge on those holes…DK