Last fall, Golf World magazine weighed in with their first ever course rankings and published their 2009 Golf World Readers’ Choice Awards. Readers voted on courses based on multiple criteria, including clubhouse, condition of course, speed of play, service, reputation and overall value. Courses were divided into public, private and resort categories. With readers doing the ratings, some of the lists are very different from the traditional rankings.

Minnesota was snubbed in the list of top 38 golf destinations in North America and Europe, but five of our courses scored at least 75 points (out of either 100, 110 or 120 possible, depending on category):

• Giants Ridge Golf & Ski Resort, Biwabik
• Hazeltine National GC, Chaska
• Interlachen CC, Edina
• Madden’s on Gull Lake, Brainerd
• Northland CC, Duluth

All three of the private courses listed above made the top 50 private list overall, with Northland at number 15 with a score of 91.57, Hazeltine at number 19 (91.1) and Interlachen at number 38 (87.62). While Giants Ridge and Madden’s did not make the top 50 public or resort lists, the former was listed as ninth overall for quality of courses.

In private course individual categories, Northland really cleaned up: tenth overall for quality of course, eighth for speed of play, T-7 for locker room and second overall for dining. Think there are a few Golf World readers in Duluth?

Congrats to these outstanding courses!