7 Minute Miles

Round 11 – Town and Country


Way back on June 3, I finally got to cross off one of the Minnesota private courses I’ve wanted to play for a long, long time – Town and Country Club in St. Paul. Thanks to the Minnesota Golf Course Superintendents’ Association turfgrass fundraiser, I was able to tee it up with three friends on the course I’ve driven by my entire life.

Several people that I told about this outing couldn’t wait to hear my opinion of the course. I’ll say this – Town and Country is a very interesting golf course. I didn’t dislike the course, but the tight setting (around 100 acres) creates many unique hole situations that you don’t usually see around here.

For example, there are back-to-back par three holes on the front nine, while the back nine finishes par three, par five, par five, par five, par three. The par four seventh and eighth holes run parallel to the busy Cretin Avenue on the left, which made me way too nervous.

The course oozes history, though, and there are a number of great holes throughout the layout. Established in 1888, Town and Country is the oldest course in the state and one of the oldest in the country (when reviewing courses still in the same location). Conditioning was perfect throughout.

We played from the 6,092-yard white tees, which have a course rating of 70.0 and a slope of 128 (par 72). I didn’t play a particularly great round, but did birdie the 526-yard, par five twelfth hole.

Originally published by DK on July 16, 2009 at 5:39 pm in Golf, Longform


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