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Clubhouse, The Wilderness at Fortune Bay, Tower, Minnesota

January 5, 2012 on the 10th Tee: 41F, The Wilderness at Fortune Bay, Tower, Minnesota

http://www.golfthewilderness.com/layout9.asp?id=215&page=6712

http://www.pebblebeach.com/golf/pebble-beach-golf-links/live-golf-cams/hole17

http://www.startribune.com/local/west/135554893.html

11th Hole, The Wilderness at Fortune Bay, Tower, Minnesota

Pretty good year for golf:

• 35 official rounds for handicap
• 18 rounds on The Wilderness at Fortune Bay
• GHIN index dropped from 15.1 to 11.6
• Low round of 81 (9/10/11 at Willingers)

Some Minnesota courses are still open, but I’m probably done until spring…

Third Hole, Ridges at Sand Creek, Jordan, Minnesota

Apparently I’m getting rusty when it comes to reporting Minnesota golf course news, as I completely missed the fact that my home course, The Wilderness at Fortune Bay, is doing a little construction in the off season. Good thing I actually read the course newsletter this month…

Our superintendent Vince Dodge writes:

A few of the projects that will be noticeable to the golfing public next season will be the addition of a new white tee on 3 as well as a white tee enlargement on 7. These two tees in particular have taken a beating from heavy wear in past years and the additional teeing area should help us to avoid this in the future. In addition, the new tee on 3 offers a different angle and overall feel of the hole that should be of interest in coming years.

Seven tee is expected to re-open in June, while the new white tee on three should open in August. It also looked like there was some drain work being done on eight fairway, near the 100 yard marker.

I took a rather melancholy walk around the course this afternoon with the camera. Today would have been a great day to play, with nice fall temps and still perfect tees and fairways. A few shots of the construction zones, along with a few other holes (all covered up and waiting for winter), after the jump.

16th Fairway, The Wilderness at Fortune Bay, Tower, Minnesota

Today might have been the last round of the year for me – cold weather golf is just not my thing any more. I thought it was going to be a perfect fall day with sunshine and temps in the mid-50s, but the wind in Cannon Falls was absolutely howling all afternoon. Good thing I had three layers of clothing to work with as the day went on…

Our group visited The Summit Golf Club in Cannon Falls, which had a great $24 walking special. I haven’t played there since July of last year and have generally held a high opinion of this course. I don’t know if my poor scoring colored my view today, but I’m starting to feel that there are too many tricked up holes to play here on a regular basis (particularly over courses like Willingers and Ridges at Sand Creek).

Aside from the wind, course conditions were good for late fall. Greens were smooth and fairways were dry, which provided a lot of roll. I was striking the ball OK, but just couldn’t deal with the wind. Limited landing areas on many holes plus 40+MPH winds made for way too many sevens on my scorecard.

Time for skis and snowshoes?

Got it down to 11.8 – lowest ever?

Fall Colors on the Ninth Green, The Wilderness at Fortune Bay, Tower, Minnesota

426-yard, par four thirteenth hole, Ridges at Sand Creek, Jordan, Minnesota

It seems like almost every golf course I play on a regular basis has at least one nemesis hole where I never score well. At this point, screw ups on these holes are almost all mental (although some holes are just plain hard). I imagine the pros have a similar feeling about the seventeenth at TPC Sawgrass – you know it’s coming, you know all the details of the hole, yet it still has the all-too-frequent ability to mushroom into a dreaded “other.”

Today’s lovely round at Willingers Golf Club in Northfield had two current nemesis holes for me: the par three seventh (which I don’t think I’ve hit in years) and the par four sixteenth (pictured above). I doubled both today in different fashions:

• Hit the left bank of the seventh green and ricocheted directly into the marsh. Dropped, chipped on and missed the putt.
• Pulled my drive on sixteen into the trees on the left off the tee, dropped and punched out to about 115 yards. Hit a perfect pitching wedge that landed just short of the hole, bounced up, hit the flag stick and rolled long. Missed the putt.

Golf for me really isn’t about scoring these days – I play primarily for the social interaction, being outside on a beautiful day and getting in a good walk. There is still the opportunity for a decent score each time I tee it up, though, so it would be nice if these nemesis holes would give up a par every once in a while…

Hillcrest Golf Club of St. Paul has new owners since the last time I played there – Steamfitters Pipefitters Local 455. I’m pretty sure this is the only union-owned private golf course in Minnesota (and it sounds like one of just a few in the whole country).

This was the third time I’ve played Hillcrest, the first two with former Eagle Eye Photography owner, Steve Smith. Aside from the ownership, nothing much had changed on the course from what I remember. I think some bunkers were removed from the hill fronting the 17th green, but that’s about it.

The greens were typical private course speedy and we couldn’t hold one all day – every approach shot would roll through to the back. With so many elevated greens, being at the back added an extra dimension of fear when putting back to pins located in the front. I also experienced several greens that I just couldn’t read – don’t know if they were optical illusions or what.

It will be interesting to see what happens with this course. It’s not exactly the greatest time to own a golf course, public or private. I know the union paid $4.3 million (in cash even), but I’d love to read the business plan behind that deal. Apparently the purchase agreement includes a commitment to stay private for a minimum of two years.

Hillcrest holds an interesting piece of St. Paul golf history, opening in 1921 as a municipal course and operated as a predominately Jewish private club from 1945 until the late 70s. The current clubhouse opened in 2000 and they’ve been offering numerous specials the past few years in a big marketing effort to stop declining membership. Time will time if the pipefitters have better luck with that goal.

Hillcrest trivia: the 14th tee is the highest point in Ramsey County.

The cold temps this week reminded me that our golf course will be closed for the 2011 season on October 10 (no matter what). Discounted fall rates are in effect and our tee sheet has been jammed all week.

If you’d like to get up here and join me for a round, there are only 25 days left after today…

As part of my effort to start writing more, today I go back to my roots of golf course reporting. Today’s afternoon round was at one of my favorites: Willingers Golf Club near Northfield. I was accompanied by three generations of Millers – Grandpa Al, his son Brad and grandson Sam. We took advantage of the aeration special ($30 walking or riding), which proved popular based on the nearly full parking lot at 1:30PM.

They seem to be using the newer aeration process with smaller holes that heal quickly. To be honest, it was hard to tell that they punched at all this week. The greens seemed to be rolling a little slower than normal, but overall were quite nice. The winter damage I experienced on the sixth fairway this spring was completely healed and most fairways were fine – just some spots here and there.

I wish they would find an extra 64 yards to get the white tees to 6000 yards, as people keep playing the wrong tees for their ability. The group in front of us was terrible, but they seemed to think the blue tees were the place to be. Unfortunately, they also couldn’t keep pace and were out of position most of the day, which led to a 4:40 round. Frustrating.

On the upside, I tied my best score ever, a nine-over 81. I started with five straights pars, followed by bogeys on holes six through ten. I had five more pars on the back nine, but took a double bogey on the difficult par four sixteenth. I pulled my tee shot into a trap on the par three seventeenth, which basically blew any chance of breaking 80 for the first time. Still, it was nice to play an entire round with the same ball for a change.

Last weekend I volunteered about 45 hours over three days at an annual event that is very special to me, the Tapemark Charity Pro-Am. This was the 40th anniversary of the tournament, which is held at Southview Country Club in West St. Paul. I’ve been there for the past ten years and have been responsible for the web site, online scoring, AV presentations and a big chunk of the photography. It’s always a very stressful weekend (especially Saturday night when we determine the cut), but it’s also very rewarding to know I’ve helped raise nearly $7 million for charities dedicated to serving people with developmental and learning disabilities.

I also love seeing this group of people – tournament officials and volunteers, great Minnesota (and regional) golf professionals, amateur players and the wonderful staff of Southview. The camaraderie and tradition in the scoring tent over the three days is unmatched – hot dog runs, White Castle (which I actually skipped this year), Cody vs. code, weather forecasts, live Twins scoring and lots of others make it a weekend like no other.

The pro golf this year on the final day was exciting – the Friday and Saturday leader, Tyler Obermueller, suffered from a bad hangover (premature celebration), Don Berry made his usual charge to the lead (but fell short after a rare bogey on six) and former Gopher Ben Meyers (pictured above) shot an incredible 64 (with an almost unfair bogey on his final hole, the par four ninth). But it was the golfer from Oxbow, Ben Freeman, who carded six birdies on his way to a 65 for the two-stroke win over Berry and Meyers. Not bad for your first pro tournament!

I usually don’t follow the team competition too closely, but team 14 had a career day on Friday, firing an amazing 30-under-par in the net best two ball format. The pro and the “A” am both shot 68s, while the “B” and “C” players both shot in the low 80s. They came back to Earth the second day, but still tied for the overall team championship on Sunday.

Mark your calendars now: the 41st Annual Tapemark will be held June 8-10, 2012.

After more than ten days away, I was very pleased to return today to a northern Minnesota with much less snow and ice. I grabbed the camera and took a stroll around The Wilderness at Fortune Bay and stopped in to chat with GM Tom Beaudry. Green covers are scheduled to start coming off on Wednesday, with a tentative course opening in 3-4 weeks.

Some sections of the course look incredible already, with several fairways still showing their mowing stripes from last season and many tee boxes looking pristine and ready for play. There is a lot of snow and water in spots, however, and I saw a fair amount of snow mold in the rough. Almost all water features are still frozen too.

The forecast this week calls for one more warm, sunny day tomorrow, then lows drop back into the mid-20s the rest of the week.

7MM Wilderness at Fortune Bay Photo Gallery

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to play in the Vice Chairman’s Golf Tournament during the National Indian Gaming Association convention in Phoenix, Arizona. The vice chairman of NIGA also happens to be the tribal chairman for Bois Forte, so it was really an honor to be a part of the Fortune Bay team.

The tournament was held at We-Ko-Pa Golf Club in Fort McDowell, Arizona. There are two 18-hole courses there – Saguaro and Cholla. We played the former, which has been rated the number one public course in Arizona the past four years by Golf Week. It also sits at number 85 on the top 100 modern courses list for 2011.

The weather and people were great, the scenery breathtaking and my golf game actually not that rusty.

Now to bring some of this warm weather back to Minnesota…

7MM NIGA 2011 Golf Tournament Photo Gallery

I haven’t had much desire to write lately, but lots of cool stuff happened last weekend that deserves at least a passing mention…

First off, we went to see the “naked Japanese dudes” at the Walker Art Center. Eiko and Koma’s Gallery 2 exhibit was truly unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. Eerie, reflective, damp and intimate, it really needs to be seen in person to fully appreciate it. Closes November 30, so move fast.

Second, I took a guided tour of the new clubhouse at Hazeltine National in Chaska last Saturday. I unfortunately didn’t take any photos and it appears that their website doesn’t have any yet either, so you’ll just have to take my word that the inside is just beautiful. I wasn’t wild about the exterior design during construction, but I think overall it turned out very nice (and it’s very unique – very Hazeltine). A few notes:

• The new building sits higher and closer to the ninth and eighteenth greens, so the views towards the course are spectacular.
• Wood beams from the old building were used throughout the new structure, giving it a nice historical (and green) storyline.
• The old putting green is gone, replaced by two new ones: a small one near the first tee and a much larger one located at the site of the old practice bunker.
• The driving range was rebuilt with a mock fairway that contains six target greens (three on each side).
• A new indoor practice area is being built in the basement that will include a 9,000-square-foot putting green, a Ping room with launch monitors and video analysis and a simulator bay that will allow play on a virtual Hazeltine.
• The locker rooms are beautiful – sloped roof with lots of windows opening towards the course, light wood lockers with vertical lines and understated handles with engraved member names, large shower heads and nice sitting areas. There is a row of lockers for past Hazeltine champions (Payne Stewart, Rich Beem, Y.E. Yang, etc.) and I felt the mens locker room had a very Zen rock garden feel to it (and a little Frank Lloyd Wright too).
• Like at Augusta, there is a mini “Crow’s Nest” at the top of the clubhouse accessed via a spiral staircase, but I didn’t get to see this.
• The new pro shop seemed smaller to me than the old one, but it reportedly has more display space.
• I loved all of the photos, paintings and historical items displayed throughout the facility, which included original drawings by Robert Trent Jones, Sr. and a lot of USGA and PGA memorabilia.

All of the on-course upgrades were completed before the snow hit, so the course is currently on schedule to re-open in June. The new grass took so well, in fact, that the grounds crew actually mowed on November 1 before placing the winter covers.

Finally, we took the kids to see the animated feature My Dog Tulip at the Edina Cinema. In hindsight, I’m not really sure that it’s an appropriate movie for younger children, but it was very cute. Based on the book by J.R. Ackerley, it starts with a great quote:

Unable to love each other, the English naturally turn to dogs

Lots of good English humour scattered throughout, it definitely merits a viewing when it hits Netflix – especially if you are a dog person.

OK, back to radio silence…

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to play a private course I’ve never visited before, Brackett’s Crossing Country Club in Lakeville. Mr. Miller hosted our foursome (thanks Brad!) and we had wonderful fall weather to play what was likely my last round of the year.

The 6,990-yard, par-71 course was designed by Don Herfort and opened in 1961. We felt the back nine was much stronger than the front nine, but overall the conditioning was great and I enjoyed the round. The greens were very quick, which created all sorts of fun putting situations.

My favorite hole was the 408-yard, par-four fifteenth, which involves a tee shot from an elevated tee across a pond to a dogleg landing area (pictured above).

The pro shop seemed very nice, but I didn’t really get to spend much time in the clubhouse. I think they were hosting a high school dance and the fried food being prepared made the walk up the 18th fairway feel like the state fair.

I’m not sure how many members BCCC has, but lots of them were out Saturday enjoying the rare treat that is mid-October golf in Minnesota.

7MM Brackett’s Crossing Photo Gallery

Two Tapemark Charity Pro-Am regulars battled it out today in a two hole sudden-death playoff on the 18th and 1st holes at the Wilderness at Fortune Bay in Tower. Columbia professional Jeff Sorenson beat Edinburgh USA professional Don Berry by knocking his approach shot on the 649 yard, par five first hole to a few inches.

Berry held a one shot lead heading into the last two holes, but Sorenson birdied the par three seventeenth hole after hitting his tee shot to about four feet. He almost won the tournament in regulation after hitting the flag on eighteen from a perfectly executed green-side bunker shot. Both players made par fours on the first playoff hole.

A pair of Troy Burne professionals (and Tapemark regulars), Dave Tentis and Brent Snyder, tied for third after shooting matching totals of 68-72-140 (-4). Here are the top 10 finishers (full leaderboard):

7 MInute Miles 2010 MN PGA Championship Photo Gallery