This doesn’t look like your typical rural Minnesota farmland course, does it?

We visited Montgomery Golf Club this week to take advantage of their weekday early bird special ($20 walking before 9am). Montgomery is about a 40 minute drive south of the metro area (we took the route down I-35 that goes past the Willingers entrance in Northfield).

Montgomery is the prolific Joel Goldstrand’s first design and was not at all what I was expecting. The course has some significant elevation changes, holes with tight, tree-lined fairways and several holes with water and wetland areas that force you to think your way past them.

The short 301-yard par four twelfth hole (pictured above) was one of my favorites. It had a split fairway over a wetland that gave you the choice of an iron to the left side or a chance to drive the green via the right fairway. I chose the latter, but found out I was tempting fate with an extreme narrowing of the landing area as you get closer to the green.

Montgomery plays to 6,540 yards from the tips, with a rating and slope combination of 71.3/126.