The course redesign by Garrett Gill of Cannon Golf Club opened for play this Friday in Cannon Falls.

Some of the major changes include:

• Retirement of the old par three eleventh and sixteenth holes.
• Changed the old seventeenth hole to a dogleg left (now the fifteenth).
• Moved the fairway of the third hole to the top of the ridge.
• Created new par four sixteenth and par three seventeenth holes.
• Built a new tee on the par five eighteenth hole.

We had a scheduled 1:18 tee time on Saturday, which was pushed back about 45 minutes due to a frost delay earlier in the day. Unfortunately, this also led to our first five hour round of the year. The course needs to do a better job of managing golfers on the course–there were a number of gaps caused by slow groups not being in position. After all of the marketing this course has done this year (and will likely continue to do with the new changes), it will be disappointing if they cannot handle the increased crowds.

As for the on-course changes, it’s a mixed bag. The two par three holes that were eliminated won’t be missed and the change to the old seventeenth is a great improvement. Something had to be done to the third hole, but I’m not convinced that keeping the back tees down the hill was the best option. The new hole looks and plays much better from the top of the ridge and would be a great short par four hole for all tees, but I’m sure the distance was needed for the overall course total. Not sure I like the blind tee shot from the white and blue tees, but maybe it will grow on me.

The new sixteenth and seventeenth holes lack pizazz, but with a flat, open field, there isn’t really much you can do. It would be nice to see some trees and a water feature added between those holes (which appears may be coming later). The par three seventeenth is actually a nice looking hole already (see above)–hopefully the addition of housing won’t spoil it too much.

Golfing in Minnesota plans to get some comments from the architect–watch for an update coming soon…