First Time Golfing ⛳️

Sharon wrote:

For my fellow IDO golfers in the Twin Cities area – where are your favorite courses? I’d like to check out other locations!

The Royal Golf Club in Lake Elmo is an excellent course. I was able to play a lot of golf this summer, and The Royal and Deer Run were 2 of my favorites. Ridges at Sand Creek is a very good value at about $60ish for a round w/ a cart. Bluff Creek ($80ish) and Dahlgren (upper $70) were 2 of the worst values, decent enough courses but should be less expensive imo. Also played with my Dad up north at Eagle View in Park Rapids, and that was…interesting…it’s a Par 65 course (only 1 par 5) and most greens were smaller than a pontoon dance floor.

Oh and came close twice this summer to a hole in 1, once rolling it 3 inches by on a 130 yarder, and another pin seeker from 180 that hit the pin, then came down about 6 inches from the cup. Did have a few eagles though, which is always awesome, one of which was in a tourney.

Played a lot of golf in my life, still don’t have a hole in one :(. Been very close a number of times, holed out for eagle from the fairway ~6 times, but not hole in one. Hit the pin and barely missed out on that albatross on number 11 at Stoneridge during a match play tournament, that would have been legendary. Also missed a hole in one by inches on the 240 yard par 3 during a club championship there, also would have been cool.

Used to play so much more, but like Mahto said, kids make that tough! Only so many hobbies you can maintain as an adult with young kids! Trying to get my youngest into golf a bit, but don’t want to force it and he’s got minimal interest at this point. That, and these days when I get some free time I’m usually at the bouldering gym, a lot cheaper than golf and it keeps me in better shape!

I also live in Mahtomedi, and will second the recommendation for Logger’s Trail, really like that course. It’s also worth checking out St. Croix National if you haven’t played their in awhile. They have that course in fantastic shape, new owners did a ton of renovation on the course and built a BEAUTIFUL clubhouse with a full restaraunt / bar now. There’s also a sweet looking putt putt course there. The course remains kind of wonky, a lot of elevation change, lots of uphill shots into the green, but it’s a fun challenge!

thumper you go to Canada to golf?
Never heard of that.

MX1825 wrote:

thumper you go to Canada to golf?
Never heard of that.

We don’t really go there to golf. Go to chase big pike. With the trip being 7 days we often end up with 1-2 days where the wind makes the fishing difficult. On those days we often golf for at least part of the day if not the full day. Where and how the course is set up the wind is not much of a factor on those windy days. Even on years when we don’t have a windy day we have taken a mid week break to play a little golf. This year the Vikings play on Thur. Night. I would not mind if that ended up being out golf day. Golfing all day and then settling in to watch the Vikings may be a great mid week break. Throwing and reeling big pike lures for 8 hrs a day for 7 days can get a little tiring and hard on the arms, and hands.

BigWerm wrote:

Deer Run

The nice thing about Deer Run is that they require you to finish the round in 4 hours or less. If you fall off the pace, a marshall warns you. If you fall off the pace again, you pick up your ball mid-hole and move up. No lolligagging or slow pokes at that course.

gimruis wrote:

The nice thing about Deer Run is that they require you to finish the round in 4 hours or less. If you fall off the pace, a marshall warns you. If you fall off the pace again, you pick up your ball mid-hole and move up. No lolligagging or slow pokes at that course.

I played there 3 times, and was unaware of this. Guessing it may have changed, as one round was super slow and we were waiting on pretty much every hole on the back nine. Course was in great shape though, and nice amenities for a price that was pretty comparable to much lesser courses.

BigWerm wrote:

as one round was super slow and we were waiting on pretty much every hole on the back nine

They definitely could have changed it, or just were not enforcing when you were either. This was the pre-pandemic policy.

Nothing worse than a 5 or 6 hour round, waiting on every hole for the group ahead.

What does everyone think about Justin Thomas on the Ryder Cup team? I personally think it is BS. Proves the PGA is for sure a good old boy system and Zack is a puppet as a captain. IMHO

That happens on most courses. Just depends on how hard they actually enforce it. One of the things that got me hooked on Victory Links was the first time I went out there it was really slow after the first three holes, and the marshal came by and asked us what we were drinking. I thought he was seeing if we were the ones holding things up but he actually met us on the next tee with a round of our drinks on the house and apologized for the slow play!