Where are the top courses to play in Minnesota!

BRAINERD, Minnesota – Looking for a new golf destination for next year? Here’s one you probably haven’t considered: Minnesota.

There are two affordable destinations in the Land of 10,000 Lakes that between them grant you access to the majority of the state’s best public golf.

If your goal is to check in, unpack and stay put for a few days while playing top-ranked golf courses, either of these two destinations fill the bill.

Destination No. 1 is Brainerd Minnesota, about two and a half hours northwest of Minneapolis, also known as the Brainerd Lakes area.

If you haven’t heard of Brainerd, it’s likely you’ve never played golf in the Golden Gopher State. You’ll find most of Minnesota’s consensus top 10 public courses in around the Brainerd Lakes, all within 15 to 20 minutes of one another.

All are affiliated with old-line Minnesota resorts clustered around Gull Lake. The courses are: The Classic at Madden’s Resort, Breezy Point Resort’s Deacon’s Lodge course, and the Grandview Resort’s Pines Course.

Also in Brainerd are the Cragun’s Resort & Conference Center’s two new Tom Lehman designs, the Lehman Course and the Dutch Course. Both, unveiled in 2023, are likely to find their way into the state’s top 10 lists as the national golf magazines’ raters take note.

Glenn Hagberg, head golf professional at Madden’s Resort on Gull Lake, said the local resorts recognize their guests will likely want to try other courses. “If someone from out of state calls and says, we’d like to come to the Brainerd Lakes area, we’ll house them at Madden’s, and that’ll be their home base for the week, and we’ll line them up to play at Cragun’s or at Breezy Point’s Deacon’s Lodge.”

Destination No. 2 is farther north, where you’ll find the consensus No. 1 and 2 courses in Minnesota: Giants Ridge and the Wilderness at Fortune Bay. Stay at the tribally owned casino hotel at The Wilderness or in one of the cabins at Giants Ridge and play those two courses, plus Giants Ridge’s second course, the Legend, which has ranked in the state’s top 10.

For ambitious road trippers, it’s possible to play all the above in a week or so, starting at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, heading northwest to Brainerd (151 miles), then north of Duluth to Tower and Biwabik, Minnesota, (178 miles) and back to Minneapolis (228 miles).

You can cut out some of the driving by visiting just one destination. Or you can fly directly into Brainerd via Delta’s daily flight and start your road trip there.

All of these courses are bargains considering the design quality and conditioning, with rates running between $115 to $160, with the three up north costing $115 to $130.

When should you go? Minnesota’s relatively short golf season runs from May through October, but the best chance of good weather is June through September. Rates drop near the end of the season.

Here’s your guide to the best public golf in Minnesota:

Cragun’s Resort’s Lehman and Dutch courses. This resort, established in 1940, used to have too difficult Robert Trent Jones Jr. courses. For a drastic makeover, the resort called in Minnesota native Tom Lehman who in 2022 bulldozed both. The resort’s two new courses afford players more generous fairways and fewer forced carries. Both are eminently playable resort courses, but the Dutch Course (destined to be a 27-hole rotation by next summer) is enough of a test to host a PGA Tour Americas event over the Labor Day weekend.

Cragun’s course stats: Lehman Course Par 72, 7,258 yards, white tees rating/slope: 74.4/134; Dutch Course Par 72, 7,491 yards, 70.2/129.

The Classic at Madden’s Resort on Gull Lake. The Classic is one of several of Madden’s golf offerings, one of which dates to 1926. But by all accounts, The Classic, which opened in 1997, is the best of the lot. It’s ranked by Golfweek at T2 among public courses in Minnesota, and it’s a long-time fixture on Golf Digest’s list of the top 100 public courses in the U.S. Madden’s is an uphill-downhill parkland-style affair with tight tree-lined fairways which can prove difficult for bogey golfers.

The Classic’s course stats: Par 72, 7,102 yards, white tees rating/slope 71/136.

Breezy Point Resort’s Deacon’s Lodge Course. This Arnold Palmer/EdSeay design, which opened in 1999, is unique among Brainerd’s courses in that neither houses nor the sound of nearby roads intrude on your round. Poor tee shots can lead to severe sidehill lies in thick hay if you miss its elevated fairways. Deacon’s Lodge is the other T2 on Golfweek’s best-of-Minnesota list, and it was formerly ranked among Golf Digest’s list of the top 100 U.S. public courses.

Deacon’s Lodge course stats: 72, 6,943 yards. white tees rating/slope 70.1/130.

Grandview Lodge’s Pines Course. This tree-;oned parkland course, one of two at the resort, has a friendly, local country club vibe. Its three nines are the Lakes, Woods and Marsh, with the longest combination being the Lakes-Woods – a deceptively difficult layout that’s quite tight with plenty of water. For big hitters, it’s best to play conservatively off the tee during your first round.

The Pines Course’s Lake-Woods combination stats: Par 72, 7,003 yards, white tees rating/slope: 70.6/1

Giants Ridge Quarry and Legend courses. The Quarry owns the top spot in Minnesota. Opened in 1997 on the site of a former sand and gravel quarry and an iron mine, some of the terrain features employed by designers Jeffrey Brauer and Lanny Wadkins are evocative of golf in Ireland. The signature hole, No. 13, a short downhill par 4 features a blind approach over a tall ridge, echoing The Dell at the Old Course at Lahinch. Also opened in 1997, The Legend, another Jeffrey Braurer design, is a kinder, gentler version of the Quarry. It has few visual tricks and is a “What You See is What You Get” course, even if your eye is often drawn to intimidating ravines between the tee and its generous fairways. The Legend has had its own turn on Golf Digest’s top 100 public courses in the U.S. list.

Giants Ridge course stats: Quarry Course Par 72, 7,301 yards, white tees rating/slope 70.5/132; The Legend Course: Par 72, 6,930 yards, white tees rating/slope 70.2/132.

The Wilderness at Fortune Bay. Wide fairways plus the occasional split fairway and numerous exposed rock outcroppings are the Wilderness’s most notable features. The elevation changes are significant and the greens are wildly undulating two-tiered mostly elevated affairs. Notable is the green of the Par 4 5th hole, which has its own Valley of Sin, a four-foot-deep swale, that bisects the putting surface. The green surrounds, if mown down, would see borderline approach shots dribbling off the green and rolling many yards downhill. This 2005 course, also by Jeffrey Brauer design, is a visual feast.

The Wilderness at Fortune Bay course stats: Par 72, 7,207 yards, white tees rating/slope 70.4/131.

(Dan Vukelich is the online editor of AlabamaGolfNews.com. He’s a member of the Golf Travel Writers of America and the Golf Writers Association of America. He lives in Albuquerque, N.M. Reach him at dan@alabamagolfnews.com.)