Quarry course at Giants Ridge
Minnesota is known as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” but it’s also considered one of America’s hotbeds for great golf, even though players are lucky when there are eight months in the season to play the grand game.
The state is home to about 480 courses, meaning you could play a different one in every month for the next 60 years to get to them all. And while many of the tracks are private – places like Hazeltine National and Interlachen and White Bear Yacht Club – there are plenty of wonderful public and resort courses to challenge your game and stimulate your senses.
For the first of a series of stories on courses in Minnesota, we head to the northeast portion of the state and four courses – 81 holes in all – either designed or renovated by golf architect Jeffrey Brauer, the former president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects.
Brauer, a workingman’s designer known for fashioning courses that offer high-dollar, private-quality experiences, and myriad challenges on a budget, made his mark on the area north and west of Duluth near Lake Superior in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the sublime pair of courses at Giants Ridge in Bibwabik, before moving a little more inland to discover the routing at the fabulous Wilderness at Fortune Bay in Tower in 2005.
Brauer came back to the area five years ago to renovate two of the three nine-hole tracks at Superior National in Lutsen, a three-metal or two from the banks of the giant lake on one of the most stunning sites in the country, if not the world.
A trip to this area – which is some three and a half-hour’s drive from the Twin Cities and a flight and a drive from the remote lakeside outpost of Duluth – takes some want-to and some planning. But after playing these four tracks, you’ll likely be looking to make this place a regular on your plans to get away.
The Legend course at Giants Ridge
Giants Ridge – if Legends is the lamb, Quarry is the lion
Giants Ridge is the only Minnesota golf resort that has two tracks that each have been named the best public course in the state and have earned spots on Golf Digest’s America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses list.
The first course at Giants Ridge, to be called Legend, came about when the State’s Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, an agency devoted to using iron ore taxes to rehabilitate the iron range, wanted to turn its ski hill here into a year around resort by adding a golf course. Brauer, with Lanny Wadkins working as PGA Tour consultant, was selected to design the 18-hole track on a heavily wooded site.
There were problems in that property for the course was too small and separate parcels had to be acquired to fit in 18 championship holes. The site also had numerous sensitive environmental areas, making its design and permitting a challenge. It took nearly 30 routings to satisfy the various agencies and environmental groups reviewing the project.
The Legend course plays at 6,930 yards from the back tees and was designed to be a resort-friendly course. The majestic pines remind some of Augusta, but Brauer left the edges slightly less refined to mimic the Northwoods experience. His staff worked around ancient red pines and local wetlands to maintain and enhance the environment and subsequent testing has shown minimal environmental impact, with much attributed to care taken in the design process.
The Legend features carries over deep-cut ravines, sloping rolling fairways, moderately undulating putting surfaces and strategic bunkers. The Legend is a more traditional golf course, where there’s a little wider corridor for players, more rough on each side, and a more traditional style of architecture. There are no blind shots, and players can see every fairway from the tee.
Perhaps the most famous holes at the Legend course are the par-3 17th over water, which resembles the famous 16th at Cypress Point in California. It plays 225 from the tips and must carry the lake to a small green perched on the side of the hill. Then there’s The par-5 third, with its iconic “giant’s footprint” sand bunker that divides two fairways – drive it between the toes here and you can take a shot at the green in two.
No. 11 is a beautiful downhill par 3 over water, and par-4 12th is a short dogleg that allows a plethora of options off the tee leaving a short wedge up to a long iron into the green.
When the Legend golf course opened in 1997, it was ranked as one of the “10 Best New Upscale Public Courses” in the U.S. by Golf Digest. The website for Giants Ridge describes Legend as “breathtaking, serene, awe inspiring, an unforgettable experience” – a very accurate take. Brauer calls it “the gentle giant,” and claims that about 50 percent of golfers report Legend as their favorite over the more difficult Quarry course.
Legend has been in the top 10 of Minnesota public courses since its opening and in the top 100 U.S. public courses in several publications, including Golf Digest and Golf News Network.
The Quarry, opened in 2003, is a little more modern golf course. After the success of the Legends, business studies suggested a second course at the resort could capitalize on first’s popularity and extend golfers’ stays at the remote getaway.
With the need to differentiate the tracks – and considering the difficult environmental approval processes the first course overcame, the search for a site for the second course quickly settled on an old sand and gravel quarry a few miles south of the existing course.
Because it was an environmentally scarred site that a golf course would rejuvenate, approvals came quickly. Brauer opined that the second course could be better and envisioned a public “Pine Valley” routed through the spoil piles.
The Quarry course fits the rugged, industrial history of that site, and requires some strategy – it’s not just what you see in front of you. While the playing corridors are quite wide, the hazards can be severe.
The calling cards of the course are unique holes, the aesthetics and contrast of the brownish sand piles and the green turf, and a vast sense of scale brought on by the wide fairways.
Highlights include the par-5 second, with its potential to be reached in two shots if you tempt the sand pit along the right side, the fifth, another par 5 from an elevated tee, and the 8th, which best captures the feel of Pine Valley.
There a double fairway on the 10th, fashioned from an old railroad siding, and a distinct double fairway 13th follows close behind. The 13th is the property’s signature hole, tipped out at 343 yards to tempt the long-hitter but a hole that can be enjoyed by everyone.
The course finishes along the shores of the old Embarrass Mine pit and lake and features a Redan-style green.
The huge elevation changes throughout the routing create some great views and fun opportunities to grip it and rip it off the tee. The Quarry has longer rough, is more rugged in overall design, and plays much narrower off the tee. It also plays 300 yards longer on the scorecard longer from the tips. The greens also have more undulation, and the old rock quarry offers an abundance of waste areas.
Another visual at the Quarry is the rusting metal remnant that sits on a small hill to the right of the green on the long, par four 8th, the most difficult hole on the course. It’s a leftover piece of machinery from this property’s days as a fully operational rock quarry, and a fitting reminder of a bygone era.
Despite its difficulty, the Quarry course remains a very fair test from beginning to end. It is one of those golf courses where you want to do your very best on every shot because every shot has the potential to be a lifetime memory maker.
The Quarry is currently ranked among the top 20 public courses in the country and No. 1 in Minnesota with the Legend currently No. 4 in Minnesota. In terms of quality and value there are few destinations that can compare to Giants Ridge, a tantalizing one-two punch for golf-hungry travelers, and perhaps the best public combo in Minnesota.
Quarry course at Giants Ridge
The Wilderness at Fortune Bay takes no back seat
Brauer was on a winning streak in the area in 2003 when the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa opened a casino on its reservation on Lake Vermillion some 30 miles north of Giants Ridge. They saw popularity of the courses designed by Brauer and asked the architect to build one for their resort with one design stipulation – they thought Legend was too easy and that Quarry was too hard and wanted a track that split the difference.
Thus, was born The Wilderness at Fortune Bay, which took its name from the resort’s marketing theme to bring the “wild to the wilderness.”
If the Quarry at Giants Ridge is the No. 1 public or resort course in Minnesota, the Wilderness must be 1A. The course, opened in 2005, weaves through beautiful woodlands, and skirts Lake Vermillion, which is featured on the 13th hole. It also features many solid rock cliffs, some blasted away for golf, which set it apart from the other courses.
The Wilderness starts with a double fairway, 649-yard par 5, giving golfers a taste of the mammoth sense of scale they will experience the rest of the round. The second hole uses a smooth rock outcrop as part of its ultra-cool cart path, and the fourth is another double fairway, one atop and one below a sheer rock outcropping.
No. 5 uses a clearing notch to set up the tee shot, while the putting surface features a unique, deep swale running through the green.
On the back nine, the short 12th, with its “T” shaped green and difficult pin position is a highlight. It’s followed up with the dramatic cape-hole style 13th, and the equally dramatic back-to-back par-5 holes at 15 and 16.
The par-5s at The Wilderness at Fortune Bay are strong the 16th presents an interesting challenge with its steady climb from tee to green. After clearing the half circle of bunkers that guard the entrance to the fairway, the next decision is to take one of the two layup options as you deal with semi-blind shots during your ascension.
The round finishes with a strong par-4 below the clubhouse.
The Wilderness at Fortune Bay features more undulation in the greens and thus more challenging pin placements than what is seen at the Quarry. The property is highlighted by natural rock outcroppings, towering pines, and a handful of water features that work together to provide some nice design features. The course weighs in at 7,207 yards from the back tees and is a long hitter’s dream, while also catering to golfers of all skill levels by offering four additional sets of boxes.
Fortune Bay Casino and Resort, located adjacent to The Wilderness, is a premier destination offering two floors of gaming entertainment and resort amenities situated on Lake Vermilion.
The Wilderness at Fortune Bay
Superior National renovation makes a good course even better
Brauer got the call in 2016 to renovate Superior National at Lutsen, a splendid 27-hole facility owned by Cook County and originally designed by Joel Goldstrand and opened in 1991.
The course has views of Lake Superior, the Sawtooth Mountains, or the rapids of Poplar Creek (the only privately owned river draining into Lake Superior) and was built as a resort to attract summer tourists, earning the moniker of “Minnesota’s Cadillac of Golf.” Every hole has a view of the mountain, Lake Superior, or the rushing rapids of the Poplar.
But thanks to poor drainage and a short routing, it had deteriorated into more of a weathered municipal course than a true resort destination – Brauer’s work to the River and Canyon nines changed all that.
The renovation work refined the signature challenges, filled newly built bunkers with “Ohio’s Best” white sand, expanded the course’s yardage, both forwards and backwards to 6,763 yards to broaden its appeal, and added wider fairways, new, efficient irrigation and drainage, and immaculate, larger putting surfaces.
Winds off the massive lake can make for an especially difficult day at Superior National. The course also features canyons, river hazards, plenty of sand, and towering pines.
There’s not a bad hole here, with the course experience often enhanced by visits from deer, fox, wolves, bald eagles and even moose.
These four courses give you a snapshot of the quality golf offered in Minnesota. It’s a trip well worth taking.
Superior National