Royal 87 Nova Scotia Muirfield

Most golfers have dreams of places they would like to play. For me, and certainly for almost any other golfer, playing Augusta National is at or near the top of the list. However, for most golfers, including me, playing Augusta National is a near impossible goal since it is such an exclusive private club. There are certainly other places that I would like to play that would be almost as unattainable, or at the very least, would require undue expenditure or effort when there are many other goals in life outside of golf that are just more important to me. With this being said, I decided to come up with a more practical list of places I would like to play. This list would still take some effort to achieve, but is doable. I also don’t think of this list as something I must achieve; it is more me putting some dreams in writing and, as life allows, gives me some direction as to where I would like to play. This list encompasses smaller goals as well and is to be considered quite malleable. For example, Nova Scotia has certainly been on my mind as a place to play golf, but recent developments have brought it to the forefront for me. There is no doubt that new places that I would like to play will emerge as the years pass and, even right now, this list is not exhaustive.

Since this list is fluid, I will not follow the order in the title. I will start with 87, which is the number of counties in the great state of Minnesota. There are people that have set out and achieved the goal of playing in every state. This goal seemed a bit lofty to me. Thinking of something similar to do, the more reachable and, in a strange way, more appealing goal of playing at least one course in every county of Minnesota came to mind. So far I have played a course in 14 counties in Minnesota, which means I have a ways to go. Having moved to a new part of the state last year, I have plenty of counties near me in which I have never played before. I already added three new counties to my list last year. There is also a corollary to having played a golf course in every county in Minnesota. Namely, it would mean that I have also been to every county in Minnesota, which, as a native of Minnesota, would be a neat achievement in and of itself.

As was mentioned in the opening, the goal of playing golf in Nova Scotia has been on my mind for some time, but just recently vaulted up my list due to the opening of the Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw minimalist gem Cabot Cliffs. I was originally drawn to Nova Scotia by the Stanley Thompson, who is undoubtedly the best Canadian golf course architect ever, designed Highlands Links. So, unlike the goal of playing a course in all 87 counties in Minnesota where which courses I would play is very much yet to be determined, the aforementioned courses are the two that I would play if I went to Nova Scotia (possibly Cabot Links too). Even with the great golf, the major focus of a trip to Nova Scotia for me would be taking in the spectacular scenery and, in particular, exploring the beautiful Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

Just as most golfers dream of playing Augusta National, a dream that pursues with equity and possibly even surpasses this is playing in Scotland – the home of golf. An additional dream that is more unique to me, although I suspect that there is a subpopulation of golfers that feel similarly, is playing a golf course that Phil Mickelson, my favorite golfer, has won a major championship on. The problem with the latter is that the three courses that Phil has won a major championship on are Augusta National, Baltusrol, and Muirfield. As has been well articulated, Augusta is near impossible to gain access to. Baltusrol is also an elite private club that is no doubt difficult to secure a tee time at. This leaves Muirfield, which unfortunately also possesses the designation of being an elite private club. The difference with Muirfield though is that it opens its course two days a week to the common man for a handsome, but not completely ridiculous sum of money, especially for a once in a lifetime experience. It also bears mentioning that Muirfield is in Scotland, and would therefore achieve the dream stated in the first sentence of this paragraph as well.

If I am honored in such a way as to be able to play the fine and historic links courses of Scotland someday, I would obviously play more than just Muirfield after traveling all that way. This is where “Royal” comes into play. For some reason, I have always thought that it would be cool to play a golf course with the designation “Royal”, which comes at the decree of the British royal family. There are plenty of courses in Scotland that hold this distinction and would almost certainly be a goal that would be attained if I ever set foot on Scottish soil. What makes this goal quite within grasp though is the fact that there are plenty of courses in former British colonies (that left peacefully) that hold this distinction. Most relevant to me is the fact that Canada has multiple courses with the “Royal” distinction.

Contained in these larger goals are smaller ones too that could be achieved in various ways. As was alluded to earlier, I would love to play a Stanley Thompson designed course. This hope could become a reality through the earlier described trip to Nova Scotia. An equally awesome trip would be to the Canadian Rockies which are the setting in which Thompson laid out two of his classics, Banff Springs and Jasper Park Lodge. I could also play North Oaks Golf Club just north of St. Paul, Minnesota, one of Thompson’s few designs on U.S. soil, and add another county to my list at the same time. One obstacle to this though is the fact that North Oaks is a private club. I would also love to play a course that employs the minimalist design school of thought, which has become the popular way to go with golf design in recent years. Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw are certainly leaders in the minimalist movement along with others like Tom Doak. While it would be great to play their Nova Scotia beauty Cabot Cliffs, and I certainly hope to play there one day, I was excited to hear that they are working on a course in central Wisconsin called Sand Valley, which would certainly be a shorter and cheaper trip for me.

 At the end of the day, there are so many great courses in this world that I have yet to play. In fact, there are so many great courses in my home state of Minnesota that I have yet to play like Interlachen, Hazeltine National, Windsong Farm, Somerby, Rochester Golf & Country Club, The Classic at Madden’s (Unfortunately only the last course in this list is public). The list could go on for a long time just for my home state. So, today it is Royal 87 Nova Scotia Muirfield, but that certainly doesn’t cover everything and will undoubtedly change as time passes and circumstances shift. No matter what, I am excited for the road ahead in golf and, even more so, in life where I have plenty of goals that rank way ahead of playing golf courses.