Shaped by Greatness

When most people think of elite golf in the state of Minnesota, Hazeltine National is the layout that comes to mind. What most people don't know is that great courses designed by some of the best known golf course architects of all time graced the Minnesota landscape well before Hazeltine was conceived by Robert Trent Jones in the 1960s.

The most notable such course is Interlachen Country Club in Edina, which is the number one golf course in Minnesota according to Golf Digest. Interlachen was designed by the great Donald Ross in the early 1900s during the golden age of golf course architecture. Ross is certainly one of the best and most prolific golf course architects to have held that vocation. Ross' most well-known courses include Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, Seminole Golf Club in Florida, Oakland Hills Country Club (South course) in Michigan, and Oak Hill Country Club (East course) in New York. Interlachen's resume is further bolstered by the history that has unfolded over its fairways and greens as Bobby Jones won the U.S. Open there in 1930 on his run to the Grand Slam - possibly still the greatest achievement in golf history.

While Interlachen is the centerpiece, the story doesn't end there. Donald Ross had a hand in designing multiple other Minnesota masterpieces too. Included among them are The Minikahda Club in Minneapolis, Northland Country Club in Duluth, and White Bear Yacht Club in Dellwood. The narrative doesn't end with Ross either though as other elites of the golden age plied their trade in the soil of the North Star State as well. The names A.W. Tillinghast, Seth Raynor, and Stanley Thompson all are credited with designing at least one course in Minnesota.

Like Ross, Tillinghast is one of the giants in the history of American golf course design. Among his most famous designs are Winged Foot Golf Club's West and East courses in New York and Baltusrol Golf Club's Lower and Upper Courses in New Jersey. In Minnesota, Tillinghast designed a pair - Golden Valley Country Club and Rochester Golf and Country Club.

Seth Raynor worked many years as C.B. MacDonald's understudy. MacDonald is known as the father of American golf course architecture with classics like National Golf Links of America in New York and Chicago Golf Club to his name. This is no doubt that MacDonald casts a shadow over Raynor. However, Raynor carved out a nice career apart from MacDonald too, and one must not underestimate his contributions to courses where MacDonald played the leading role either. His career removed from MacDonald included gems like Fishers Island Golf Club (with Charles Banks) in New York and Shoreacres Golf Club in Illinois. As for Minnesota, Raynor created a trio of Twin Cities tracks, all country clubs - Midland Hills, Minnesota Valley, and Somerset.

Finally, there is Stanley Thompson - perhaps the most surprising name from that prime era of golf course design to have a course in Minnesota on his resume. This is because Thompson is the greatest Canadian golf course architect of all time and has relatively few forays to the fifty when compared with his comprehensive portfolio of Canadian courses. His Canadian courses are spectacular and many are set in places of utmost natural splendor. Some of the more noteworthy are Capilano Golf and Country Club in British Columbia, Banff Springs Golf Course and Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course in Alberta, and Highlands Links Golf Course in Nova Scotia. His one Minnesota design is North Oaks Golf Club, which was finished in 1950 towards the end of Thompson's career and technically after the golden age of course design. North Oaks was recently refurbished by Tom Lehman and hosted this past year's MGA Amateur Championship.

Surely Hazeltine will continue to be the course most associated with elite golf in the state of Minnesota, especially after the amazing Ryder Cup that unfolded there only months ago. Hopefully more will come to know that the story of great golf in Minnesota started well before Hazeltine though, and that those courses were indeed shaped by greatness.