A Look Back At How A State Agency’s Gamble On Golf Paid Off

Before the golf courses came online, Giants Ridge, a three-hour drive from the Twin Cities, was a seasonal draw for area skiers looking to carve up some Midwest powder. The resort’s slopes, nestled in the Iron Range, feature 35 alpine runs, a snowboarding terrain park and 60 km of groomed cross-country trails that skirt through Superior National Forest.

There was plenty of interagency squabbling before the project got off the ground between the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, the state economic development agency that owns the property and spearheaded the project to turn Giants Ridge into a year-round attraction, and the Department of Natural Resources. The DNR contended that the floating marsh marigold, an endangered plant, would be negatively impacted by carving out a golf course in the Northwoods and called for an environmental study before the initial $ 4.5 million project could be greenlit. The dispute was eventually resolved by by the State Supreme Court which sided with the economic development agency.

Course architect Jeff Brauer remembers other ecological concerns posed by area environmental groups that threatened the approvals process. There were fishermen reluctant to share prime angling spots with fairways, perhaps fearful golfers would scare away the bass and also a particularly unusual concern surrounding the course’s signature 17^th hole, a dramatic island par 3 where shots are hit from terraced tee-boxes over an inlet of Sabin Lake to reach the green.

“One of the environmental protests was ‘what if you hit a ball in [the water] and hit a fish on the head and kill it’—that was an objection that was brought up,” Brauer remembers.

“I do think there are a lot of balls in there and the water level has gone up since the course’s beginnings. But I don’t think it’s a real environmental problem. We don’t see fish out there floating upside down,” he jokes.

The Legend, framed by groves of birch trees and outcroppings of boulders weaves manicured fairways through rugged Northwoods wilderness. The course which is celebrating its silver anniversary this season, clocked in at No. 6 in Minnesota on Golf Week’s most recent annual rankings of courses open to public play. The Quarry, the second course Brauer built on the property which is a mettle tester preferred by lower handicappers, tops the leaderboard.

“It was really going out on a limb, building the first golf course but we immediately saw that it was successful and something that could be sustained over a long period of time. And when the second golf course was under construction, we saw that people really started to take notice,” John Kendall, Giants Ridge’s director of golf, who came onboard in 1998, says.

Between when the Legend opened for business and the ribbon was cut on its sister course five years later, Kendall counts twelve direct competitors, all upper-end public courses that sprung up. That list includes courses at Cragun’s Resort, Deacon Lakes as well as Wilderness at Fortune Bay, another Brauer design.

“It was really impressive to see how the success of this golf course really shaped Northeastern Minnesota’s golf market and really drove other areas in our region to do better. We quickly went from ‘holy cow, I can’t believe this is up here on the Iron Range’ to the expectation now of world class golf in our area which is something I don’t think anybody had envisioned,” Kendall says.

Jockeying to rise up in the state rankings, the aforementioned Cragun’s Resort on Gull Lake is gussying up their current offerings with a $10 million renovation and expansion spearheaded by five-time PGA Tour winner Tom Lehman. When the project is completed in the spring of 2023, the resort, which has remained open during the renovation process, will feature 54 holes of golf.

While Giants Ridge doesn’t have any current plans to expand their golf offerings, they have experienced a sizeable uptick in demand the past couple of seasons and Kendall forecasts the boom in bookings will be sustainable.

“Our advanced bookings have grown. We’re seeing not only the loyal customers and groups we’ve historically had, but also new customers come to the facility which is a great sign. We haven’t had such a high percentage of advanced bookings since the late 2000s before the real estate crash. We’ve seen business levels return and surpass those high cotton years,” Kendall says.