Not To Be Denied
Neither rain, sleet nor dead of winter keeps Minnesotans from the game they love. Golf's not a 12-month sport in the Gopher State; it's a year-round passion
The reception was warm for Lehman, who recalled a chilly round of his youth.
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While the third round of the 84th PGA Championship unfolded last Saturday at Hazeltine National GC in Chaska, Minn., the first round of the men's club championship began at Keller GC, the legendary muny in St. Paul, on the other side of the Twin Cities. Head professional Tom Purcell passed out scorecards, briefed the contestants and asked them to put their donations to an area food bank into a cardboard box on the tee of the 332-yard first hole. There was a sign on a bulletin board nearby: "We Play Golf Here. No Preferred Lies."
Joe Spoden, a 27-year-old St. Paul car salesman and one of the entrants in the championship flight, stepped on the tee shortly after noon. Wearing a Minnesota Wild cap and blue jeans, and armed with a strong grip and the latest Titleist driver, he beat his opening tee shot into the same stiff wind that was giving the pros fits 50 miles away. Spoden grew up working on the range and around the course but didn't start playing golf until he was 17. Now, like so many Minnesotans, he is hooked on the game. "I consider it a blessing to get to play out here," Spoden said before setting out in the 30-mph gusts. "There is a lot of history."
Keller is where the big show used to stop -- for PGA Championships in 1932 and 1954, the 1949 Western Open, the St. Paul Open from 1930-1968 and the Patty Berg Golf Classic from 1973-1980. Pro golf eventually outgrew the 6,566-yard layout and its tiny dessert-plate greens where Sam Snead and Jimmy Demaret once ruled, but for $28 locals revel in the tidy, tree-lined test.
Golf World August 23, '02
People work at their play in Minnesota. Everywhere you look there seems to be a park, a lake, a ballfield or a golf course. Within a 100-mile radius of the Twin Cities, there are approximately 170 courses, 75 percent of them open to the public. The season is short, but the passion is huge. "People go bonkers for golf up here," said Bill Kidd, the retired professional at Interlachen CC in Edina, site of the 1930 U.S. Open won by Bobby Jones and host of the Solheim Cup next month.
If you're a golfer in the Gopher State -- and there are more here per capita than any place in America -- it helps to have a strong constitution, a closet full of fleece and a few friends in Florida. It was no surprise, then, that the PGA Championship was a rollicking success; no wonder 40,000 eager fans showed up each day. Many of them were out to take a peek at Minnesota-bred tour pros Tom Lehman, Tim Herron and Cameron Beckman, along with club pros David Tentis, Don Berry and Tom Dolby. "If you can't have something, you want it more," said Jim Lehman, Tom's brother and agent, in explaining Minnesotans' love of golf, "and in January here you can't have it."
A recent story in the Star-Tribune of Minneapolis detailed how a glut of golf course construction, a couple of crummy springs and the general economic downturn had combined to sour the state's golf industry which contributes an estimated $600 million to the Minnesota economy. But Minnesota, according to a 2001 survey by the National Golf Foundation, has more golfers (21 percent of residents 12 and older) than any other state. Many are women, and Minnesota clubs are among the most progressive in terms of equal women's access. With Hazeltine leading the way, and spurred by a 1987 state law that would have increased property taxes for clubs that didn't level the playing field for women, Minnesota's female golfers get a fair shake. "It was really a tempest in a teapot," said 74-year-old Warren Rebholz, a Hazeltine member since 1962 and executive director of the Minnesota GA from 1972-1992, of the time when clubs dropped restrictions on women's tee times.
"It made business sense to do it [drop restrictions], but social sense, too," said Lou Nanne, a former player and general manager for the Minnesota North Stars, who was on the board at Interlachen when the law went into effect. "It also wouldn't have been a good move for my marriage to tell my wife, 'Our dues are going up, and you still can't tee off until 12 o'clock on the weekend.' "
Minnesota golfers are a hardy, creative bunch who treasure the pristine summer days, tolerate the dicey conditions of early spring and late fall and spend the long winters pining for what will be. Tom O'Callaghan, a retired golf journalist who lives on 10 acres in rural Spring Lake Township, south of Chaska, built a couple of holes on his property three years ago. With two greens, four tee boxes and two cups cut into each green, the course provides an eight-hole layout for O'Callaghan, his family and friends. His garage is chock full of small carry bags for his seven kids and 16 grandchildren. O'Callaghan tends the course during the temperate months and leaves the flagsticks in during the winter. "I just like the way they look, popping out of the snow," O'Callaghan said last week as he gave a visitor a tour on a beautiful August evening.
Those who can't flee to Florida or Arizona during the winter months make the most of the time they're without golf. "We're open all year, and we're busy," said John Kalin, assistant manager at Golf Galaxy, a 16,000-square foot golf store in Bloomington. "We have all the stuff, and people come in, and they want to touch it, feel it, swing it." Golf simulators, for $28 an hour, stay booked. "We're packed in the winter," said Will Fahrenkamp, who works at Rain, Snow Or Shine Golf in Chanhassen, not far from Chaska. "I can't explain why anyone likes golf so much -- why I like it so much. It's just an itch." The wait on a winter weekend at Rain, Snow or Shine, an outdoor range with 32 heated stalls where golfers are able to hit full shots, can reach an hour.
