Minneapolis Golf Club

Minneapolis Golf Club is a golf club located in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Designed by Willie Park, Jnr. and Donald Ross, the Minneapolis golf course opened in 1917. The club hosted the U.S. Amateur Championship in 1950 as well as the PGA Championship in 1959, which Bob Rosburg won.

Club History

Eighty-five years ago in 1916 there were only two golf clubs in Minneapolis, Minikahda C.C. and Interlachen C.C. In early 1916 five members of the Minneapolis Athletic Club set plans to establish another golf club to meet the growing popularity of the game. By July the Minneapolis Golf Club ("MGC") was incorporated. Land was acquired and 9 holes were built on the site of present day Golden Valley C.C. The opening of play at MGC commenced on the 1st Saturday of August 1916. Later that year the club was approached by Hyland Homes Company to consider the purchase of a larger piece of intact farmland in St. Louis Park. The Scottish architect Willie Park Jr. had been retained to lay out the golf course. On December 9, 1916 the MGC membership voted to relocate to the present location. By June 19, 1917 MGC had become one of the earliest member clubs of the Minnesota Golf Association.

By 1918 MGC had 400 members and there was a regular shuttle service to and from the Minneapolis Athletic Club operating during the golf season. In September 1919 plans were initiated to build a new clubhouse to accommodate the now larger membership. The original clubhouse was a converted four-room farmhouse located near the present third tee. The new clubhouse was to be built on the Northern section of the property. It opened with on May 12, 1923. The rolling farmland our course was built on was virtually void of trees except for a stand of oaks in the Northern section by today’s tenth and eleventh holes. The trees that line the fairways today were planted during a tree- planting program in 1930.

Course Architects

Two Scots, Willie Park Jr. (1864-1925) of Musselburgh and Donald J. Ross (1872-1948) of Dornoch at different times designed and routed the golf course. On November 26, 1916 The Minneapolis Tribune wrote, “Willie Park, well known golf course architect, arrived yesterday to lay out the course of the Minneapolis Golf Club”. Discovered field notes of the original land survey firm show that Mr. Park routed the course in early December of 1916. Mr. Ross’ involvement is demonstrated thorough a routing plan of the course executed by Donald J. Ross Associates, Inc. in 1920 that was recently found by the Chair of the History Committee of the Donald Ross Society. The two routings will be framed and displayed within the clubhouse.

Willie Park Jr.

Willie Park Jr. is considered to have been the first great modern day golf course architect. His course design accomplishments include the championship layouts at Sunningdale (Old), Berkshire, England and Carnoustie (revision), Angus, Scotland. In 1926 Bobby Jones said of Sunningdale “I wish I could take this golf course home with me”. Park was a principal in the first purpose-built residential golf community at Huntercombe, Oxfordshire, England incorporating a course he designed. He designed about 50 courses in the U.S. and 100 in Britain. Some others of note are Western Gailes, Gullane #2 & #3, and Luffness New (revision) all in Scotland, Maidstone Club in New York, Olympia Fields-North in Illinois and Woodway in Connecticut.

Donald J. Ross

In 1919, about the time MGC was considering relocating the clubhouse, Donald J Ross and his design assistant Walter B. Hatch were completing the revision of Willie Watson’s original design of Interlachen C.C. In 1920 Donald Ross J. Associates, Inc produced a revised routing of MGC to accommodate the relocation of our clubhouse. Their routing plan remains in tact today. Other Ross courses in Minnesota are White Bear Yacht Club (1915), Woodhill C.C. (1916), Minikahda C.C. (1917), Interlachen C.C. (1919) and Northland C.C. (1927).

Golf Events

MGC has a great golfing tradition. It developed in part due to the quality design of the golf course. By the mid-1920’s MGC was growing in local and national recognition. In 1940 after Sam Snead played an exhibition match at MGC he said that he “hoped that (MGC) would some day host a U.S. Open”. The most prestigious amateur event was the Golden Anniversary (50th) U.S. Amateur in 1950. As result of holding the 1959 PGA Championship at MGC the club is in elite company as one of only 120 golf clubs in the world to have hosted a Grand Slam event (British Open, U.S. Open, Masters & PGA) since 1860.

Championships

National Professional events:

PGA Championship (1) 1959 Dayton’s Challenge (6) 1995, ‘96, ‘97, ‘98, ‘99, 2000

National Amateur events:

USGA Amateur Championship (1) 1950 Western Amateur Championship (1) 1940

Minnesota Amateur events:

MGA Junior Championship (1) 1924 MGA Senior Championship (2) 1962 & ‘75 MGA 4-Ball Championship (1) 1976 MGA Amateur Championship (4) 1925, ‘36, ‘53, ’88 ‘2007 MGA Senior 4-Ball Championship (3) 1971, ‘82, ‘90 MWGA Match Play Championships (7) 1924, ‘31, ‘51, ‘58, ‘68, ‘78, ‘90

Minnesota Professional events:

Minnesota State Open (6) 1924,’27, ‘32, ‘44, ‘57, ‘75 Minnesota Section PGA (1) 1971 Minnesota Golf Champions (25) 1975-2000

References

External links

• Official site
• Photos of golf course after bunker and tee box restoration

Coordinates: 44°57′51″N 93°23′43″W / 44.96417°N 93.39528°W / 44.96417; -93.39528