With more than 22 lakes and 180 parks in Minneapolis. It’s always great to be outdoors. Add golf, and you have a Sportsman’s Paradise. Local linksmen say Minneapolis’ best-known courses hold the keys to what makes golfing in the city so appealing.
Address: 4553 Longfellow Avenue 55407
Hours: Sunrise to Sunset, Daily
Par: 73
Yards: Blue – 3379 | White – 3192 | Red – 2620 | Gold – 2960
Rentals: Cart, Pull Cart, Golf Club Set
Minneapolis boasts 7,000 acres of award-winning parkland with seven public courses, and the best known is Hiawatha Golf Course. The beautifully designed course is lush with cedar and maple trees, small greens and has two fairways and four tees that border Lake Hiawatha. Nearby Minnehaha Creek flows into the lake through the back nine holes and there are 12 ponds and 30 sand traps spread throughout. The 18-hole course is a favorite of weekend golfers and regional champs who want a PGA experience without the PGA prices. It’s even had its fair share of celebrities on the links – Tom Lehman, even Tiger Woods. Hiawatha’s also known for being a fairly progressive course at a time in America when sports and politics didn’t mix: it’s clubhouse integrated in 1948. Hiawatha was known as a public course for everyone, but the club was off limits to Blacks, many who lived next to the course in a neighborhood called Bronzeville. Today, the course is named after Solomon Hughes Sr. - the African American golfer and club member who gave added meaning to the words ‘fair play’.