Mille Lacs Golf Trail

Fiddlestix: Nobody Does It Better

2008-08-06T07:04:00.000-07:00

Editors note: This is the first of a four-part series of Mille Lacs lake golf course updates to help visitors learn more about the courses.

Although he'd be too gracious to accept the honor in a formal forum of his peers, Harley Exsted would have to grab honors for this year's top course on Mille Lacs. (Ruttgers is more than 15 miles away from the lake).

Anybody that has played there recently can tell you that the whole place is green, manicured impeccably and the whole operation is running first class.

From the service you get when you walk in the pro shop to the food and beverage operation in the clubhouse down to the treatment customers get. Fiddlestix has a great operation.

Understand, this is not dissing any of the other fine outlets for golf on Mille Lacs. You have Izatys just west; and Higbee's not far southwest.

It's just that Fiddlestix is doing it all right. I talked with another area golf course superintendent who played in a tournament Saturday at Fiddlestix. He said, "Mike, I've never played this course before but you have to write something about how nice this place is. It's immaculate." Speculating from the outside as to why Fiddlestix has become what it is:

1. Family owned and operated for 21 years

2. Doesn't go overboard on capital improvements, but consistently improves the course, the atmosphere and the experience.

3. Harley and Harvey and their wives are firmly entrenched in the community and people like to do business with them.

4. Tee boxes, Greens, fairways and roughs are green and mowed properly.

5. Customer Expectations met: From golf tourneys to individual groups, you get what you pay for at Fiddlestix. It's probably why more than 20 tournments are being held there each summer.

6. Pride of ownership evident. I have seen Harvey smoothing out cart paths with a bobcat and Harley spraying chemicals driving tractor. These guys are involved, on site and see the situation on a daily basis.

7. Employee loyalty. John, Sam and the bar staff are happy, courteous people and the optimism of owners rubs off on the staff.

8. Partnering with local businesses. Their stay and play packages work. His hole sponsorships and sponsors on his golf cards are a hot commodity. He has an avid junior golf program and high schools use his course.

9. Marketing. He uses the local print media and has taken advantage and uses Make it Mille Lacs.com.

10. Pricing. You can play nine or 18 and the price is right.

Blackbrook: Contender or Pretender?

2008-08-06T06:58:00.000-07:00

Editors note: This review is focused on Blackbrook Golf Course, the cost to play and the golf services available as of August 3, 2008. It is not focused on the Izatys Bankruptcy situation. I golfed this course in early June and on August 3 for reader perspective.

Blackbrook: Champion on a Slide or a Comeback?

Blackbrook kind of reminds me of a heavyweight boxing champion.

Is it making a comeback? Or have the punches, scars and business knockdowns taken too much of a toll on this John Harbottle-designed Championship Course?

I’d like to believe Blackbrook’s like a George Foreman. You may recall the current TV grill salesman who’s big, bald and used to box. At a young age, he knocked out Joe Frazier in the 1970s, winning a heavyweight title and was the oldest champ ever again twenty-some years later at age 45.

I think Blackbrook has another title shot left in it but there might be 20 years between runs as well. And here’s why:

Blackbrook has a great layout, featuring 10 water-hazard holes and four of the neatest par 3s I have played. The signature hole has to be No. 14, a short Par 3 nestled between nice lakeside townhomes to the left and majestic Lake Mille Lacs all along the right side. On a day with a strong northwest wind, it makes for an interesting choice of club.

Overall, Blackbrook’s fairways are laid into a hardwood forest (minus many trees from its inception) on flat, somewhat swampy ground. The greens are large, undulating and spongy and you can stick a ball on them.

Most of the tee boxes are elevated. There are a lot of sand traps on the course and an abundance of nature’s creatures, featuring plenty of fox and deer.

Like a former champ, Blackbrook has some current battle scars: there are many stumps between fairways; about half the greens have spots (disease or dried or both); the cart path that weaves through the 6391-yard layout, showing heaves and potholes of 12-plus Minnesota winters; there are scarred tee boxes and some fairway grass irregularity; an aging sprinkler system fails to cover key parts of the rough.

Like a former champ working out on a budget, Blackbrook has lacked the capital nutrition needed to surge back into contention – things like equipment, chemicals, fertilizer, and greens and tee-box top-dressing have been rationed due to the current bankruptcy.

But like a former champ in training, Blackbrook has gotten back into the gym. It has mostly worked through its early unsightliness and has morphed into: a green course that is well mowed; a course with nice fairways, decent greens and nearly filled, weedless sand traps (except No. 10); it’s the only area course that features four sets of tee boxes: Tournament (6867), Championship (6391), Resort (5821) and Forward (5119). It has a seasoned, albeit small staff of course workers who care about how it looks.

To give some outsider perspective, I played a partial round with a gentlemen named Phil, a Malmo native who is 64 and last year competed in the New England Senior Amateur Open in York, Maine.

He’s a 4-handicapper. The man knows golf and has seen courses from coast to coast and here is his take on Blackbrook:

“It’s one of the prettiest courses I’ve played with a lot of history and personality,” Phil said, before teeing it up on his favorite hole, the par 5 No. 13. “I hope it comes back because it can be a really great course.”

Blackbrook is a nice play to play golf. It may one day return to greatness. It offers challenge, scenery and some regular course niceties like an occasional beverage cart, food, drinks and a driving range.

Higbee's: A Nice Surprise

2008-08-05T21:16:00.000-07:00

Our third stop on the Make It Mille Lacs self-proclaimed Mille Lacs Golf Trail was Higbee's. I had never played the course before.

What I found at Higbee's was a short, nine-hole course that I can liken, in development terms, to an infant transforming into a child.

It's starting to show neat stuff in its sixth season. It's rolling hills, small greens, narrow fairways and interesting tee boxes give it alot of personality. Not to mention the deer, occasional bear and abundant wildlife that traverse the course.

It's got some neat landscaping, ponds and a couple holes that you'd find great for wedding pictures. It isn't fully developed yet as owners Pete and Laurie Wilkes will tell you.

They got the "Higbee" name doing some family historical reviews, tying the moniker into their business. If you are cutting junior's teeth on a new set of clubs or trying to get your wife or significant other to try the sport of golf, there isn't a better place patience-wise.

They have golf carts and this isn't an overally fussy place to play. They have their fair share of daily golfers but it isn't packed with tee times every eight minutes. It also isn't at a premier course. So if you take a divot, they will forgive you and they might even buy you a beer and tell you about some future plans on some family property that has spanned five generations.

What I liked about Higbee's was it was up and down in oak-laid hills on 3119 yards. I also liked the prices. Nine holes walking is $12.00 Monday-Wednesday and nine with a cart is $18.00 at the same time. Eighteen with a cart is $29.00 on a weekend, granted you are playing the same nine holes twice.

What's also nice at Higbee's is the outdoor bar that serves beer only with some regular munchies. In nice weather, you can't beat it, if it's raining, you are heading to one of several other south-shore places for a meal or drinks. Building Sites for Montana-Style log home kits, start at $69,900.

Finally, Higbee's doesn't sport championship fairways, tough roughs and pristine tee boxes. The fairways are all generally mowed in the same length but it has been pretty neat undulating greens that are well kept.

It is a course in progress that is worth playing, won't break the family bank and watch out if and when it reaches late adolescence or when it becomes twenty-someting.

To contact Pete or Laurie, call them at 320-630-6482 or 320-495-3333. Or email them at golfhigbees@frontiernet.net.