The argument against courses like Brackett’s or Southview are whether or not the private perks offset being potentially a lower tier course than a place like Stoneridge. After playing Southview a couple times, I couldn’t imagine paying their dues to play there over Stoneridge or Troy Burne but I also don’t know many members. A good membership is worth it’s weight in gold so hard to compare. Also like you mentioned before COVID is a shit show and Southview was booked solid, including 5somes, from sunrise to sunset.
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All great points. Not being able to make a tee time has been a major drawback to almost all private courses in 2020. Even with a full membership most private clubs normally have a lot of members out of town on business travel, personal trips, lake cabin weekends, etc. So much of that didn’t happen this last year and it showed.
On the positive side, if you do have a good membership and “Bill” is playing slow then a lot of people will tell him to hurry the fuck up. The downside of Stoneridge or TB is a lot of weekend warriors will get out there and the pace becomes brutal. Those are tough courses for a high single digit or low double handicapper. A guy who play 5-6 times a year at most? Forget it.
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I think @charvey hit it on the head. There seem to be better public options that might be a little bit more of a drive but are worth it (for course design and $$) vs BC and SV.
Disclaimer, i haven’t played BC but again haven’t heard much that says it worth it to join.
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You’re telling me Parkview was not the Unofficial Country Club of Eagan? 
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When I was a member in Eau Claire it was the classic 50+% of membership had cabins so the weekend tee sheet was incredible if you golfed. Men’s day would fill up but not at an urgent rate or hard to get a time unless you waited until last minute. This year my buddy told me Men’s day would start filling up at midnight 7 days early when Foretees allowed it. Unless you set an alarm, you were competing with guys that probably needed to wake up and take a piss in the middle of the night for tee times!
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Exactly. I had a daily 7 AM alarm last summer that I used for tee times that opened up a week later. It was brutal and, from what I understand, common place at A LOT of courses.
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Brutal.
Next year no tee times though right?
I also 100% agree that places like Stoneridge and TB aren’t great to be a member at. Very challenging courses for the majority of golfers. Awesome courses to play 5-10 times a year but you really start to see the cons in those places when you feel locked in. I bet I fixed 36-54 ball marks per round at TB so course conditioning is also a huge factor.
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What’s a tee time?
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I don’t know if i understand how this works out, but they seem to have no issues with it
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I think Stillwater CC doesn’t have any tee times either. No clue how that works for a low cost private course with a large membership and huge wait list.
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Probably a lot of old timers that hardly play. That place seems to be a unicorn.
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Am I alone enjoying Victory Links?
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I still need to play it, I’ve heard mixed reviews. Victory and Bunker are at the top of my need-to-play list, I don’t get up that way often.
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It’s got some really fun holes and some really blah holes. I think it’s appeal, at least to me, is changing landscapes between more prairie and then more wooded just a combo. Having a lot of tee boxes to pick from is cool too.
Slightly over priced (IMO) but a fun track
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Not alone. I dig VL and carry my handicap out of there. Grab a pushcart, the walk is flat.
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Maybe we can make it work next season!
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Those two are more enjoyable than Edinburgh. At Bunker there’s some cool holes on the North and West nines, but it gets pretty repetitive for probably half of the 27 holes there. Victory is probably the best in the north metro but the routing sucks, which has been hashed out a few times here.
Other recommendations in the north metro would be the Signature at Majestic Oaks (crossroads course kinda stinks). It’s nothing amazing but it’s solid. The Refuge is pretty good too, but apparently that place has been going downhill for a couple years.
Again, if any of y’all have plans to be in Cambridge for some godforsaken reason, I like Purple Hawk more than any of the others I just named, but I’m very biased.
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I’m down.
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Rumors are it is very difficult to get on there.
Officially #176 on the wait list as of the last update. 3-4 years I guess
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