Playing the Jewel

For my friend Keith's 40th birthday, his wife surprised him by organizing a guys golf trip down to the Jewel golf course in Lake City, MN.  Lake City is on the St. Croix in the southeast corner of Minnesota.  An hour north of Winona and about an hour 20 minutes from the cities.

We drove down the morning of Friday to play that morning.  We also played again on Saturday.

The course itself was designed by Hale Irwin and built in 2005.  It is a truly upscale course that was intended to be a golf course community, though very few homes have been built on the property.  The course was built at the end of the great course building boom.  Right away in 2006, the investors who built the course put it up for auction to head off financial issues.  When we were there the weather was unbelievable but there were very few people on the course.  Far too few to make a profit in my mind.  Hopefully this was just an aberration because this course is a first class facility and Minnesota should be proud to have it in our state.  Moving on from the negative talk, lets get onto playing the course.

The course has a full suite of practice facilities

The clubhouse with a great deck overlooking the ninth green

The practice green.  No chipping Chung!

The driving range.  We got free range balls by calling ahead.

The chipping/sand practice area.

The guys loading up their chariots for the round

Onto the course.
The handicaps of the holes on the course seems to be rather messed up.  by and large it goes ecatly by yardage.  I have some issues with that because their are a few shorter holes that are much harder than some of the longer holes.
The opening hole is the number one handicap.  It is a par 5 at 554 yards.  Aside from length the biggest trouble here are bunkers.  There are a couple of bunkers flanking the fairway off the tee.  You do also have to carry the marsh in front of the tee about 200 yards.

Let the shenanigans begin.  Chung determining tee off order and lobbying for last minute rule changes.

Next we have a picture of the competitors teeing off.

Keith, the birthday boy of first.

Followed by Kris Gerber.  Both Kris and keith had some troubles clearing the marsh off the tee.

Jim was third.

Then Chung.  look at how sunny everything looks!

John teed off first in our group.

Then Steve.

Michael was next.  Then it was me, last and least.  No picture of me going.

A view of the right bunker off the tee.  Several more bunkers are short of the green.  off the tee the best play is to find the fairway, then lay up short short of the second bunkers at a good distance for your third.

The green is large with some undulations.  All in all not a hard hole and certainly not the hardest hole on the course.  It is the longest hole, however.

Hole 2is a 424 yard par 4.  There is plenty of trouble off the tee with the fairway surrounded by 3 bunkers.  The hole doglegs slightly left

Another large bunker sits in front of the green.

The green is rather large and triangular in shape.  When the pin is tucked into one of the corners you have to hit to the right part of the green to avoid a three putt.

Hole 3 is a 370 yard hole that doglegs left as it drops towards the hole.  The best play is right over the left bunker.  It is 265 yards from the tee to the drop off of the fairway.  From there it is downhill towards a green flanked short by bunkers.

From the crest of the fairway you can see the bunkers protecting the green.

Hole 4 is a tight 448 yard hole that plays straight ahead.  Trees line this hole so you have to keep your drive and second shot straight.

A long second shot into the wind both days on this hole for me.  The green is elevated from the fairway and is fairly deep at 31 yards.

Hole 5 is a 152 yard par 3.  One bunker short and all kinds of trouble long and right.  Again, the green is fairly large about 30 yards in both directions.

Hole 6 is a short 286 yard par 4.  It is tight with trees on either side.  A straight shot of the tee can find the green, or you can lay up, hitting 180 off the tee to have a 100 yard shot in.

Vigen teeing off on 6.

And his second shot.  Too bad he is not left handed.

Grim hits his second shot into the green

Hole 7 is a 159 yard par 3 with a false front.  Bunkers run along the right side of this 35 yard deep green.

Chung demonstrating the "Girard".  I think he has it trademarked.

Hole 8 is a short par 5 at 467 yards.  A rather wide open tee shot here.  You should aim at the large single tree.

Your second shot is too an extremely elevated green.  The green is also relatively small.  I think the intent here is to play the hole in three shots, hitting your second to set up a preferred yardage to the elevated green.

The third shot for me was 100 yards.

I hit my shot close but failed miserably on my birdie putt.  You know what they say "leave any birdie shot half way to the hole".

Hole 9 is a 452 yard par 4.  The tee shot requires carrying 2 fairway bunkers about 250 yards out.

From the fairway, your approach is to a green that falls off left, where a pond awaits you.

This green has some serious undulations.

A view of the ninth green from the clubhouse.

I played the front nine fairly well, especially having never played here before.  I left a couple of birdies out there but still shot a 41. 

Onto the back nine.

The ninth hole is probably the toughest tee shot of the course. To clear the water at all is a 280 yard carry to the fairway.  Hitting right brings the trees into play.  If you play to the very front of the fairway on the right you will have about 220 to the green on this 411 yard hole.

I hit a great shot that barely cleared the water and had me in one of the grass swales at the dogleg.

The shot to the green should favor the left side as right is watery doom. I somehow managed a par after ripping my second shot onto the green from an awkward lie.

The 11th hoel is the pretties hole on the course.  A long 200 yard par 3 that must carry the water and bunkers.  The bluffs behind make for a great scene that is not found elsewhere in Minnesota.

The green with a deer heckling in the back.

Please do not feed the wild animals.

The 12th hole is an uphill tee shot to this 446 yard par 4.  Right is tree troubles.

Normally the blues are back by the tips on this hole.  Today they were up by the whites.  That is a 140 yard difference!

A shot of the approach on this hole.  There is a large bunker left of this green which is slanted diagonal to the fairway.

The 13th is a hole that I have reservations about.  Unless you can carry 260 into the fairway anything else hit shorter will roll off the fairway into the rough right.

Form there you have a tough shot to a near blind green.  The green is long but narrow.

I hit my shot close and actually made birdie.

A view back down the hole.

Hole 14 is evil.  Truly a mean, ugly, brute that chewed me up and spit me out.  The tee shot looks like you can cut the left side.  Don't.  Incredibly thick fescue is there.  The hole is 433 yards and the tee shot makes this hole the hardest on the course in my mind.  It is only rated as number 6.  I don't get it. 

I only took one shot of this hole because I was so shell shocked by it that I was unable to recover.

Ick.

Onto the 15th.  A par 3 at 209 yards.  Wind plays a factor here.  The green is surrounded by a large area of fringe. 

The green is deep, 40 yards but only maybe 20 wide.

Here you can see the large fairway area allowing you to miss the green and have an ugly chip like me!

The 16th hole is a par 5 at 517 yards.  The tee shot is a forced carry over water.  Hitting right you can find the trees.

Once across the tee shot you have a wide open second shot to a green protected by only one bunker.

Both days I hit over this green.  The first time on my 3rd shot and the second time on my 2nd.  I failed to par either day.

Hole 17 is a dead straight 334 yard par 4.  A pretty easy hole just avoid the trees on the left side.

The fiarway shot to the green.  A massive bunker awaits to the right and 2 smaller ones are left.

Hole 18 is a 473 yard par 4.  A myriad of bunkers down the right side make the left a better option.  You can also be cut off from a good angle to the green by trees on the right.

The green is mostly hidden from the fairway which runs uphill most of the way.

Grim hitting his second.

I just missed a bird here but made par.

All in all I played pretty good.  I shot a 83 with a stretch of 3 holes (14,15,and 16) where I went triple, double, double.  Ouch.


After the round we had the run of the clubhouse.  The deck was ours.

In the parking lot, John ggave Chung the driver he "loaned" him.  He was considering maybe buying it from Chung.  That is until John broke it on a tee box marker.  Oops.  Transaction cancelled.

On the deck afterwards, trying to drown sorrows in beers.

Our accommodations were in Lake City, which was about a 10 minute drive.

We were in a penthouse condo.

Nice place.

The view from our deck was nice too.

We happened to be there on Water Ski days. Lake city is the place where water skiing was invented so they hold a festival every year.

Local celebrity sighting.  Channel 4 news men in the back in the white shirt.

We are not only professional golfers, we also dabble in darts.

No small town fair is complete without the Zipper.

Chung showing his inability to walk straight.  Or throw a ball.

And a nice sunset to end the romantic day.

On Saturday we teed it up again.  I was in the final group as I had one of the lowest net scores of the first day.  I quickly faded, or rather others, played well below their handicap (Chung) *cough*sandbagger*cough*.  Oh well, it was fun.  I ended up shooting a 90 on the second day.

The important thing is Keith had a great outing for his birthday present.

Happy birthday Keith!