The Johnny Open Club-N-Cancer at Deer Run

Last weekend I had the honor in taking part in a Charity Golf event at Deer Run in Victoria, MN.  This is an event that officially started this year by John Ericksen, a 20+ year cancer survivor.  This year he decided to do a golf fund raiser to help raise money and provide the proceeds to a family who is battling cancer.  He was able to raise a couple thousand dollars for Jim Crandell and his family.  Jim has medullobla stoma and had surgery to remove the tumor.  Jim and his wife were there but I did not get a chance to talk to them.  I was very happy to be able to play golf on a beautiful spring day and help out thier family at the same time.

After the round Johnny had a steak dinner and hosted happy hour.  Unfortunately I was unable to stay as it was my mother-in-law's birthday so I made a quick exit after the round.

The course was in great shape.  Especially the greens which were the most grown in and smooth I have played, even more so than Rush Creek. Though to be fair it has been a warm week for grass growth so I imagine the Rush Creek's are even better than when I played them.

Deer run is not a long course (6292 from the back tees).  You can still use driver on most holes though doing so introduces a lot of danger that could be avoided if you were to stick with long irons off the tee.  If you do use driver then you likely will only need driver and a wedge on almost every hole.

Here are some picks of the course:

 Hole 2, downhill 149 yard par 3.

 Hole 3, an uphill 401 yard dogleg left par 4

The green on approach at 3.

 Hole 4 a short 495 yard par 5.  I ripped a drive here and had less that 190 to the hole.  We missed the eagle though.

 Hole 5 a 375 yard par 4.

 The green on hole 5.  My cabin is in the background.  You can see Johnny in the yellow cap.

 Hole 6 is a 186 yard par 3.  I got a natural bird on this one.

 Hole8 a 463 yard par 4.

 The 9th tee and my brother.

 The green on 9 with water in front.

 Hole 13.  A straight away par 4 at 336 yards.  The fairway slopes at 150 down to water in front of the green.

 The uphill par 3 14th.

 Hole 15 with water and trees on either side but short enough to avoid them both off the tee.

 Another uphill par 3, the 16th

 Hole 17 is a short dogleg left par 4 at 314 yards.  Trying to cut the corner brings all of the trouble on the hole into play.

The 18th, a par 5 finisher.

The course in general is fairly straight forward and won't win any awards for beautiful holes but it is always in great shape and at $54 priced competitively.  Because it is in Victoria it is a haul to get out and play so I don't visit that often.  Relatively close to the course is the Chaska town course which I would much prefer to play.