Course Review: Pezhekee National Golf Course
Peters Sunset Beach
Glenwood, MN
6/16/07
NOTE: From time to time, I visit courses in my area and give my impressions. I am not compensated to give these reviews.
HACKER RATING: 5.8
View bottom of posting for rating categories.
Newer Minnesota resort courses are always trumpeting who their course designer is. Hale Irwin, Tom Lehman and Jack Nicklaus have all designed course in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Yet, Minnesota’s longest public golf course sits only 30 miles from Alexandria, Minnesota in the heart of The Range and it wasn’t built by a celebrity designer.
Pezhekee National is part of Peters Sunset Beach Resort, a quaint name for a quiet and tranquil track without the pretenses or crowds of more popular resorts. The grounds are everything you think of in a small family-owned resort: a 20s’s era main house, intimate dining room with a huge stone fireplace, family members holding various jobs, a small unpretentious golf clubhouse, and ultra-reasonable green’s fees (only $49 with cart).
When my playing partner and I drove in, we were greeted by the grandson of the original founder. He explained that the course’s development didn’t follow a normal route. It was built over a number of years and the holes reflect the changing tastes of the Peters family and the period of time each hole was created. From relatively straight original par 4s that were cut from the Northern Pine forest, to the new floating green on the 11th that was just completed in 2006, the Pezhekee National course adds up to a long, but forgiving round of eighteen.
The strength of the course is its layout, not its service. Minnesota’s largest public golf course plays 7263 yards from the tips but if you are looking for the cart girl to roll on by with mid-round libations, you’ll have a hard time finding her. There was no on-course beverage service when we stopped by on a Saturday. As you make the turn after number nine, which is probably as far from the clubhouse you’ll ever be, you’ll find pop machines and bathrooms but no food. If pangs of hunger tend to hit you two hours into your round, you better pack your own lunch, otherwise you’re out of luck
A weakness of the course is its signage. It’s very spotty, especially on the newer holes on the backside. It appears they ran out of time during construction or didn’t think they are necessary because knowing which way to go sometimes can be a challenge if you are a first-timer. Not to worry if you’ve got a good sense of direction.
If you are hoping to bring a group, one unique offering of Peters Sunset Beach Resort are large houses called Reunion Units. There are four of them and they are roomy seven and eight bedroom lodges that sleep 16-25 people. Rentals are by the ½ week (M-F or F-M) and cost about $40/person/day and are very popular with families, reunions, graduations or retirements. Each rental comes with 8-10 rounds of golf.
Pezhekee National doesn’t have long waits so making a reservation is as easy as showing up. Each hole has been given a Native American name like: Waube Mokwa (#1) and Mewissa (#5) and a quick tour of the dining room shows how closely linked the former owners are to the history of the resort. It is rumored that there are burial grounds on property, but management isn’t saying where.
If you are expecting four star resort treatment with spa amenities, you’ll need to go somewhere else, but if you are looking for a low-key, low-cost golf experience without the pretense of more flashy courses in the area, you should consider Pezhekee National, Minnesota’s longest public golf course and one of the State’s best golf deals.
Pezhekee National Golf Course
Glenwood, MN
1-800-356-8654
www.petersresort.comHACKER RATING: 5.8
Location: 5
Friendliness: 5
Value: 7
Layout: 5
Playability: 7
The Hacker Rating of this course isbased on the golfing experience for the average golfer. The course was rated on the following categories: Location -- easy access, easy to find, what’s nearby; Friendliness -- good service, cart girl, clubhouse, food choices; Value -- cost, what you get for your money; Layout -- length, bunkers, traps, difficulty, course style; Playability -- good for beginners, seniors, etc. The rating is based on scale of 1 to 10 in each category with a total possible rating score of 10.0 .
Labels: Course Review, Minnesota
CLICK HERE to listen.In Episode #34 of Golf Gear News, host Bruce Stasch reports at The Newstand that there is no news better than the start of the Masters.
The Guru Commentary adds a new intro and talks about
Minnesota Golfers Emerging from their Hibernation. The Perfect Fit asks the question:
What is 2nd Swing Up to Now!!! She Golfs Too learns about
The Firing of Female Caddies in South Korea and the
Return of Nancy Lopez to the LPGA. In Golf of the Weird hear about
The Golf Video that Has Been Downloaded 900 MILLION Times. View Video Here.Finally, at Website Spotlight, check out the
National Hole-In-One Association.As always, our show is sponsored by
Golfknockoff.com.
Check out our new
Media Kit.
Labels: 2nd Swing, LPGA, Minnesota, Nancy Lopez, The Masters, Women's Golf
What is 2nd Swing Up to Now!!!
Like the Phoenix rising from the ashes,
2nd Swing is back in business. According to a feature story in my local paper
Star Tribune, the new 2nd Swing has got one store open in Minneapolis and a second is slated to open in Minnetonka on April 2nd.
Before the internet, eBay and sites like
www.callawaypreowned.com, 2nd Swing had a lock on the used golf equipment market. But it didn’t last long. To keep ahead, 2nd Swing added new equipment to it offerings and expanded like mad until it had opened more than 50 stores. As quickly as it grew, it also added debt at an alarming rate. By the summer of 2006, the chain was gone. A victim of overzealous expansion and $10 million in debt.
According to the article, founder Simon Kallal is back in the saddle again as well as much of his original management
"Kallal and a group of five other investors stepped in earlier this year and bought 2nd Swing's intellectual rights for $50,000. The purchase gave them the right to use 2nd Swing's name, logo, website, software and customer database consisting of more than 250,000 names."As well as wash its hands of any misdeeds, missteps or screw ups by previous management.
I wrote a posting in early September that
the company had been liquidated and 17,700 customers with credit balances got screwed. Well, things haven’t changed. If you check the website
www.2ndswing.com, they already have a disclaimer that says
"If you are seeking information regarding the old 2nd Swing, including credit or gift card balance redemption, please seek claims through the bankruptcy court. All balances were handled through the closing of the company. Zero balances were transferred to the new 2nd Swing." Let’s do some math. If we make the assumption that the average credit balance was only $50, then 2nd Swing was able to dump $885,000 worth of credits for only $50K ($50/customer X 17,700/customers = $885,000).
Meaning, tough luck Mr. Former Customer.
Although they have modest goals this time around, I don’t believe that the new 2nd Swing has any more chance of being successful as did the old one. The company is going back into the used golf equipment market when the market stinks. Real growth in golf equipment hasn’t occurred for six years and doesn’t look to do so very soon.
One of the chain’s former rivals,
Golf Galaxy, was quoted in the
Star Tribune article as saying
"the pie isn't any bigger than it was a year ago," said Randy Zanatta, chief executive of Golf Galaxy.
"It's all a market-share game, now. It's about how big of a slice you can get." Now owned by Dick’s Sporting Goods, in 2003 Golf Galaxy sold almost no used clubs. Now they represent 7 to 8 percent of the chain's overall business.
In addition, the threat of used equipment showing up on eBay and all over the Internet is very real. One online retailer I spoke with said that he buys directly from Titleist, TaylorMade and others and sees new equipment show up on eBay at retail for less than he pays for it at wholesale. Also, online websites like those operated by Callaway and others sell used or refurbished equipment, thereby competing with companies like 2nd Swing. When they first opened in 1996, none of these competitive factors existed. Today, all of them combine to make this a much different market than before.
For a paltry $50K, 2nd Swing gets to rise again and hopefully, not get themselves into the same mess as before. I remain a big skeptic.
Labels: 2nd Swing, Callaway, Dick's Sporting Goods, Equipment, Golf Galaxy, Minnesota, Retailing, TaylorMade
Minnesota Golfers Come Out of Hibernation, Squint Into the Sun and See….
...a new golf season.
Each year, Minnesota golfers, looking like speared white whales, waddle onto the first tee, take a few practice swings, and launch our best drives of the year….or maybe not.
If you like dodging snow patches, last year’s goose droppings, singed brown greens and dead grass fairways then Minnesota golf in March will be your cup of tee.
It’s March 23rd and snow is still on the ground, but Minnesota golf courses are starting to open. I know that folks in Florida, Texas or Arizona are reading this with a blank stare, but you have to understand how golfers in Minnesota suffer. We are forced to put our clubs on a shelf from around Thanksgiving until Easter.
While we wait out the winter season, we only get to dream of the warm summer days when we played 36 holes late into the evening or the 5 AM tee time when we were the only ones on the course. Our pain continues when we are forced to watch Tiger, Phil and VJ play wonderful courses in golf paradises like Hawaii, California and Florida, while the only club we get to play with is our shovel.
When we finally get our chance, we expect that we’re going to shoot our best round of the year right off the bat. Remember that 79? Well, we should be just as good today as we were last October. Our skills can’t have atrophied over the last five months because of all the perfect shots we dreamt about. Why hit the driving range or the simulator and work on our skills? What a waste of time. All we need to do is remember what we did in late August.
Minnesotans only have seven months to play the game we love while much of the rest of the golfing world can spend most of the year wearing short sleeves and playing the newest driver hot off the store shelf the day it comes out. Even if we get a new Callaway FT-i Driver for Christmas, we can only look at it, in all its $499 glory, and dream how it is going to feel when we smack that first drive on #1. Is there no wonder why we have one of the highest numbers of golf courses per capita?
We don’t have the luxury to wait two weeks to get on our favorite course in Minnesota. If we do, our season could be over.
Labels: Callaway, Minnesota, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, V.J. Singh
