On Saturday, I left for my annual golf trip with my friend, Stanton. Stanton and I have been friends since the 1st grade, so a long time. We try to get together and golf every year. This year, we went to Cragun's Resort near Brainerd, Minnesota. We played Dutch Legacy at Cragun's, then we went to Deacon's Lodge, and then we finished up with Bobby's Legacy at Cragun's. Actually, we finished up with Cragun's par 3 course, but that's not really golf.
Dutch Legacy: Dutch Legacy is a Robert Trent Jones Jr. design. For those who don't golf, RTJ Jr. is a fairly famous course designer. This was our opening round, and was probably the worst course of the three. That's not a knock on Dutch Legacy...it's still in my top 5 courses ever. It's just that Bobby's Legacy and Deacon's Lodge were probably the 2 best courses I've ever played. Dutch Legacy is relentless. It's a little over 6,800 yards from the back tees, and fairly narrow, but at the same time very fair. I had a little trouble, but still managed to shoot 81. Stanton, who is a much better golfer than I am shot 76. This picture is from #15. Both Stanton and I made birdie on this par 3. I hit a good iron shot and made the putt and Stanton chipped in.
Deacon's Lodge: This was my favorite course of the weekend and probably my favorite course ever. The fairways are very wide, like you would expect from an Arnold Palmer golf course. Palmer was famous for his risk/reward style of play, so it makes sense that he would design a course where the premium is not on driving, but on the 2nd shots. Once I realized the fairways were wide, I was swinging freely off the tee, and hit it great. The only thing better than my driving was the scenery...such a beautiful setting. My favorite hole is also the #1 handicap hole, the 7th. It's the ultimate risk/reward hole...you can play it safe out to the fairway and leave yourself 150 in, or you can try to carry a ravine and get inside 100 yards. I opted for safe and made my par. Deacon's Lodge ended up being my best round of the weekend...I shot 77, but still got beat by Stanton's 74. It's a good thing we weren't playing for any money. The picture here is of #12, which is a cool par 4 of 320 yards. Again, on this hole you have options...play an iron to the fairway, or try to drive the green over a marsh. The distance to the green was only 273, but I played it safe again and made par.
Bobby's Legacy: Our final round was at Bobby's Legacy, the other 18 hole gem at Cragun's. Deacon's Lodge is not affiliated with Cragun's, but was available to us in the package we got. Bobby's Legacy is also a Robert Trent Jones Jr. design, and in my opinion, was the better of the two Cragun's courses for 2 reasons...it was more fun and it was prettier. Bobby's Legacy is the only par 73 course I've ever played, and the only course with 19 holes...there is a par 3 at the end to "settle bets". The views on this course were unbelievable...probably the best was #17, which is a downhill par 4 of 427 yards. We had a forced carry of 240 over part of Stephen's Lake. I probably played my best golf on Bobby's, but had a few bad shots that killed my score. I shot an 80 for the day. Stanton played the best round of golf I've ever seen, making 12 pars, 5 birdies and only 1 bogey for a 69 (-4). To top it off, he birdied the 19th hole. It was fun to watch someone play that well. The picture here is from #4, which is an uphill par 4 with lots of bunkers. A very fun hole.
Oh, I did manage to shoot and even par 27 on the par 3 course, and beat Stanton by 1 shot for my lone victory of the weekend.
This was a great trip. I think we'll go back up there next year and may take 2 other guys along so we can round out a foursome.
