Iconic Waters

Minnesota

Tianna Country Club in Walker is inching toward its 100th birthday in 2022, with a Centennial Celebration on the horizon this season. Designed by William Kidd and Ernie Tardiff, the course debuted in 1922 as a parkland nine crafted by Kidd. In 1967, Tardiff brought the course to 18 holes.

The Centennial Celebration is July 23, and club pro Carrie Johnson is seeking pictures, memories, family golf and old man yarns. On July 24, the club begins a capital campaign with a goal of raising funds for infrastructure. 

The club also hosts three annual events, each tied to the leadership of Walker native and St. Cloud resident Ray Sauer (sidebar below).
 
In November of 2021, Sauer was awarded the Rebbie Distinguished Service Award at the MGA’s annual meeting. Tianna’s Sauer-inspired annual events include the Two-Man Best Ball on June 26, the Short Stop on August 28 and the Minnesota Indian Golf Classic August 13-14. 

Tianna hosts three high school golf teams, and Johnson coaches the Walker High School girls and boys teams. She reports “the boys team is led by Parker Brock, and Kianna Johnson on the girls team placed seventh in the 2021 Minnesota Class A!”

Tianna isn’t the only game in Walker. Long Bow Golf Club came on board in 1998, designed by Daniel J. Helbling, who appears to have disappeared into the woodwork. Walker proper is on vast Leech Lake, and the town is very walkable, with numerous shops and a Thursday Farmers’ Market. There’s a modest stream that routes through Long Bow, and some elevated greens challenge approach shots. The course has good reviews on golfpass.com, particularly in regard to its excellent conditioning.

Walker and Park Rapids are at opposite ends of Highway 34, and the area brims with visitors homing in on the Mississippi headwaters. Headwaters Golf Club in Park Rapids is a semi-private 1923 track where players are surrounded by a classic pine forest with five water holes sprinkled within.

Blueberry Pines Golf Club in Menahga was hit by a devastating fire in January 2019, destroying the clubhouse. The golf course, however, was unscathed and remained in play that season. The track has pond and streams in play and its dress code calls for shirts with sleeves for men. Read no tank tops or muscle shirts? It’s a fair assumption Joel Goldstrand wore a collared shirt when he designed the course. Bonus points here for the family of mute trumpeter swans on site. The clubhouse restaurant has starters, salads, lunch all day and an alluring evening dinner menu, and underwent an ownership change. Of course, there’s a statue of St. Urho on Highway 71 south.

Ray Sauer Garners Rebbie at MGA Annual Meeting & Awards Dinner

Twins Ray and Ed Sauer were nine when they hit balls for the first time at Tianna Country Club. It wasn’t long before the two began their lifelong relationships with the game.

Born in Walker, the boys soon matriculated to the caddie shack, where walking-around money could be generated. The dream continued in youth golf and the Walker High School golf team, and soon the collegiate program at Bemidji State University.

Ray, still a financial advisor living in St. Cloud, plays out of Pebble Creek Golf Club (in Becker), but finds his way back to Walker and Tianna to run three tournaments that he founded. He continues to nurture the BSU golf program, where he is the only inductee into its Hall of Fame. He’ll also participate in a scholarship tournament that memorializes his late brother Ed. 

Needless to say, Ray Sauer has given it all to golf. That’s why, at the MGA’s Awards Dinner Nov. 1, 2021, he was named winner of the “Rebbie”- the Warren J. Rebholz Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to the game.

The statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox are in Paul Bunyan Park on Lake Bemidji, just north of the spot where the Mississippi River flows into the lake. Chronologically, Bemidji Town & Country Club, on the shore of Lake Bemidji, is a semi-private founded in 1916, revised in 1990 and updated in 2014. Part of its provenance is being the site of the Birchmont Golf Tournament, a leg of the prestigious annual Resorters Circuit, which will be hosted there July 25-30, 2022. 

The spacious and beautiful clubhouse houses the North Shore Grill, with a panoramic view of iconic Lake Bemidji, has a menu with some unique twists. Pro Rick Grand speaks of the well-described burgers—“your choice of ‘Hand Burgers’ or ‘Knife and Fork Burgers.’” And Grand says the Al Pasta is named for Al Snider, a former Bemidji restaurant owner and BT&CC member.

East of Bemidji on U.S. Highway 2, Fosston Golf Club (1965) and the 1960 Twin Pines in Bagley combine for an 18-hole day.

Northeast of Bemidji and just south of Funkley on U.S. 71 in the Chippewa National Forest, Blackduck sits on the cusp of the Continental Divide with a golf course­—Blackduck Municipal GC—near the access to Blackduck Lake. You won’t go hungry in this town, with six restaurants just off the highway. Nearby Camp Rabideau is a notable National Historic Landmark, one of 2,500-plus nationwide that were part of FDR’s New Deal initiative.

Trek to the headwaters, traverse the Mississippi at its narrow beginnings and then dip your toes in the other iconic bodies of water near beautiful and challenging golf courses. Tour the area like the meandering Mississippi and enjoy a golf trip you won’t soon forget.