I played Gross Golf course in NE for the 1st time this year and couldn't believe the disaster they have created with the renovations that are underway. For the record, I play Mpls public golf courses all the time and have been very impressed with the work that was done at Meadowbrook, Wirth, and Hiawatha over the last several years. Minneapolis golf courses are a true treasure of our city but the project underway at Gross is a disaster for both the course and the players. The course is dug up in literally a dozen places with no progress anywhere, I know we've had a lot of rain but making us trudge through hundreds of feet of mud is not exactly the experience I'm looking for on the golf course. Gravel is inexpensive and in abundant supply, I literally had an inch of mud on my shoes, even Tiger can't play with his feet slipping out from underneath him. Usually I can tell what they're trying to do but outside of a few new tee boxes it just appears that they are out there playing in the mud. Also the care of the fairways and rough has deteriorated quite a bit over the last few years at Gross, creaping Charlie is trying to take over and the tee boxes are as bad as my front yard. I know this is a senseless rant to you non-golfers on the list but the other courses run by the city are of such better quality and Gross used to be my favorite layout to play. The quality of the course has slipped enough where I think it deserves mentioning to those of you who golf and those with a little pull at the Park Board. As for the other city courses, I encourage everyone to go out and get a round of golf in, the city courses are a friendly, fun and affordable place to play. My personal ranking is as follows: 1. Theodore Wirth-challenging layout and enough ups and downs for a heck of a workout when you walk it. Gorgeous view of Downtown from the third tee. 2. Meadowbrook-Beautiful rolling terrain, would be #1 on my list except for that devilish #5, the creek runs right through where a decent tee shot should land, that punishes good play. It's just not fair, but neither is golf. 3. Columbia-Great layout and some real challenging holes, lots of elevation changes make it a lot of fun to play. 4. Hiawatha-This is a course I haven't played since they redid 8 holes last year, anxious to hear some reviews on or off list about what folks think. They built an outstanding practice facility that opened last year with some help from soon to be 6th major in a row winner Tiger Woods. 5. Gross-This course will move up the list if gets back to the condition it was in a few years ago. A great mix of hard and easy holes, better for the ego yet just enough to keep it in check. Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing from someone the story at Gross. For those of you who may be wondering, I'm not doing this because I played badly, I actually shot my best score of the year and broke 90 for the first time this year. (for a hole by hole break down email me off line-j/k) Keep on Swingin' !!! (in whatever you chose to do) Scott Persons 8-12 Lyndale Neighborhood _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
