Over 40 golf courses pepper the Northland, and while these courses vary in size, difficulty, price tag and cachet, they share a set of features that makes golfing in the northern wilds unlike golfing anywhere else in the world.

“There’s a surprisingly high number of very high quality courses in this region,” said Kurt Soderberg, treasurer for the Ely Golf Club (a public—but not municipal—course within the Superior National Forest, adjacent to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness). “Of course, the Ely Golf Club is my favorite. I also like the Wilderness at Fortune Bay. It’s well maintained and challenging, yet playable.”

Wild things

“Having the chance to view wildlife while you’re golfing is what attracts a lot of people here,” said Michael Kunshier, general manager of the Gunflint Hills Golf Course in Grand Marais. “We like to call it ‘northland golf.’ We’re like a really well kept secret up here. The people who come here always seem to come back.”

Staff on other Northland golf courses echo his sentiments.

For example, when Paul Schintz talks about Duluth’s Enger Park Golf Course and Lester Park Golf Course (he is the PGA Director of both), his description could just as easily be applied to, say, a trip into the BWCAW.

“You have the outdoor feel,” he said. “It’s quiet—you don’t have cars and trucks and planes. And you have a lot of wildlife. We have deer [on the course] every day. We’ve had moose, bear, and fox.”

Bambi wannabes seem to be the most common animal trespassers. Nearly every person interviewed for this article mentioned them. Kurt Soderberg said, “As I finished my round just now, there were four deer who ran out in front of me.”

Likewise, Bill French, the general manager of the 18-hole championship course at Fort William Country Club in Thunder Bay, Ontario, said casually, “Oh, there are deer running around in front of you all the time.”

Location, location, location

The attributes that make living in the Northland so enticing also apply to golfing here. Take the landscape. Whether you crave the wild crash of Lake Superior waves on a blustery day, the starkness of cliffs outlined against the northern sky, or the serenity of the northwoods, you can find a golf course that matches your desires.

“You can see Lake Superior from 13 of the holes,” says Kyle Ness, general manager of the Lakeview National Golf Course, an 18-hole championship course in Two Harbors. “My favorite part about golfing in this area is the naturalness of it. There aren’t houses all over the place.”

The dramatic showpiece of the Fort William Country Club course is not the lake, but the mountains of the Nor’Wester Range.

“Our backdrop is a huge granite wall,” says French. “On numerous fairways, you see the white ball flying against this giant wall.”

It comes as little surprise, then, that stunning scenery is a major selling point for Northland golf courses.

Rocky Wilkinson, marketing manager for the Black Bear Golf Course in Carlton, MN, cites the setting as the most unique and attractive aspect of the course. “It’s carved out of the northwoods. Each hole is kind of like an island. It’s beautiful. Our grounds crew does a heck of a job. I’ve golfed all over the south and southeast but [this course] is nicer all around. You can’t beat the natural outdoor setting—the pines and birches and ponds.”

Pace and quiet

Schintz of Duluth’s Enger Park course claims, “Up here, the golfers are hardcore golfers. In Duluth, you play in all kinds of weather. Otherwise, you don’t play.”

But while Northland golf may demand a degree of dedication that golf elsewhere doesn’t require, it offers in return a more relaxing experience. Kunshier says of the Gunflint Hills Golf Course, “I like that you don’t have to sit there and wait around to golf. You don’t get held up [waiting for many other golfers]. You can go out and just play and enjoy the game.”