Mighty Majestic Oaks

Mighty Majestic Oaks

by Larry Berle

Majestic Oaks Golf Club is located in Ham Lake MN  just a 25 mile drive north of Downtown Minneapolis.  This is the home to 3 golf courses, The 18 hole signature course, playing to 7073 championship yards, The Crossroads course playing to 6396 yards  which was designed by Garett Gill and of course the executive course which is par 29  (two par 4’s and seven par 3s.  That is a total of 45 holes.

The signature course, which we are playing today was designed by Charles Maddox.

This is the place that is also home to snow golf, for those that need their golf fix in the middle of winter.  The holes are 50-150 yards long and you play with yellow tennis balls. The fairways are groomed, but everything else is a hazard. The holes are six inches wide, the flags frozen in place, and if the golf isn’t challenging enough, playing in the freezing cold will be.  Its cheap $7.00 and if you need it they will throw in a cup of hot chocolate. They expect to do over 3000 rounds this winter.  But its seasonal, ya gotta wait till the snow flyies.

With 45 holes and an enormous banquet facility that can serve 600 for a sit down dinner. So they can host a good sized wedding and a post golf tournament banquet simultaneously.

Majestic Oaks hosts close to 150 golf events a year and over twenty of them are large enough that they take up both courses. They have 28 leagues, hosted 115 weddings last year, have a boot hockey league, and in Fall and Spring host “Glow Ball” golf events.  This is a very busy place.   General Manager, Dan Jacott  told me “ We are having a terrific year financially.” There are not many golf courses these days that can say that.

Last year they were host to the 2011 Women's state Publinx  and recently hosted the Remax Long drive qualifier.

They get all this traffic because it’s a wonderful course at bargain rates.

Playing behind me are the Mueller brothers.  Between them one of them has won the club championship  12 years in a row.

The opening par five is a beautiful way to start.  It’s a dogleg left  (there are 6 dogleg lefts on the front nine)  Like most of the holes here it is tree lined but rarely on this course do the trees  pinch in the fairways  and if you miss the fairway, you may have a tree to contend with but they are sparse enough that you are rarely “in jail.”  But the rough is plenty penal, so keep it in the fairway. The greens are large, making for an abundance of pin placements. The greens are not only in good shape but putt true and hold their line.  The sand is consistent and not hard to hit from  (I know I was in it a few times)

There are four sets of tees, and at the tee boxes the distances from each tee box are clearly marked  (you are going to need it because the carts do not have GPS).

The course was in terrific shape but with all the traffic it gets, they have more than their share of divots on the fairways.  And unlike most public courses, they have a full locker room with 6 showers and towels.

IF you go:

701 Bunker Lake Blvd. NE
Ham Lake, MN 55304
Phone: (763) 755-2140

www.majesticoaksgc.com

Larry Berle is a travel writer who writes on many travel topics but specializes in golf travel.  He is author of A GOLFERS DREAM: HOW A REGULAR GUY CONQUERED THE GOLF DIGEST LIST OF AMERICAS TOP 100 GOLF COURSES.   Learn more about his book at www.GolfersDreamBook.com