Tower, Minn. – Golf course architect Jeffrey D. Brauer has made history, becoming the first architect to win back-to-back annual honors for golf courses in the same state and category. The Wilderness at Fortune Bay was named “Best New Upscale Public Course for 2005” by Golf Digest.
The Wilderness joins The Quarry at Giants Ridge, a Brauer-designed course in nearby Biwabik, which won the honor for 2004 and whose sister course, The Legend at Giants Ridge, debuted in Golf Digest’s “Top Ten Best New Upscale Public Courses” in 1998.
“Anytime you get a course on the list its’ an honor,” says Brauer. “When you come out on top, that honor becomes a thrill.”
The Wilderness, an 18-hole resort course that weaves through rugged, rolling terrain with granite outcroppings and towering pines and along Lake Vermilion, scored a hat trick of sorts with the Golf Digest accolade. It had earlier been named among the “Top 10 Best New Places To Play” by GOLF Magazine and as one of the “10 Best New Public/Resort Courses in America” by Travel & Leisure Golf.
The latest ranking, released in Golf Digest’s January 2006 issue, is icing on the cake, according to Andy Datko, chief executive officer of Fortune Bay Resort Casino, which is owned by the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa.
“We had our hopes for No. 1,” Datko says. “We’re ecstatic about it.”
Joe Wisocki of KemperSports, who serves as general manager and director of golf at The Wilderness, says: “It’s a great test of golf for all skill levels. Everyone can be tested.”
The Wilderness hosted the three-day 2005 Minnesota Section Club Professionals Championship, which was won with a 7-under par, with only three guys breaking par.
“All those players were so pleased with the way the golf course played,” Wisocki says. “It challenged them from every aspect.”
Brauer, who has designed more than 45 courses since opening his own firm in 1984, is no stranger to Golf Digest’s “Best-New” lists. In 2003, his new Legacy Course in Norwalk, Iowa, and in 2004 his renovation of Indian Creek in Carrollton, Texas, also secured places on the Golf Digest Best-New lists. Previously, Golf Digest design awards went to his Canterberry in Parker, Colo., in 1997 and Avocet Course at Wild Wing Plantation in Myrtle Beach, S.C., in 1994, while Colbert Hills Golf Club at Kansas State University is the No. 1-ranked course in Kansas and rated among the Top 10 college courses in the country and his Cowboys Golf Club, designed for Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, has also won accolades, including being named Zagat’s Best New Course of 2002.
“It’s unusual,” Brauer says of The Wilderness and The Quarry. “They are only 25 miles apart and so different in character that some can’t believe both are designed by the same architect. The Quarry is the greatest unnatural site I’ve ever had. The Wilderness is the greatest natural site. The Quarry is probably the tougher course, but from the feedback I get, most golfers, including many good ones, prefer the natural beauty of The Wilderness to the stark contrasts and jagged edges of The Quarry. Of course, I find both attractive in their own way”
The Wilderness and the two Giants Ridge courses are each unique in difficulty as well as look.
“Giants Ridge directed us to specifically design The Quarry to be difficult in reaction to feedback from good players that The Legend wasn’t’ challenging enough for them,” Brauer says. “Fortune Bay told us to design a course harder for the good player but similar to The Legend for the average player. We gave them the best blend of championship golf and friendliness to the average golfer.
“Apparently we were successful,” he adds. “It’s the right bowl of porridge for most golfers: not too hot, not too cold, but just right.”
Brauer also credited The Wilderness superintendent Vince Dodge for managing the course for firm and fast conditions.
“There are some holes where we couldn’t move a lot of earth and they look like they were built 100 years ago,” he says. “Vince’s conditioning works perfectly. It both looks and plays like an old-fashioned golf course.”
Besides the golf course and casino, Fortune Bay has a 115-room hotel that overlooks Lake Vermilion and part of the golf course.
For more information on Brauer and his company, GolfScapes, visit www.jeffreydbrauer.com, call 817-640-7275 or e-mail jeff@jeffreydbrauer.com.
Brauer design becomes historic
Golf course architect Jeffrey D. Brauer has made history, becoming the first architect to win back-to-back annual honors for golf courses in the same state and category.