The National Youth Golf Center, home of The First Tee of Blaine, Minn., opened a new course. Located just north of Minneapolis, the 18-hole events course is the second phase of the comprehensive golf project developed by the National Sports Center. The first phase, complete four years ago, included an 18-hole putting course with bentgrass greens.
PGA Tour Design Services designed and built both courses.
The goal of the new golf course is to field players from beginners to professionals of all ages. The course measures 7,100 yards and is a par-71 with five par 3 holes. It also has a practice facility with target greens and a large turf tee and hitting pads.
When it’s complete, the complex will consist of the putting course, the 18-hole competitive golf course and a nine-hole course. Currently, phase one and two are complete. The nine-hole course will start development in a couple years.
The golf course has been in development for more than 5 years. A portion of the golf course is located on Blaine Airport property. Throughout the process, developers and designers dealt with flight patterns related to geese and fowl, winds and wetlands. There’s no open water on the course because it’s a habitat for geese. There was minimal disruption to wetlands, but if wetlands were impacted, they were replaced on and off site at two-to-one ratio.
The course is a blend of wild flowers, prairie grasses, bluegrass and fescue. Bunkers are built with minimal slope for easy maintenance. Greens are large to support various pin locations. All greens are United States Golf Association (USGA) standard. The grasses chosen for the course were dwarf bluegrass, mainly in the fairway because of their hardiness to golf traffic. The roughs are mostly bluegrass with minimal fescue because of cart traffic. Greens are bentgrass. No sod was used on the site. Ecoegis, which is basically a hydromulch, was used. There are native areas outside of the roughs to give it the feel of a links style golf course.
The superintendent of the course is Jeff Reich, who is a member of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA).
Since its inception in 1997, The First Tee has opened over 148 golf learning facilities and has introduced the game of golf to more than 300,000 young people since 2000. The focus is to give young people of all backgrounds an opportunity to develop, through golf and character education, life-enhancing values such as honesty, integrity and sportsmanship.
The National Youth Golf Center has already impacted the life of over 4000 children this summer introducing them to all aspects of golf. It is headed by Neil Ladd, who’s an employee of the National Sports Center Foundation.
PGA Tour Design Services has designed and built more than eight First Tee facilities throughout the country. This is one of its largest facilities.