One of 13 national championships conducted by the U.S. Golf Association returns to Minnesota this weekend for the sixth time, but the 79th Amateur Public Links brings with it no massive merchandising tents or 18th-hole grandstands.
Once a showcase for plumbers, policemen and bus drivers raised on the local municipal golf course, the men's Publinx - its shortened, nearly universally accepted nickname - now mostly is the domain of long-hitting college players who compete for a silver cup, a list of special exemptions from qualifying for other USGA championships and a traditional invitation to play in next year's Masters.
A field of 156 players, supported mostly by family and friends throughout an event that charges no admission or parking fees, will compete over six grueling days that eliminate all but one champion on an upscale daily-fee course that today will end public tee times - at $95 a crack, prime time - for the next eight days. Practice rounds start today, the competition begins Monday.
Why?
Rush Creek owner Duncan MacMillan - golf nut, orchid grower and an heir to the Cargill grain fortune who also owns publishing and management-consulting companies - lists the same reason he turned a farmer's crude golf course into a rolling, manicured championship layout that includes panoramic vistas of wetlands and woods, and no houses.
"To make something available for golfers in Minnesota that wouldn't happen otherwise," he said.
He developed Rush Creek, opened in 1996, as a country club-for-a-day for the willing public golfer. He courted friends inside the U.S. Golf Association and pal Mark McCormack, the superagent who founded the IMG Sports Management empire before he died last year, seeking a USGA championship for a course that held three LPGA tour events in its first four years.
MacMillan sought such a championship - a money-losing proposition - both because it would give something back to Minnesota golf and because he knew, with the USGA's help, he would get a "much better golf course."
With advice from USGA officials experienced in championship-course setup, two holes were completely redesigned by course co-architect John Fought and opened last summer: No. 14, a non-descript shortish par 4 played uphill into a punchbowl green, was rerouted to an adjacent piece of land that originally was kept untouched as a possible site for future homes, an idea MacMillan refused because he believes golf should be "just grass, water and trees, nature at its very best." No. 15 remains a par 3, but its forgiving punchbowl green has been replaced by a well-bunkered, flatter surface.
Both new holes add length to a course that, at 7,132 yards, will play as the longest in Publinx history. No. 14 now is 100 yards longer, a 470-yard brute with a blind, uphill drive that leads to a lovely downhill approach over water to a huge green framed by a neighboring farm. No. 15 is only about 10 yards more, but now plays slightly uphill to a green that requires much more precision to hold.
The changes - troublesome greens at the sixth and 13th holes also were previously redone - have turned what MacMillan called the course's two weakest holes into a five-hole finishing sequence he now terms "really fine." A round concludes with Rush Creek's signature 18th hole, a demanding par 5 that wraps left around water its entire length with out-of-bounds on the right.
MacMillan attributes the Publinx presence - it was awarded to Rush Creek in 1999 - partly for creating brisk business at a time many courses are battling to fill tee sheets. Rush Creek director of golf Ed Money said he has no direct evidence that the USGA's stamp of approval has specifically convinced golfers to play the course. "But it sure can't hurt," Money said.
The Public Links first was played in Minnesota in 1931 at St. Paul's Keller Golf Course and last visited in 1992 at Brooklyn Park's Edinburgh USA. MacMillan said he considers the USGA's decision to play at Rush Creek "a great compliment" to the course and its staff. In a moment of hyperbole, he suggested the Publinx's arrival is "like having the Masters right here in Minnesota." Golfweek magazine earlier this year ranked Rush Creek the seventh-best public-access course in Minnesota - fourth-best among Minnesota courses in the metro area, after StoneRidge Golf Club, Chaska Town Course and The Wilds. "We're a highly rated public course for everybody, not only for the spectator but for the player," said MacMillan, who would like Rush Creek to land another USGA event and perhaps a Champions Tour event, which currently is firmly committed to the TPC of the Twin Cities in Blaine. "We're highly ranked now. We want to be higher."
Source: Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minn.)
