The grounds were bustling Friday at Edinburgh USA in Brooklyn Park. The driving-range stalls were nearly full, 24 high school boys golf teams were in action in the highly regarded Tri-State Invitational, and even with all that, there was a short stop in progress.
No, not a shortstop. A short stop.
The short stop was mine. I checked in briefly at the pro shop while on, well, business. I’ll get to that later.
More significantly, I was the beneficiary of an update on changes that are coming to Edinburgh USA. The city-owned course, designed by Robert Trent Jones II and opened in 1987, home to an LPGA Tour stop for seven years and the 1992 U.S. Public Links Championship, is about to get a facelift. The backhoes are set to be cranked up Monday morning as work begins on an extensive course renovation. Trees have been and will be removed, much of the course’s sand will be dispensed with, and two greens will be redesigned. Trent Jones II will handle the redesign work as well.
Club pro and golf course manager Don Berry — a week removed from a second-place finish in the Senior PGA Professional Championship that earned him a berth in next month’s Senior PGA Championship — said the changes will have the cumulative effect of making the course easier for medium- and higher-handicap players, though he noted that the course still will be a challenge for better players. (Edinburgh USA measures 6,904 from the back tees and requires an astute hole-by-hole game plan.)
Berry didn’t use the word “playability,” but it’s apparent that increased playability is one aim of the redesign. On Saturday, Berry told ESPN 1500 Golf Show hosts Craig Teiken and Joe Stansberry that 40 percent of the course’s sand will be removed. He had told me the day before that there would be much more grassy and fairway area around the greens than currently exists, so presumably higher-handicap players will be able to play their way onto the greens with more ease, buoyed by the prospect of fewer bunker shots. It seems likely that pace of play will improve as a result.
Berry also told Teiken and Stansberry that work would be done three holes at a time and should be completed by Aug. 1.
Those familiar with the course will notice a difference right away. The first hole (pictured below), a 492-yard par 5 from the middle tees, currently has three bunkers just inside the left rough. The three-bunker configuration will turn into a single bunker with the redesign, and there will be fairway on both sides of the bunker.
Edinburgh USA’s best-known hole, and one of the best-known in Minnesota, the par-4 17th featuring an “island fairway,” will be one of the least-changed holes with the redesign, Berry said. (Can’t say it’s one of my favorites, but I’m probably just sore because the first time I played it, I double-cross-pull-hooked my tee shot left of all of the water, a feat that likely has never been repeated, wound up with a 30-degree sidehill lie in no-man’s land and shortly penciled in a snowman on the scorecard.)
In a January web posting, Berry wrote this of the prospective changes:
“Edinburgh USA will be starting an extensive golf course renovation in the spring. All the bunkers and surrounding areas will be completely re-done; new sand, new design, new liners and some fairway grass around the bunkers to completely modernize the course. Also, the first and third greens will be re-designed and re-grassed. What this means for the golfer is that some bunkers will be closed during your round and we will have a couple of temporary greens for the first half of the golf season. We feel the wait will be worth it as the golf course will be amazing when completed.”
Edinburgh USA’s website is www.edinburghusa.com.
As for the business I was on, it falls here under the category of shameless self-promotion. If you stop by the Edinburgh USA pro shop, you can not only view detailed, hole-by-hole sketches of the redesign work, you can pick up for $19.95 a copy of my book, “Fore! Gone. Minnesota’s Lost Golf Courses 1897-1999.” Makes for a great Father’s Day or Mother’s Day gift. (Full disclosure: If you look to the right on this web page, you’ll see that Berry pre-read the book before publication and offered a short review.)
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