Here For a Football Game? Try These Twin Cities Golf Courses!

There’s a chill in the air and colors on the trees. It’s fall in Minnesota, and it’s the best time of year for…football and golf.

Fall is the best time for golf in Minnesota because course superintendents have had an entire season to groom their courses to be at their best while cooler temperatures make for the most comfortable rounds of the year. Yet fall is also football season – at US Bank Stadium for the Vikings, TCF Bank Stadium for the Gophers, and all of the area colleges that turn a football Saturday into a true slice of Americana. So, how do you balance both?

Fortunately, there’s enough time in a fall weekend to enjoy football and play some quality golf without heading up to the Northwoods. Whether you’re coming to town to watch your favorite team, or you’re a local who wants to stay close to home for a game, here are some great Twin Cities golf courses to play during a Fall Football Weekend.

Closest to the pin

Within a Bubba Watson drive to both the airport and downtown Minneapolis, you can get to world-class golf within a half hour. Consider Rush Creek Golf Club in Maple Grove, The Legends Club in Prior Lake, or Edinburgh USA, the Robert Trent Jones course in Brooklyn Park. These are all reasonably priced public facilities that will make you feel like you’ve walked through a trap door into the Northwoods of the Upper Midwest. Heck, you could hit these courses in the morning and still make a noon kickoff!

Variety of styles

Whether you’re interested in the aforementioned “Northwoods” golf experience or whether you prefer more of a “parkland” style track like Braemar Golf Course in Edina, you can find tremendous variety at extremely affordable prices. Step out to StoneRidge Golf Club in Stillwater, which is about 45 minutes from the Vikings stadium and you’ll be on an incredible links-style course. Dream up the type of course you would love to play and there’s a high probability we have that for you in Minnesota.

Worth the drive

Whether you’re hopping off a plane at MSP International or staying downtown near the Vikings stadium, you are 45-minutes from a dozen high end, championship golf courses. Want proof? Every course mentioned to this point qualifies in this category plus Stonebrooke Golf Club in Shakopee, The Wilds Golf Club in Prior Lake, Prestwick Golf Club in Woodbury, and Ridges at Sand Creek in Jordan, which may be one of the furthest from downtown Minneapolis, but still quite reachable in less than an hour.

High-end golf at an affordable price

One of the biggest complaints (aside from their game) that golfers have is the cost of high-end daily fee golf courses. In Minnesota, we are home to Giants Ridge, and The Quarry, the 31st-ranked golf course on Golf Digest’s list of Top 100 public courses. You’ll be stunned to know the green fees at Giants Ridge don’t reach $100 per player at any time of the year. Is that affordable enough for you? The rest of the state is filled with terrific values on world-class golf courses, as well.