chaska town course
Hole #4 at Chaska Town Course. Hard t argue it as the signature hole.
Posted by Glen
I like to say there’s no bad day on the course. But when the air is room temperature warm, it really is a step up.
I learned that today in our latest round at Chaska Town Course. Up until today, I’ve played five rounds of golf this year, and there’s been nary a 60 degree day in any of them.
Today, I was in shorts and I peeled off my long sleeve hoodie less than 7 minutes after our 7:10 AM tee time. What a gorgeous day with temps in the 80’s and sun for the entire round. Perfect conditions to take a cart and feel the wind against my face and enjoy the shade of the cart roof.
Ahp! Not so fast Speed Racer with a strict governor on your cart…Twig wanted to walk. Twig’s just a difficult person to disappoint and I don’t like conflict. It didn’t help that our guest also wanted to walk, or at least pretended he did.
Despite battling a head cold, I acquiesced and marched into the heat with my little pull cart in tow. Dizziness and vertigo be damned.
Twig and I were joined today by the aforementioned guest, Matt Bertram, or “Bertie” as he is better known in circles that I someday hope to be a part of. Bertie and Twig have been best buddies since grade school and have always shared a bond with hockey and golf. Bertie was Twig’s goaltender at Edina and he led them to a state championship in 1988 (oh good for them!). You’d think that would be a pretty cool accomplishment before you consider there’s about 40 goaltenders that have led Edina to a state championship. In fact, he’s not even the only Bertam to do it! His own son did it a just couple years ago.
So no…not impressive. Call me when you lead Silver Bay to a State Championship.
Bertie went on to a collegiate career at Vermont and is now a goaltending coach/hockey director for the St. Cloud State men’s team. He’s about as solid as they come. He’s got that dry sense of humor that allows for the perfect tone when he’s trash talking on the course. And trash talk is always a little tougher to take when it comes out of the mouth of an Edina native. And I think he knows that, which is why he’s relentless with it.
One other thing about Bertie, and please don’t tell him I said this…he looks like Alan Stanwyck from Fletch. I brought this up to him once years ago, and he didn’t seem thrilled with the comparison. I meant it as a compliment. Alan is a very handsome man, and his estranged wife, Gail Stanwyk was an absolute knockout who still holds up all these years later. But that’s neither here nor there.
As for Chaska Town Course, it has a reputation of being one of the best public courses in the Metro area. Some might even consider it the Gail Stanwyk of metro area public golf courses.
I’ve always liked the “Town.” So plunking down $93 (did I already mention we walked?) is typically worth it. It has a really eclectic mix of challenging holes and some relatively easy holes. I’ve always thought of it to be in pristine condition, but an ominous sign was arriving to the most chewed up practice green I’ve ever seen. Ever the optimist, Twig figured it was just the practice green. It wasn’t.
My original thought was to default to the typical “course management should be aware of that and discount rounds when greens aren’t up to snuff.” But two things on that:
The odds of that ever happening are about as likely as Tiger teaching Drivers Ed classes. And…
Maybe the time has come to stop worrying so much about that. You’re playing golf. Just enjoy yourself and don’t get bent out of shape because your ball popped up a couple centimeters on its way to rolling eight feet past the hole. I realize I’m probably in the minority on this so I believe that now qualifies as a “hot take.”
Aside from the greens on the first six holed, the course was in excellent condition. It was pretty out there. Tons of houses along the course. A lot of marshes, which are visually appealing yet terrifying on most every hole. Here are some highlights:
Standing on the first green, the group behind of us had a tee ball stop about 10 yards shy of the green. As someone who considers himself fairly long off the tee, this doesn’t sit well with me. Not because they hit into us, but because I don’t consider hole 1 a drivable par 4 and it bothers me that my best drive wouldn’t come close.
On hole 3, the fun little short, drivable par 4, both Twig and Bertie made birdie. I made par. That’s another thing that doesn’t sit well…making par and being the worst score in the group.
Hole 3 is Twig’s pick for Signature Hole at Chaska Town. As soon as he said that, and pointed out that the frickin club logo has the tree from that hole on their logo, I realized I was wrong for picking number 9. And 9 is a great hole, but Twig is right, hole 3 is the signature hole at Chaska Town. Get your picture taken by the tree.
Things started to teeter a little bit for me starting with a bogey on the cute little Par 3 fourth hole. Then a nice three jack on five and another bogey on the Par 3 sixth. Just completely went Lindsey Lohan circa 2008 on 7 and my hopes of a great round quickly faded. Seven is not a fun hole for people like me who get visually intimidated by hitting between trees and over water. In fact, it’s so tough that it battered my psyche enough that the pain lasted onto the eighth hole, which should be a very easy, straightforward Par 4.
Number 9 is my favorite hole on the course. A fun Par 5 that is visually stimulating. But, it’s not the signature hole.
Number 11 is often thrown into the mix as one of the toughest holes in the area. The tee shot is tough because if you take driver, you’re likely to reach the swamp. If you aim right, you’re blocked out by a tree. And if you play it safe and lay up, you have a very long second shot on a Par 4. It’ll test you, but my second hot take of the day is that it’s not the most difficult hole on the course. That’s coming later.
My second blow up hole of the round came on the Par 3 12th. Put my tee shot right in the middle of the pond with a photogenic shank. Then launched my re-tee over the green on the right.
Fast forward to 16, which is another favorite hole. It’s one you can go for the green on and not be crazily penalized if you take that risk and don’t get there. The thing I don’t like about 16 is that it gets your confidence up before 17 and 18 come up on you and viciously rip your heart out.
BUT things would be different today! At least for awhile.
I hit the best five iron of my life on 17 and had a tap in birdie. So I was able to cockily saunter for awhile before going to 18, which is the hardest hole on the course, to wrap up my hot take. The drive should be easy, but more often than not, I snap it into the marsh on the left which runs the entire length of the Par 5. Mission accomplished there. Snapped into the marsh like a heat seeking missile in Top Gun Maverick.
I would have walked off hating 18 after a double bogey, but when there’s a big snapping turtle lumbering on the green, it’s hard to stay mad. Although, Flash as we named him, seemed pretty testy himself. He did not like us near him and was acting as though the green is the last place we should have been. That’s his spot. I also assume he saw me hacking up the 18th hole and just assumed I’d never get there.
The thing about 18 is that this damn marsh runs up the entire left side, which isn’t great for someone whose got a nice array of snap hooks in his arsenal. And that marsh also juts out into the fairway about 100 yards from the green. The right side is this big hill that slopes down. And when you finally get to the green, you’ve got pissed off snappers there waiting for you.
One more hot take: my future garage band will be named “The Pissed Off Snappers.”
Golf courses always get bonus points if you see some wildlife that isn’t a squirrel or a muskrat. Turtles are good luck on golf courses. That should be an unwritten golf rule, right behind the other rule that every hole must have a name.
We wrapped up our round with the Emergency 9 with Bertie who was great. Give that a listen to hear his thoughts about watching his son play goalie in the state championship game. He also dives headfirst into the mess that is constant rule changes in college hockey. Worth a listen.
When we started this pod, we said we’d eat at every course and rate the food. Then we realized how much money we were spending on this venture without a lot of money coming in…yet. At least for today, the food tasting will have to wait.
Chaska Town…a joy as always. Yes, it’s pricey. But it is a fantastic experience, regardless of how you play. If this were a sandwich, it’d be a cheesesteak. Very delicious and always exciting when you get it. Just don’t ruin it with onions (equivalent of winter burn on greens).