loggers trail

Posted By Glen

Calm down East Siders! The Golf Loons are well aware that there are golf courses on the other side of the Mississippi River. Jeez Louise, enough with the troves of angry emails!

You’re talking to a former East Sider here. I’ve lived in the Midway area, the Como Park area (I can’t wait for our Como Park Golf Course review), and I worked in downtown St. Paul for darn near 20 years. I’m as blue collar as a meat packer from South St. Paul. When it comes to golf, ain’t no beef between the East and the West.

But just to ease your minds, the Golf Loons traveled East to play a round at Logger’s Trail to satisfy the masses. And also to satisfy our guest who loves to frequent Loggers. 

If you listen to KFAN radio around the lunch hour, you’ll hear Logger’s Trail talked about often. It’s a favorite of The Common Man Progrum host, Dan “The Common Man” Cole. And it’s also frequented by the Pippen to Common’s Jordan, Brandon “TennaB” Mileski. 

So who do you think our guest for today was? None other than the very plain looking, TENNAAAA-B! 

Of course, that’s not true. It’s just a a bit. If you only listen to KFAN on the radio, you may not know what Brandon looks like. He’s strikingly handsome. Especially in a golf polo.

Brandon plays Loggers quite often, but it was high on our list anyway, so this was a win-win. The course is run by General Manager Tim Matsche, who is as solid as they come and “a lot of people are saying” that Tim is the greatest General Manager in the history of golf. Tim is such a nice guy, and I think that’s reflected in the way the staff treats everyone. They were top notch from start to finish. 

Whenever we invite a guest, we allow them to invite a fourth, and today that was Kevin Falness, another radio legend. Not for anything he’s done with the Wild, but for the tremendous work he did on the intro song for the Golf Loons. 

Kevin is an upcoming guest for the Loons so he got to see how things work, which gives him a bit of an advantage for his round.

With these two KFAN personalities, I of course got all of the tea and gossip about everything that goes on at the station. The drama. The tension. I even saw a picture of the mysterious and very real Carl Gerbschmidt. I’ll try to remember to post that on the Golf Loons Instagram account. Or will I? I’ll have to think about it. 

Okay, onto the course itself. Loggers is known for having two very different nines. The first nine is narrow and winds through a lot of trees before finally loosening up on the 8th hole. The back 9 opens up more but offers an array of different challenges.

The front 9 actually starts out fairly easy with a gentle dog leg right. But then you immediately jump into the number one handicap hole which is narrow, has trouble on the right and a Victor Wembanyama tree on the left (I blame the NBA Playoffs for all the hoops references). 

The next hole was a testy par 3 over water, and sure enough, Mr. Mileski, with my cameras on, throws a dart to within five feet and promptly drains his birdie. Side note: it must be nice to have someone there filming your birdie holes from start to finish that you can gather your eager family around after and show them how great you are. Not all heroes wear capes. 

This started a wave of momentum for Brandon that he rode all the way to 18. More on that in a bit. 

When you get past the third hole, you really need to bring your accuracy off the tee. Holes 4 and 5 require the precision of a lasik surgery. Number 4 could be considered one of the most challenging holes in the metro area because there’s trouble looming on both sides of the entire hole. Golfers like me who spray more than a Kansas City baseball stadium are petrified on this tee. 

For us less than accurate hitters, just get to number 8 and it’ll feel like an elephant just lifted his…paw? hoof?…let’s say foot off your chest. You can unload on 8 and 9 and feel recharged for the back right after swinging by the outdoor grill. A lovely feature of Logger’s is that everything - clubhouse, outdoor grill, patio, driving range, practice green, first tee, ninth green, 10th tee and 18th green are right there. A very solid design and underrated feature.

I really think what makes Loggers one of the top public courses in the Twin Cities is the back 9. Number 10 is a very challenging uphill par 5 with a bear of a green that will test your nerves. 

Then comes number 11, which is just a fantastic view from the tee. It’s a sharp dogleg left, and you can go over the ruins of a building which we determined was haunted. You can also aim to the right of that and have a long shot in. But how often can you say you’ve hit over a haunted house? Rarely, so try to rip one right over it. 

Twig picked 11 as the signature hole for Loggers Trail, and I have to agree with him even though I didn’t say it in the podcast because I’m an idiot. I love when structures (other than houses) are on the course. And if they are haunted, it’s even better. 

But I would say 16 comes close. It’s got some kind of wooden facing on a fairway bunker that looks like a bunch of piano keys. Another candidate could be number 18. It’s got a gentle little brook running up the left side and a stadium seating amphitheater in the form of mounds surrounding the green. 

Hole 18 was also where I came to the realization that something was going on with Mileski. He hit is drive over near the brook and was looking really concerned. We all went to help him look for the wayward tee shot, but he was hell bent on finding it and had a look on his face of a concerned parent. I took that to mean he is trying to close out a career round. But I didn’t want to say anything and I didn’t know what his score was. . 

He had to take a drop, and then landed a beautiful approach shot to about 15 feet. When he burned the edge of the cup with his par putt, he looked as if someone just told him Smokey the Bear died. Sure enough, that putt was to break 80, which isn’t bad for someone who took up the game late in life and is often ridiculed by Common when it comes to golf. 

But I was happy that Mileski had a great round with us. I can only assume he will talk extensively about the experience if it ever comes up on the “Wheel of Topics” segment of The Progrum. 

He was also really fun to talk to after the round. I’ve always admired Brandon, not just for his quick wit on the air, but I am a fan of his social media presence as well. He’s funny, but also has a very common sense approach to youth sports, which is very enjoyable to see. So I considered it a big win to get him as an early guest for Golf Loons. 

Our day at Loggers was top notch. It didn’t hurt that the weather was perfect on this Saturday afternoon. I would highly recommend this course to anybody. As Twig pointed out, the non-golf accessories (clubhouse, carts, welcome sign) are no frills. That means they put their money into the course and it does show. It’s in great shape. There are cool touches all around and lovely scenery. Put this one on your list for your next venture to the East Side.