The Wilds golf club
I’m not going to do it. I promised myself I wouldn’t do it.
No matter how poorly I play, I’m not going to pin my absolute slop out there to the course itself. It wouldn’t be fair.
If I were that guy, I would tell you that The Wilds Golf Course in Prior Lake is one of the worst courses out there.
Unfortunately, the opposite is true and much like the Verve Pipe’s Freshman, this course can’t be held responsible. It won’t be held responsible. And for the life of me, I cannot remember playing this poorly at The Wilds.
I’ve played the Prior Lake gem quite a few times over the years. Getting up to the double digits. And I honestly do like it more every time. A sign of a good course in the Twin Cities is if you fork over $140 for a 7:20 AM tee time, and even after playing like excrement, you’re not upset that you spent that kind of money, which is the equivalent to two rounds + 17 more holes at Theo Wirth.
Today, Twig and I were joined by our special guest, Max Smith, and our special friend, John Peterson (JP) of Yellowbird Coffee. We’ve now done eight golf course reviews, and J.P. has been our fourth in three of them, which leads all other Golf Loons appearances. J.P. is the owner of Yellowbird coffee, our first and only sponsor, and he’s also a very good golfer. But whenever I pull out my phone and hit record on one of his shots, he hits a terrible shot and then swears.
Needless to say, I’m very excited to put together our J.P. blooper reel at the end of the season.
JP is actually a good golfer, but I’m somehow able to put the hex on him when the camera is rolling.
The Wilds is starting to become one of the courses in the Twin Cities I’ve played the most. It’s at least in the Top 5. And I’m not alone. It’s a pretty popular course for the avid public golfer.
So many holes have cool features to them:
Number one has a spectacular backdrop of pine trees just beyond the green.
Hole four offers an enticing invitation to go for the green off the tee. Loon call for JP for reaching the green and a tap in birdie, or as we call it, a loonie. Another Loon call for Twig for stepping on JP’s birdie by draining a 30 footer and then smiling at him.
Hole 6 is a great view from the tee with the split fairway (ignore the left fairway…you’re welcome) and a cool downhill entry to the green.
Hole 7 is the site of a mildly amusing story that I tell on the podcast so you’ll have to listen to hear that.
Hole 8 is just phenomenal and I think is absolutely the signature hole of The Wilds. An awesome approach shot to a green set into a pond. And even if you hate houses on courses (there are a lot on this course), you have to admire the enormous red house overlooking the green on number 8.
Hole 11 is a beautiful view of Prior Lake and Mystic Lake casino.
Hole 12 is a very reachable par 5 that you can bomb away at.
Holes 14 and 15 offer great views on your approach shots with water behind the greens.
Hole 16 is drivable and has an enormous green, and an enormous bunker on the left. I found both.
And Hole 18 is one of the sneakier tough finishing holes out there.
Also some solid wildlife sightings. A lovely duck couple greeted us on one like that friendly elderly married couple that still get their daily walks in together and stop you on the sidewalk to chat about the diseased tree at the end of the block for 15 minutes.
There was also a snapping turtle on the 9th fairway. Our second snapper on a course this year!
And who doesn’t love a family of geese surrounding your ball on the 18th, like Twig had?
Twig the goose whisperer. Not one of those things hissed at him which is remarkable.
I picked Hole 6 as my favorite hole, but it was tough to choose. I think the tiebreaker was because of a round a couple years ago, also played with Twig and JP. Through five holes, I could do nothing. I was awful (not unlike today, but worse). On the sixth tee, I pumped my drive out of bounds, and the guys encouraged me to hit another.
I didn’t have a ball, so JP flipped me a VICE golf ball that was red, orange and yellow in color. We called it the solar ball. I crushed it with the driver and from then on played the round at 1 over par. Which for me, is something to write home about. That night, I went online and ordered two cases of VICE solar balls.
I think I lost them all over the next two weeks and I no longer play VICE golf balls.
The possibilities were endless when my shipment of VICE Solar balls came in. My patience with them was not.
I do want to shout out Max Smith, although I’m sure you’d love to hear more amazing solar golf ball stories. Max runs the InSports Foundation, as well as the InSports podcast. You might also see him and his son in Golf Magazines in ads for UNRL. His son is on a huge display at Scheels. They’re a good lookin’ bunch, those Smith’s are.
His entire mission is getting more kids playing sports and breaking down those barriers to entry. You name the sport, and he’s worked with the professional team tied to that sport to give kids more opportunities.
Having worked in youth sports for the bulk of my career, I’ve seen a lot of adults ruin the experience for kids and their families. But there are people like Max who do what they do to benefit everyone. It’s what sports used to be about, and still should be about. Everyone should have the chance to play and not be driven out by rising costs on every aspect of sports.
Max also is a great golfer. He hits bombs and takes the most beautiful divots. They could also model for UNRL.
If I can be serious for a minute, and I think that I can…as we keep going on Golf Loons, it really has been so awesome to be playing these courses with great people. I’m looking at the courses in a new light, and we are having conversations with interesting people where we are asking questions we normally wouldn’t ask.
Thank heavens we are having fun, because writing my scores on a scorecard has not been fun lately.
