by Peter Wong (Photographer), Joe Bissen (Author)
A golf course on a swamp? On a prison grounds? Next to a sewage disposal plant? Yes, yes and yes -- and joined by courses built by millionaires, played by champions and designed by experts. From the crazy to the classy, "Fore Gone. Minnesota's Lost Golf Courses, 1897-1999" revives more than 80 abandoned layouts, many of them long-forgotten. Ever heard of Roadside Golf Club?
Lost courses in these cities are covered at some length:
Austin
Bayport
Bemidji
Brooklyn Park
Brownton
Chanhassen
Chippewa National Forest
Chisago City
Chisholm
Collegeville
Columbia Heights
Coon Rapids
Deephaven
Duluth
Faribault
Gem Lake
Hermantown
Hugo
Jackson
Lakeville
Mankato
Mendota Heights
Minneapolis
Mound
North St. Paul
Plymouth
Richfield
St. Charles
St. Cloud
St. Louis Park
St. Paul
Sleepy Eye
Spicer
Spring Grove
Stillwater
Tracy
Wabasha
Windom
Winona
Chapter 1 opens this way:
They paved paradise in Richfield, Minnesota. Man, did they ever.
Emphasis on "paved," not so much "paradise."
Rich Acres Golf Course never was a threat to win any course-design awards, unless there is some kind of distinction for Top Fifty Fairly Flat Courses You Can Play. But the old Richfield municipal course was sporty, it was easily accessible at Cedar Avenue between I-494 and Minnesota 62 (the Crosstown Highway), it was immensely popular, and before the cement mixers steamed in and turned it into a gigantic airport runway, it had a certain charm to those who frequented it.