Staples, Minnesota – The noise of the crowd of these boys’ basketball matches in the Minnesota section that Lynn Peterson resulted in all of the reaction gas for takeoff, or an intense full house for a football match in the state of Northern Dakota. When Staples High School took the ground and Peterson was on the sidelines, it was time.
He retired from training in 2011 with 683 victories, which still ranks him for 10th all time on the list of career victories of Minnesota.
He always tries to win in sport these days, only the surroundings are very different. On the vintage golf course on the outskirts of Staples, it is calm with a wooded feeling of serenity, the quiet river Crow Wing wiring through the outskirts of the route. On a few holes, the deer checked my backswing. Above the green n ° 3, a Hawk stolen by wearing a small snake for lunch.
It is not the old atmosphere of the Fieldhouse Concordia tournament.
Last year, Peterson took office as Director General and Director of Golf at the vintage, in order to make 18 holes a community treasure and a place where golfers stop. If it is a retired job, he certainly chose one.
“I think that I had to do was recovering a certain stability in the course,” he said. “It was sort of at a time when everything is fine.
Peterson did it without, in his words, going down the hammer. It can be a delicate balance, running a golf course, between customer service while requiring label rules. It is no different from the demanding discipline of a basketball team, while keeping motivated players.
Progress is underway, with a 22% game compared to last year. The members of the public course, said Peterson, must now understand that they must spend a TEE time and not take openings for acquired.
As for the course, the first holes are quite standard but from there, and once it is more distant from the adjacent highway 30, it becomes interesting. The nine rears increased on my group of four to the point where he sometimes felt Brainerd-Esque.
There is a reason for that. The nine of origin was built in 1929, but redesigned at 18 in the mid -1990s by the deceased golf architect noted Joel Goldstrand. The first five holes are part of the original layout with the rest updated. There are a few holes that are qualified as beauties of pure design.
“By driving on the road, you probably do not have a real idea of the golf course,” said Peterson, who was a guest in my golf show from Saturday to 740 The Fan.
Of course, this is not a Goldstrand route without its green -level green level as you will see at the Moorhead Country Club N ° 15, n ° 6 in Meadows in Moorhead or N ° 8 in Wildflower near the Lakes of Detroit. In the vintage, it would be n ° 16.
“There are many big landscapes there,” said Peterson.
Improvements must be made. Peterson said that hope was to build a new clubhouse one day to replace the original 1929 model. Herb conditions on certain holes, including T-shirt boxes, need help, although it is a harsh source for most of the prices of the Red River Valley. A new well has been built this year to help with the irrigation system.
But the price is correct; It’s $ 35, including the basket on “Throwback Thursday”.
Walking the layout seems to be far from these fans of preparation for the playoffs. On a personal note, one of the most memorable games that I have ever covered was stapops against Minneapolis North in 1995 when the Minnesota State tournament went in a Sweet 16 format.
North was led by Khalid El-Amin, who had 17 points. Staples had Blaine Joerger, who had 28 points. A fascinating match little against big school from a film “Hoosiers”. North won 54-52 on a rebound basket with two seconds to play.
These days, Lynn Peterson answers a phone, speaks with members, checking his journey on a golf cart and benefits from a quiet life on a golf course.
Jeff would like to dispel the idea that he was there when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing house, but he is his third decade of reporting with Forum Communications. The son of an English journalist and professor, and the brother of a journalist, Jeff worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 the forum, where he has covered the athletics of the state of North Dakota since 1995.
Jeff covered the nine national football titles of the FCS of Division I of the NDSU and wrote three books: “Horns Up”, “Dakota of the North” and “Covid Kids”. He is the host of the radio of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” April to August.