Earlier this month, I visited what might be my favorite public golf course in the city. I live about 30 minutes away now, so I hadn’t been there in years, as I’ve sadly succumbed to the convenience that comes with a “home course” that’s a closer commute and involves less traffic.
But I knew GOLF’s newest list — America’s best golf courses you can play for $100 or less — was going live soon, and I also knew two courses high on my local Twin Cities list (Keller Golf Course and Chaska Town Course) were on it.
In this content world we live in, our plan here at GOLF.com was to feature a handful of the courses on the list, with our staffers taking turns writing about their personal favorites, ones like this and this and this and this.
That’s where I ran into my dilemma: am I picking Chaska, or Keller? I wish I had some sort of scientific reasoning or epiphany regarding which one I wanted to highlight, but the truth is this: I wrote about Chaska last month, as it teamed with Hazeltine National to co-host the stroke-play portion of the U.S. Amateur.
So with that, I headed east to St. Paul (or just outside of it) to my beloved Keller, which to be honest I was kinda hoping would win this head-to-head battle anyway. If I lived closer, I’d hardly play elsewhere else.
The peak walking rate here is $53, there’s sneaky-good rolling terrain and the course is always in good shape. It’s a municipal course, which doesn’t necessarily mean a lot but it does make you fell good to support one.
The 10th and 12th are wonderful par-5s, the 13th is a fun uphill par-3 over water where the green is hidden and you can only see the flag waving in the distance, and the par-4 14th is a downhill-then-uphill dogleg that someone with more golf architecture knowledge than me once said is good enough to blend right in on some of the best private courses in the state.
There’s also a perfect amount of quirk, which you can decide to love or hate. There’s a massive oak guarding the front of the par-3 4th and another, just for good measure, in front of the par-4 17th.
I’d be happy to tell you more about why I love Keller, and why, as I write this, I’m starting to talk myself in to making it my new “home course” come next year, but I actually already did that just a few years ago — which you can read here — when we decided to put a bow on 2021 by writing about our favorite courses we played that year.
When it comes to new information I learned on my most recent visit, however, I can tell you I was paired with two men my age and another, Al, who was a day away from celebrating his 93rd birthday.
Al’s married and has kids and grandkids and has played at Keller for decades. He was pleasant, funny, positive and played without a care in the world. He picked up when he wanted to, drove the cart where he pleased — when you are in your 90s, you can do that — and quit as soon as it started to rain.
On the 8th hole he said goodbye and drove in to the clubhouse. I waved and thought how lucky I’d be to still be playing Keller 50-some years from now.
