Tough, but fair

By BOB VARMETTE

Journal Sports Writer

MORTON -- Dacotah Ridge Golf Club is a one of those courses that can intimidate you before you lay eyes on it.

Designed by Rees Jones, one of the top golf course architects in the world, the 18-hole layout stretches to 7,109 yards from the back tees. Forty-two bunkers dot the course and water comes into play on 13 holes with a 14-acre man-made lake and the meandering Wabasha Creek.

The secondary rough looks brutal. Many of the greens are large enough to produce putts into different zip codes.

Dacotah Ridge will not humble you; it will, however, provide you with plenty of chances to humble yourself. Dacotah Ridge is a challenge, whether you're a scratch golfer or a 26-handicap, once-a-week warrior.

But the course rewards, too. More than it is tough or intimidating, Dacotah Ridge is fair.

"If you read a putt right, and you hit it on the line, it's going to stay there," PGA professional Peter Kurvers said. "The rough is there for aesthetics and for challenge ... but you can get it out. It's like a half-shot penalty."

The rough can be penal.

It's supposed to be. You won't too often dump a drive into the secondary rough and expect to use your 3-wood at Dacotah Ridge.

Fairways and greens, that is the game. If you hit fairways, and you hit greens at Dacotah Ridge, you will score well, even if you're playing the course from the championship tees.

Dacotah Ridge gives you a chance to play a championship-level course, to experience the challenge of avoiding (or having to hit out of) birds-nest lies in the often-matted secondary rough. It affords you the opportunity to hit out of a bunker to a green several feet above your head; it provides you with the chance to play par 4s that are long enough to be par 5s at most courses in this area.

That's part of what makes the course fun for golfers.

"They love it," Kurvers said.

Even that secondary rough, which is composed of fescue, blue stem and native prairie grasses?

"I think people lose balls," Kurvers said. "But in a warped sense, people like that. They understand that there's a challenge there. On the best golf courses in the world, they're not going to shoot their best score. But it's going to be memorable."

Dacotah Ridge is memorable.

There are tough holes. There are beautiful holes.

Although essentially treeless as far as play is concerned for much of the course, those who enjoy the beauty of the trees can look forward to Nos. 17 and 18. The 17th -- a short dogleg left par 4 -- may well be the prettiest hole on the course, framed by trees along the right side of the fairway from the bend to and behind the green, and still more trees that run down the left side.

On a hot and humid August day, sending one wide right of the fairway may not be all that bad. At least you'll have shade to stand in as you contemplate your next shot.

On a cool, windy, cloudy October day, though, standing over your ball in the secondary rough right of the fairway on No. 3, or left on the fifth, you might -- just for a second or two -- imagine yourself at Royal Portrush or Carnoustie. Throw in some rain and mist to shroud the countryside and you might even believe it for a hole or two.

The course has personality. And it will get even better.

"The golf course is going to evolve," Kurvers said. "It's new, so next year and the next year, there's certain things we can do that's really going to elevate us from other courses."

Dacotah Ridge has been open to public play since mid-June for the front nine, and the back nine has been open for about three weeks. The course located six miles north of Morgan on Redwood County 2 will celebrate its grand opening Monday.

Jones will be there to see his creation. Joining Jones will be PGA professionals Notah Begay III and Lanny Wadkins, and LPGA professional Michele Redman -- they'll take part in a celebrity skins game set to tee off at 1 p.m.

"Rees Jones, the fact that he did the project, I want people to know what that means," Kurvers said. "Rees Jones has been chosen best architect in the world and he's got 10 golf courses ranked in the Top 100 in the world as well as here in America.

"If you look at his bio, any major championship, any major tour, amateur or professional, he's had a hand in it. They either play on his golf course or he redesigned the golf course. The fact we were able to bring him here is really something, and I think should mean something. ... I think the golf course backs that up."

To book a tee time at Dacotah Ridge, call 1-800-946-2274 or visit www.teemaster.com.