(June 16th) Day 11 - Kimball, MN  drove 353 miles

Minnesota, the home of Bob Dylan, Tim Gresback (and the entire Gresback Clan), John Marquette and Cindy Pigg, a couple Margaret & I knew long ago in Sandpoint.

My only prior dip into Minnesota was East Grand Forks. The underage Airmen from North Dakota's Grand Forks Air Base would cross the river to drink in East Grand Forks because the alcohol age limit was 19 OR because nobody was going to card them, take your pick. Les, Mike Orr and I went there for beverages (see the June 15th post if this throws you). 

"The Land of 10,000 Lakes" is apropos. Although I didn't count them, there seemed to be water EVERYWHERE! My drive through Minnesota was scenic and after golf I spent the night in Rochester, home of the famed Mayo Clinic. It is a great looking town with about half the population of Spokane. Probably a nice place to live or at least live close to. 

The Kimball Golf Club has four sets of tees ranging from 6652 to 5189 yards. I played 6389 with a rating of 70.6 and a slope of 123. The green fee with cart was $25, probably the biggest bargain I will have on this trip. The people were nice and the course was in good condition, but I didn't particularly care for the course layout. 

The course is VERY steep (something that doesn't suite my low ball flight game very well), has a few stupid holes and WORST of all several blind shots off the tee and on some par 5 second shots. I didn't really notice the blind shots until I caught a group on the 17th hole, but after thinking about it there were several shots on earlier holes that were also blind. If they had a set of tees with a yardage that suited me better, I still wouldn't play this course again because of the blind shots and the couple of stupid holes it has. I gave the course a three rating because it's a bargain, but I won't be coming back there and I can't recommend it to you. There's a lot of golf in Minnesota that would surely be better than this.

           Randy’s golf course             ratings           play again               could recommend                Price

Wine Valley (Walla Walla, WA)          5                   YES                             YES                            $$$

Dakota Winds (Hankinson, ND)         5                   YES                              YES                            $$

Raccoon Creek (Littleton, CO)          4.5                 YES                              YES                            $$

Brooks Golf (Okoboji, IA)                  4                   YES                              YES                            $$

Awarii Dunes (Kearney, NE)              4                    YES                              YES                            $$ 

Lake Panorama Nat. (Panora, IA)       4                     no*1                            YES                            $$

Brandon GC (Brandon, SD)                4                   YES                              YES                            $

Rivers Edge (Burley, ID)                   3.5                    ??                                YES                            $

Birch Creek (Smithfield,UT)             3.5                    no                         good golfers only!            $

Kimball Golf Club (Kimball, MN)  3                      no                                 no                             $

Buffalo Golf Club (Buffalo, WY)       3                      no                                 no                             $$

Pryor Creek (Huntley, MT)                 3                      no                                 no                             $        Johnny Walker Course (there’s also a Country Club course, but you need to play with a member!)

*1 = would play again if a different yardage was offered, with slope and course ratings






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