Minneapolis Golf Club - Club History

Club History

Eighty-five years ago in 1916 there were only two golf clubs in Minneapolis, Minikahda C.C. and Interlachen C.C. In early 1916 five members of the Minneapolis Athletic Club set plans to establish another golf club to meet the growing popularity of the game. By July the Minneapolis Golf Club ("MGC") was incorporated. Land was acquired and 9 holes were built on the site of present day Golden Valley C.C. The opening of play at MGC commenced on the 1st Saturday of August 1916. Later that year the club was approached by Hyland Homes Company to consider the purchase of a larger piece of intact farmland in St. Louis Park. The Scottish architect Willie Park Jr. had been retained to lay out the golf course. On December 9, 1916 the MGC membership voted to relocate to the present location. By June 19, 1917 MGC had become one of the earliest member clubs of the Minnesota Golf Association.

By 1918 MGC had 400 members and there was a regular shuttle service to and from the Minneapolis Athletic Club operating during the golf season. In September 1919 plans were initiated to build a new clubhouse to accommodate the now larger membership. The original clubhouse was a converted four-room farmhouse located near the present third tee. The new clubhouse was to be built on the Northern section of the property. It opened with on May 12, 1923. The rolling farmland our course was built on was virtually void of trees except for a stand of oaks in the Northern section by today's tenth and eleventh holes. The trees that line the fairways today were planted during a tree- planting program in 1930.