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The Classic at Madden's...Minnesota's Signature Golf Course

Every golf course has a 'signature hole', right? What if there was a course that was so highly rated, so scenic, so enjoyable that every hole was a 'signature hole'? Would that be a 'Signature Golf Course' then? Just ask 10 golfers who have played The Classic what their favorite hole was (or what they believe to be the 'signature' hole). Chances are you will get 10 different responses. Better yet, come experience The Classic for yourself. You decide.

"The Classic is like one of those really good movies. You know, like the ones that you connect so deeply with the characters and the story that you walk out of the theater and you've just got to tell someone" says Glenn Hagberg, PGA Professional. "It's not uncommon to hear someone say "I've played golf all over the country--all over the world--and this course is right up there in the top 5 I've played." The Classic is the course that you brag to your buddies that you got to play this year."

The Most Unique Story on any Top 100 List

The story of The Classic goes back to the mid-1990s when the owners of Madden's resort decided that although they already had 45 holes of exceptional golf, they needed a true championship course.

The Madden family asked their golf course superintendent, Scott Hoffmann, who had worked on the redesign of greens, bunkers and tees on their existing courses, to take on the layout of the new course. "We wanted to offer our guests the experience that a professional golfer would have every weekend on tour," Hoffmann says. "We wanted a championship course, but one that was very fair and a good test of golf."

Golfers loved the course, and so did the golf critics as honor after honor was showered on the course. In 1997, in its first season of play, The Classic was named to the list of Best New Upscale Public Courses to Play by Golf Digest Magazine. Golf Week has named The Classic the Top Public Course in Minnesota. We stand 33rd on the list of Best Public Courses in America in Golf Digest. The Classic was also selected as Favorite Place to Golf by Minnesota Monthly.

So what is it about The Classic that has drawn this praise? First of all, you're going to find the terrain here rolls up and down in long, sweeping knolls. There is a 60-foot elevation change between the high points and low points. There is dramatic scenery: Red oaks are the predominant trees here with maple understory, which makes for vibrant colors in the fall; 56 Ohio's Best White Sand bunkers, water on 16 of the 18 holes and bentgrass tees, fairways and greens. Five sets of tees make it possible for golfers of all skill levels to play this wonderful course.