By Forrest Peterson
Copyright minnpost
NEW LONDON, Minn. — When the glacier covering central Minnesota receded 12,000 years ago, it left a hilly terrain of clay, rocks and gravel — not great for farming, which early settlers attempted, but ideal for a golf course. And for Mark Haugejorde, not just any course.
Haugejorde has returned to his New London hometown to lead the development of Tepetonka, a “destination” golf club in northern Kandiyohi County. It’s expected to open next summer and will be a pinnacle of his lifetime in the golf industry, which began in his youth at nearby Little Crow Resort Golf Course, where his father was one of the founders in the late 1960s.
After high school and a state golf tournament co-championship, Haugejorde played at the University of Houston, a noted golf mecca, where he met professional golf legend Fred Couples, as well as Jim Nantz, the well-known sportscaster who is a good friend and now member of Tepetonka.
“I had been in the golf business for a long time,” Haugejorde said. “I worked for Jack Nicklaus as director of marketing for eight years. I came back here to Minnesota and helped Windsong Farm (a private golf club in Independence) increase their membership.”
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Travel and play
Minnesota has many well-known high-end golf courses, of course, such as Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska and The Quarry at Giants Ridge near Brainerd.
Destination clubs, as Haugejorde described them, are for golf enthusiasts who come for two or three days of golf at these high-end clubs — many of them from other states or even other countries. “Most of the destination golf clubs are golf only, so it’s for the avid player who likes to travel and try new courses,” he said.
Other such courses — noted by their high fees and limited membership — have opened across the country in recent decades. They include Sand Hills Golf Club near Mullen, Neb.; The Prairie Club near Valentine, Neb.; and The Harvester Club in Rhodes, Iowa.
The inspiration leading to Tepetonka arose on a golfing trip to top-ranked Sand Hills Golf Course in Nebraska. In a group that included Mike Schultz, the head golf professional at Hazeltine National Golf Club, Haugejorde asked him, “How is it that Minnesota has all these great golf courses, but no destination course? Minnesotans are traveling to Wisconsin, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska to go play destination golf. We have nothing here.”
They spent three years looking for a suitable site. “You’re looking for the sandy soils. We found a couple of different options,” he said. One day back in the area visiting his mother, Haugejorde took a drive on County Road 40 west of New London toward his former pheasant hunting grounds.
Crossing U.S. Highway 71, “I went one mile and noticed land that I’ve never paid any attention to before, because now I was looking at it differently. Here was this creek, there were some very substantial undulations, moraines.” He turned south from the county road to a dead-end gravel road. “I went down half a mile, looked to my left and said, ‘There it is.’”
Hometown contractors
When Haugejorde began working on plans for the golf course, he didn’t have far to go to find contractors to build it. Tepetonka lies in the northern portion of Kandiyohi County in central Minnesota. Duininck Golf and Marcus Construction got their start in the tiny southern Kandiyohi County town of Prinsburg.
In 1967, Haugejorde’s father approached Duininck Construction about building the Little Crow Golf Course. “They talked the Duinincks into doing the golf course, which they didn’t want to do, and today, they’re a nationwide golf company,” Haugejorde said. Marcus Construction is building the structures.
Following the plans of golf course designers OCM Golf of Melbourne, Australia, together they are transforming 228 acres of rolling prairie into a majestic 18-hole, 71-par main course, a nine-hole short course and related lodging, food and maintenance buildings. It will be managed by KemperSports of Northbrook, Illinois. Haugejorde serves as president of Tepetonka Club LLC.
The name recalls that of an old resort once located in the town of Spicer on the shores of Green Lake called Tepetonka, which has been interpreted to mean “big tent” in the Dakota language. The new namesake also includes access to Green Lake at Tepetonka Beach Club.
Weathering construction challenges
Heavy rain events and wind over the past two summers have put the project about six weeks behind schedule.
So far, 14 holes have been completed. Because of the suitable terrain, workers moved just 1,000 cubic yards of soil, Haugejorde said. “You can call it minimalist design, because you want to do the least disruption to the land as possible.”
At the same time, about 50,000 tons of sand is being hauled in by about 2,200 truckloads to cover the greens and fairways. The sand provides a firm base and allows fertilizers to infiltrate to nourish the grass. “We are one big sponge by virtue of all that sand,” Haugejorde said.
Work to protect the natural environment includes streambank restoration on Shakopee Creek, which meanders from the northwest to southeast areas.
“We are doing our best to do a full restoration over five to 10 years,” Haugejorde said. “We will be doing projects and specific initiatives that go way past the creek fix and pollinators. It’s more than just how to make it beautiful.”
No helicopters
A project of this size requires extensive environmental review. A primary concern was potential impact on Shakopee Creek, according to Eric Van Dyken, Kandiyohi County zoning administrator. These and other issues were addressed in an Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW).
The conditional use permit from the county allowing the project to commence included at least one unconventional condition: a ban on helicopters. With the expected upscale clientele, some area residents were concerned about helicopter noise. “This is the first time that I’ve ever specified ‘no helicopters’ in a permit,” Van Dyken said. “This is not your average market for a golf course.”
Other environmental issues include wastewater treatment, traffic and the use of chemicals and fertilizers. “They will spoon-feed the grass with micro-doses of nutrients,” Van Dyken said. “They don’t want too much lush grass on the fairways, they want it to play hard and fast.”
Overall, it’s a good land use compared with housing or other developments because most of the area is open space and the activity will be “quiet and serene,” Van Dyken said. Most of the building permits have been issued, he said.
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“Mark and the developers have done everything the county has asked of them,” Van Dyken said. “They spent a lot of money to prepare the documents (for the EAW). It made my job very easy.”
Local jobs and taxes
While the club will have limited membership, backers say the project represents significant economic development in construction jobs, the use of local services and tax revenue — a complement to the extensive lake-country summer economy.
“If you think of Tepetonka, as tourism, it brings money, it brings jobs, it brings the taxes,” Haugejorde said. Noting the loss of many area resorts over the years, he said, “I’d say we replaced the equivalent of several resorts, by virtue of a golf course.”
In-season employment will range from 50 to 60 people, he said, with about 20 employed during the off-season. It will remain open year-round where winter activities could include snowmobiling, ice fishing and cross-country skiing. The construction site manager, New London resident Brock Olson, got the job after Haugejorde saw him wearing a cap for Whisper Rock (a private golf club in Scottsdale, Arizona) while playing golf at Little Crow.
Haugejorde declined to provide information about the financial backing and the membership fee, except to say that it has increased since the initial offering. He noted that other sectors of the local economy represent above-average wealth, as well, such as farmland or multi-million-dollar homes and expensive boats around Spicer and Green Lake.
There are a limited number of memberships, and each includes ownership in the club, he said. Describing it as “high-end Minnesota casual,” Haugejorde said there’s one “rule” for membership: “no jerks.”A docuseries about the project, Building the Game, offers four episodes so far, created by Capture, a video and photo production agency based in Minneapolis.
