Brauer’s Fortune Bay Garners Another Award

Golf course architect Jeffrey D. Brauer's The Wilderness at Fortune Bay, which in January was named among the Top 10 Best New Places To Play by GOLF Magazine, now has been honored by both Travel & Leisure Golf and American Airlines' Celebrated Living magazine as one of the 10 Best New Public/Resort Courses in America for 2004.

These accolades come in the wake of The Quarry at Giants Ridge – another Brauer-designed gem only 20 miles away in Biwabik, Minn. – being ranked in January by Golf Digest as the Best New Upscale Golf Course of 2004, and The Quarry and its older sister, The Legends, being named Golf Development of the Year by Golf Inc. magazine in December.

"Thirty minutes up the road from his twin triumphs at Giants Ridge, Jeffrey Brauer has given birth to a Bunyanesque course on the pastoral shores of Lake Vermilion," T&L Golf declared of The Wilderness, built as part of Fortune Bay Resort Casino. "This rugged, rolling track, framed by towering pines and granite outcrops, skirts one of the continent's prettiest lakes, a body of water that brims with trophy walleyes. The layout itself brims with watery carries, strategic cross-bunkers and risk-reward split fairways – for those who like to take their gambling ways onto the golf course."

Golfers "love the golf course," said Andy Datko, chief executive officer of Fortune Bay, which is owned by the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa. "The word of mouth has been fabulous. We have a lot of repeat business. The people who come here rave about it and want to come back."

Datko said the recognition of the KemperSports-managed course "confirms what we thought and it confirms that we and Jeff Brauer achieved our objective: to be a first-rate destination golf club, something that would have national appeal and national recognition."

Saying that the property was "gorgeous to begin with," Datko added that Brauer was able to design The Wilderness in a way that enhanced that beauty. "Lake Vermilion is a big part of it, but even the holes that are not in sight of the lake are some of the most beautiful because of the spectacular scenery, the way Jeff used the natural bedrock, and the pine forest," he said.

While the course builders encountered massive amounts of bedrock and spent much more on rock removal than expected, the project came in under budget, said Datko, who was planning coordinator during construction. "We knew as we got into it that we would have problems with rock removal," he said. "But Jeff did a real good job in working with us and minimizing cost in other areas. The amount of earth that was moved was a lot less than you would think on a course of this size."

"I'm as excited for the people of Minnesota as I am for this honor," said Brauer from his Arlington, Texas, offices. "Now they have three exceptional public golf courses to play – enough to create a tourist destination in an area that has been hared-hit economically. Giants Ridge now has the state's No. 1-ranked golf and ski resorts and, well, The Wilderness at Fortune Bay can obviously stand on its own, too."

Besides the golf course and casino, Fortune Bay boasts a 115-room hotel that overlooks Lake Vermilion and part of the golf. "We have 7,000 square feet of meeting space, and 24-hour excitement in our casino," Datko said.

Fortune Bay, along with Giants Ridge, have had a major impact on the economic revitalization of Minnesota's North Woods. Giants Ridge was built as a cornerstone of the state's effort to rehabilitate a massive region of former iron and gravel mines, making its first splash on the national scene in 1998 when Golf Digest ranked The Legends, designed by Brauer, in the Top Ten Best New Upscale Courses. The Troon Management-operated course had to turn away so many golfers that state officials determined a second course was necessary.

One prominent golf writer remarked that the three golf courses are such distinct and unique golf experiences, that even experienced golfers would be hard-pressed to tell that they were all designed by the same architect.

Brauer, a regular contributor to Cybergolf (for a look at his design philosophies, visit our Brauer’s Book section), is no stranger to awards. The former president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects has won many others since opening his own firm, GolfScapes, in 1984. Indeed, lost in the shadows of accolades for The Quarry and The Wilderness is the fact that Brauer's complete reconstruction of Indian Creek's Creeks Course in Carrollton, Texas, earned it the 7th spot among Golf Digest's Top Affordable Public Courses.

In the past, several others were rated among the Best New Courses of the Year, including: The Legacy Golf Club in Norwalk, Iowa, in 2003; Canterberry Golf Course in Parker, Colo., in 1997; and Avocet Course at Wild Wing Plantation in Myrtle Beach, S.C., in 1994. Colbert Hills Golf Club at Kansas State is the No. 1-ranked course in Kansas and is the first collaboration between the PGA of America and Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.