Family-Focused Cragun’s Resort, a Minnesota Beauty
By Tom Lang
Stories about buddies’ trips for men or women are often found throughout golf publications – including the pages of MI Golf Journal from time to time.
Yet I could not be happier to share this story about golf trip ideas for families – a.k.a. Cragun’s Resort in Brainerd, Minnesota. It’s not to say that buddies cannot enjoy Cragun’s, especially if they also wish to add boating and fishing to the daily menu, two huge staples on beautiful Gull Lake, a freshwater lake of nearly 10,000 acres of relaxing and serene pure Minnesota.
Golf was added to the family-owned, family-focused resort in the 1990s when Robert Trent Jones, Jr. was invited to design 36 holes. The course hosts a PGA Tour Canada event each summer, as well as state and junior tournaments. One of those events had Thomas Lehman in the field, the son of PGA Tour golfer and former World No. 1, Tom Lehman.
As the elder Lehman followed his son’s play, he was taking several mental notes on how unusual and penal he thought some holes were that could use some updating. One thing led to another and the owner, Minnesota resort legend Dutch Cragun, who is now in his 90s, after taking over the resort out of college from his father, sat down with Lehman. Before anyone realized what was happening, Lehman was asked to redesign the original holes.
Then Lehman went one better.
He returned with a proposal but added a bonus—a second routing option of all new holes that in the end gives the resort the Lehman 18 to accompany the Dutch 27 (Red, White and Blue nines).
Lehman weaved a few of the former holes into his new 18 called the Lehman 18, in all building 13 completely new holes, redesigning all the rest that includes a third 9 (Red) that’s currently under construction. When done in late 2024 the Dutch course will have 27 holes for a total of 45 holes, plus the original par 3 course across the road.
The two courses are all in proximity and rest on similar landforms, but they are nothing alike in look or feel. The Dutch is more tree-lined, but it’s not confining. The rebuild and hole additions were part of a $17 million project.
While the Dutch is designed in tight circles near the clubhouse, Lehman was given license to expand golf in an area that’s a large sand dune encircling an expansive, no-public-access lake. Holes 4-13 are heavily influenced by the natural rolling terrain of the dune.
Lehman said at the grand opening press conference that his goal was to make the fairways wide and inviting, with good-sized greens. What he failed to reveal before we took to the course was that the rolling terrain is wide open but contained many sloping areas that if the ball ventures too far off the center of the fairway it can roll down into large ravines. So, what looks large, wide, and inviting is quickly shrunken down in scope for safe landing zones. Overall, it’s gorgeous to look at, and having the land used as God made it is very cool, but your game needs to be on par to stay out of valleys that sometimes create a significant blind shot coming up, or worse yet act as feeders into sand bunkers.
The bunkers on the Lehman 18 are all trimmed in sod face style, but none are taller than three feet as it’s mostly an aesthetic look and a way to differentiate whether you are on the right course. The Dutch bunkers are trimmed in tall fescue grass that can be a worse hazard than the sand. The players in my foursome lost at least five balls, including one of mine. And speaking of the PGA Tour Canada event – such bunkers are going to whisper to the players ‘take me on.’ The players would be wise not to, as would you.
The greens in this same stretch of totally new holes on the Lehman 18 are undulating and have some fun little valleys and plateaus that are part challenge, part visually interesting, and partially used to drain water (and golf balls) off the greens.
Brainerd ‘Mecca’
I never imagined the Brainerd, Minn. area to be a golf hotbed, but thanks to the beautiful recreational Gull Lake in the center of the region bringing in tourists and summer homeowners – mostly from Minneapolis/St. Paul – for decades, golf courses kept popping up. In total, there are about a dozen golf courses in the Brainerd Lakes Area that’s a smaller version of our own Gaylord Golf Mecca.
But non-golfers will have plenty to do. There is boating and fishing (which I tried and completely enjoyed with a guide). Lots of swimming activities along the one-mile sandy beach at Cragun’s is combined with kayaks, wakeboards, water skiing by day, and the optional boat dinner cruise in the evening (where I had easily the best prime rib I’ve tasted in years). The Recreation club, manned by Cragun’s staff, also has tons of activities to keep the kids entertained.
A hotel and new condo-style rentals are available, but the resort has so much deep family history that many families love bringing their children or grandchildren to stay in the traditional knotty pine-trimmed cabins situated directly on the sandy beach they enjoyed as children. Cabins, hotel, villas, and reunion houses with up to seven bedrooms/six baths provide a wide variety of lodging options.
Dining onsite includes Lakeside Dining, Cabana Café, Legacy Grille at the golf course, and the famous Irma’s Kitchen serving family comfort food as it has for many decades. Irma was Dutch Cragun’s wife, who passed in early 2022, after the two of them built one of the largest family resorts in the state of 10,000 lakes.
More information can be found at www.craguns.com.
