Perham Lakeside Golf Club

Our campground had offers of discounts at golf courses that were twenty miles away, but given that our Ford F450 diesel pick up with a 4.88 rear end doesn't get the world's best fuel mileage Denny and I opted to play at the nearby Perham Lakeside Golf Club.  At one time the golf course was part of the Golf Card International system and on the day we played the pro shop very graciously allowed us the 20% discount that was originally offered as part of the Golf Card affiliation.  This was simply a one time offer for us.  The cost for Denny and me to play eighteen holes of golf with a riding cart was $85.20, which is not a price we would normally pay to play golf to be sure, but it was cheaper than the $100+ it would have cost us without the discount.  Of course at that price, we wouldn't have played golf here.

Lakeside Golf Club actually offers twenty-seven holes of golf; they have the Pine course, the Oak course and the Maple course.  On the day we played, Denny and I were assigned to play the Pine and the Oak courses, starting with the Pine course.  On that particular combination of courses the yardage from the black tees is 6741 with a rating/slope of 72.7/133.  From the blue tees the yardage is 6395 with a rating/slope of 71.0/130.  From the white tees the yardage is 5778 with a rating/slope of 68.2/125 for the men and 73/3/131 for the women and for the red tees the yardage is 5141 with a rating/slope of 69.7/124.  

The Pine course is somewhat of a links style course although with the lack of rain in the area the rough areas weren't that bad.  Placement of sand traps didn't cause a problem for either of us and the fairways were fairly wide all the way through.  The course was in really decent condition despite the almost drought conditions being suffered by the Midwest. 

Denny and I played the Oak Course as the back nine; this course is more wooded than the Pine Course.  One thing we did notice about these two sets of nine holes is that the designer likes dog legs; some more sharp than others, but when you are playing the course for the first time it's always interesting to try to figure out where the heck you are supposed to hit.  At least we now have a handheld golf GPS (we use the Swami 3000) so we have an idea of the yardage on each hole.

On weekends this golf course is very busy but on a Tuesday morning we practically had the golf course to ourselves until noon/one o'clock.  The layouts have enough elevation changes, narrow to wide fairways, water and sand to be a challenge to any level of golfer depending upon which tee box you use and how straight you hit the ball.  It was a fun day with some holes of frustration and that's how it should be I guess, to keep you on your toes and from getting too complacent about your game.  This course is worth the money.