Pratt Homes is so excited to be a part of Golf history! Last month, our very own Craig Lewis – a Pratt Homes Home Consultant – was in attendance at the Grand Opening of the Royal Golf Club of Lake Elmo. That’s him with Annika Sorenstam, the renowned LPGA hall of famer, who designed the front nine holes of the course. Arnold Palmer designed the back nine holes but sadly died before he was able to see the completion of the last course he designed.
The Royal Golf Club has been a dream since 2006 when Hollis Cavner and Arnold Palmer got together over a drink to discuss purchasing the old 3M Tartan Park golf course. Fast forward to 2015 when 3M closed Tartan Park and the Palmer/Cavner group went to work!
Pratt Homes is proud to be part of the development going on around the brand new Royal Golf Club, we currently have homesites available in phase 1 and have just released homesites in phase 2, but they’re going fast. Click here to see homesites that are still available. Click on tab Find a Homesite to see all available lots.
At the Royal Golf Club, it’s all about the love of Golf. Palmer’s dream and Hollis Cavner’s goal has always been to be family friendly. Kids 18 and under can play the 6 hole short course for free. They also get free use of golf clubs from the pro shop.
From a recent article in the Pioneer Press by Tad Reeve:
Sorenstam’s front nine features some of the more distinctive holes, while Palmer’s back nine “is harder,” Cavner admitted.
The first hole is a good one, but the best are probably Nos. 5, 6 and 7, which make the most of elevation changes, water and doglegs around thick woods and hills.
Palmer’s back nine starts well with Nos. 10 and 11 running alongside Horseshoe Lake, which is now in full view after a major effort to clear out thick brush and trees to reveal what was a hidden gem of the property.
The course’s goal is to be family-friendly, and for the most part it is. But the green complexes are likely to vex less-experienced players, and certainly kids. Most greens feature a hump in the middle that makes for small landing areas, tricky putting and limited options for pin placement.
It is a classic Palmer design: wide fairways that make the game more manageable from tee to green, but a whole lot of hurt up around the green for imprecise shots. There are only 26 bunkers on the course, and one especially nice feature that runs throughout is the shaved areas around the greens, which makes chipping easier for most.
Though worse-than-bogey golfers may find the course difficult — especially around the greens — it is not overly hard. During the opening ceremony Friday, 63- year-old Joe Stansberry established the course record with a nifty round of 3-under-par 69. Of course, Stansberry is a former State Amateur and State Open champion who played briefly on the European Senior Tour. So he probably putted just fine.
That the course has been built at all is a minor miracle — and a testament to Cavner’s vision.
Royal Golf Club is the first metro-area course built since Windsong Farm opened in 2004 in Independence, in the western edges of Hennepin County. Before that, the last metro course opened was another Cavner creation, the TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, which opened in 1999 and has played host to the Champions Tour’s 3M Championship since 2001.
If you’d like to learn more about building a home at The Royal Club, please call Craig Lewis at 651-503-5835 or email at clewis@pratthomes.com
