MGC October Monthly Magazine

MGC

GENERAL MANAGER

Dear MGC Members,

Joseph “JJ” Wagner, CCM, CCE General Manager

jjwagner@minneapolisgolfclub.com 952.525.2526

Fall has arrived and we are sad seeing some of our key staff leave for school and other jobs in the south. Our staff performed very well in 2022, and we look at improving even more in 2023.

Most of you are aware that this was my first season as a General Manager in the Midwest. My entire career has been in Texas and California, where we are busy year-round. This summer has certainly been the busiest 120 days of my career, but also my most rewarding. You all support your Club tremendously. The tee sheet all spring, summer, and now fall is almost always full. It’s amazing to witness our staff helping all of you enjoy your experience here at MGC, at the pool, dining, events, and of course your most favorite activity, GOLF!

Please watch for a communication from me around October 7th about contributions for the Employee Holiday Appreciation Fund. Today, more than ever we need to show our support to our dedicated MGC staff. Most everywhere, companies are faced with staffing issues, and unemployment in the Cities is at a historical low of 1.8% - there’s not many employees to choose from out there!

From the Strategic Planning Committee survey, to the House Committee, Board of Directors, and your comments, we are adding more events/activities for this Fall and Winter. In November, we have a high-end wine dinner along with a fun children’s etiquette class and a Prime Rib night coming in December. After the first of the year, we bring back Bingo, along with a new event, “Paint your Pet”. Nancy has a few things up her sleeve that should be fun. In addition, your staff, Board and Committees are finalizing a 2023 Club Master Calendar. It will include all golf events, Jared’s agronomy schedule (like aeration dates), holiday events and social events all in one document. We are planning to get this to you in December.

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible during this last month to play golf, enjoy the patio or come and watch your favorite teams on TV in the Grill.

On behalf of the entire MGC team, thank you for all your support and we look forward to seeing you at the Club soon!

Joseph “JJ” Wagner

A MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Nominating Committee

In accordance with Section 6.3 of the Minneapolis Golf Club (Club) Bylaws, a Nominating Committee has been formed. The purpose of the Nominating Committee is to solicit interested candidates from all Voting Members and to nominate not less than three Voting Members as candidates to succeed the directors whose terms will expire at the next annual meeting. The directors whose terms expire this year are Andy Bauer, Jeff Callinan, Rick Ellingson, and Jon Fitzgerald. The new Board will consist of nine directors. The current Board consists of ten directors as the President was in year two of the two-year term. The 2022 Nominating Committee consists of the following eight individuals:

Jocelyn Anderson

jander1901@gmail.com

Andy Bauer abauer9@msn.com

Jeff Callinan

Jeff.Callinan@jedunn.com

Jay Christiansen jaychristimn@gmail.com

Allison Eger Allison.Eger@target.com

Matt Gibb matthewgibb@gmail.com

Guy Shoemaker seshoes@aol.com

Tom Whaley tom@aloeup.com

The 2022 annual meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, November 17th. In accordance with the Club’s Bylaws, the Nominating Committee shall forward its nominations for candidates to the Club’s Secretary at least 30 days prior to the next annual meeting date, such date for 2022 being Tuesday, October 18th.

Should you have interest in being nominated as a candidate for the Board of Directors, please contact any member of the Nominating Committee. In your written communication to the Nominating Committee, please provide the following information (not longer than one page):

1. Contact information including email address and phone number

2. Years of membership at MGC

3. Short and long-term vision for MGC

4. Why you want to run for the Board

5. What specific expertise (i.e., legal, financial, hospitality, etc.) you would bring to the Board that will add value/ guidance to our operating departments

6. Committees (including dates) on which you have served at MGC

7. Work experience

8. Other club and/or community involvement outside of MGC

For Nominating Committee candidate consideration, your communication to the Nominating Committee must be received by Friday, October 14th.

In addition to nominees determined by the Nominating Committee, there is a process for additional nominations by petition pursuant to the process set forth in the Bylaws, which can be found on the member portion of the Club’s website.

IMPORTANT

MGC Members,

We want to take a moment to remind all golf members about the critical rule and regulation pertaining to hitting golf balls over the driving range net at the long- driving range. The Club has a Conditional Use Permit from the City of St. Louis Park to protect the neighbors on the other side of our fence. If the Club and members abuse this privilege, we could actually lose the right to use the long-driving range or be forced to eliminate the use of any drivers.

We have many policies in place to protect the Club and the membership pertaining to this Conditional Use Permit, such as a detailed driving-range policy, a men’s no-driver list, and an entire section in the MGC Rules and Regulations addressing this issue. We have also installed a video camera which monitors daily activity at the range. If a member hits a ball over the driving range net, that member will have all golf privileges suspended for three months.

Thank you in advance for continuing to follow this very important Club rule. On behalf of the Board of Directors

Golf Course Update

MGC Members,

The calendar is about to turn to October and the earlier sunsets are making it harder to sneak in a late-afternoon 18. The sad reality is that this means that we will begin talking about how and when we will wind down the golf season.

Because of that, we wanted to provide a few updates.

Short Range to Close October 2nd

The last day the short range will be open will be Sunday, October 2nd.

While the upcoming forecast looks good, soil temperatures are reaching a level where grass stops germinating, grass doesn’t grow and divots don’t grow back.

Because the short range sees a lot of traffic in a relatively small amount of space, we will close it now so that it will be in good shape in the spring. This is consistent with what we have done each of the past two seasons.

Divots

The membership has collectively done a good job replacing and filling divots this season. Despite the volume of play this season, the fairways have remained in good condition and that’s something we should all be proud of.

As we reach the end of the season, sand bottles will be removed from the course in the next week to 10 days. That combined with the lower soil temperature means that it is critical to REPLACE divots whenever possible. If your divot breaks into multiple pieces, please try to replace even the larger pieces.

This is critical not only for the condition of the course over the final weeks of the season, but it is an investment in the condition of the course for when we open next spring.

It is always important to repair your divot, but even more important this late in the season.

Newly Sodded Areas

The next time you play, you will see that there are a number of areas on the golf course that have been resodded, including short and right of No. 13 green, short right of No. 17 green, in front of No. 12 tee just beyond the end of the cart path and near the greenside cart path on No. 5.

Please do not drive carts on these areas until the turf becomes mature and use good judgement about whether you should hit off of the new turf.

Regular Course Maintenance

Now that we are past Labor Day, the grounds crew is without much of its seasonal help. As a result, we are cutting back on some course maintenance.

For example, we are no longer painting the inside of cups on a daily basis. And while we still mow or roll greens daily, we are only moving hole locations every other day or so.

When will the course close?

This is a question we begin getting as get into October. We do not have a date set at this point as it is partially weather dependent. We will balance the weather forecast while keeping in mind the time it takes to properly shut down the course. It takes the team close to 10 days to put the course to bed (blowing out the irrigation, sanding/top dressing greens, etc.).

We will do our best to provide as much advance notice as possible before sending one of the worst emails of the year.

It has been another wonderful golf season at MGC. Enjoy the last several weeks of the golf season.

Matt Gibb – Chair, Green Committee Jared Keller – Superintendent

A Historical Tour of MGC

MGC is one of few Clubs in the country to host both a U.S. Amateur and a PGA Championship. The 1950 Amateur was the 50th anniversary of the Championship and for MGC to get awarded the event was a minor miracle considering where we were just five years before.

In this issue, we will take a brief look back in our history to examine the challenging, lean years leading up to hosting the U.S. Amateur.

The ten year period from the end of the depression (1935) to the end of WWII (1945) may have been our most trying. In 1943, a desperate financial reorganization called for reducing capital stock from 400 to 110 shares, raising $30,000 to pay off the mortgage and increasing dues to $150 per year from $100. Members could either pay $300 for one of the 110 shares or sell back their stock for $1 and become a non voting associate member. The plan was approved, but not before Membership had gone from 400 to 68 by 1944.

In order to generate revenue during the latter war years MGC allowed public play, and in fact in 1945 non-members spent more than members. The decorum and culture took a turn for the worse as was evident in this Board minute from August 1944: “the Board was made aware of a growing trend of men playing golf shirtless”. This resulted in signs being posted in the locker room discouraging such practice.

With the war years our course went with minimum turf maintenance. There was a serious labor shortage and chemicals and other resources were scarce. As a result, course conditions deteriorated to the point that for the 1944 season the Board declared that winter rules would be in effect to save the fairways and also to save balls. Even with these challenges, the club still hosted the 1944 state open!

But by September 1945 with the war over, things began to turn. Soldiers returned to civilian life and golf was once again a desired leisure activity. Private golf was becoming viable again. The September 18, 1945 Board minutes reflect the decision to put measures in place to restore MGC to its former standards of excellence, beginning with the announcement that the club was returning to its original private club model.

The minutes read: “…adopt a definite and permanent policy toward making MGC a strictly private club”. It is stated that 75% of the members loudly supported this strategy. The Board also passed a policy addressing the decorum issue from 1944. It read: “Any two piece athletic uniform (pants and shirts) would be allowed for play on the course and to omit either the shirt or pants would be against the rules and prohibited.” Thank goodness we still have that policy!

Now the hard work was to begin as the clubhouse and course had suffered significant deterioration. Membership was still low. Funding tight. But a handful of leaders found the money and the commitment to move MGC forward.

As a part of this commitment to returning to the private club model a dedicated effort was made to make women and families much more important to the Club’s social fabric.

A Planning Committee was formed in 1946 and in March 1947 they presented their vision along with the current financial state of the club, which by then was debt free.

Here is a flipbook link to that ‘47 presentation to the Club.

In May 1948, with the Club on firm footing, a solid strategic plan in place, and the course returning to its original gold standard, MGC extended an invitation to the USGA about hosting the 1950 Amateur. By September the invitation was accepted and the organizing efforts to host the event began in earnest. Board VP Bruce Reinecker chaired the event planning.

The membership enthusiastically responded by supporting the organizing efforts including owning the sale of tickets. Members also pitched in beginning in September 1949 with “the formation of committees for each of the 18 holes on the course to protect each hole from tee to green in respect to divots, trap raking, and filling holes in the green”.

The USGA worked closely with our superintendent, Herb Cohrs, in the summer leading up to the tourney. Dr. Grau, the head of USGA grounds and greens said, “in following your present procedure of aerating, feeding and hand watering your greens, you will have the finest championship greens comparable to any in the United States”.

And to think that 5 years earlier MGC was almost a forgotten entity, playing off of dirt and not wearing shirts! We all owe a great deal to the leadership of that period.

This historical content is an adaptation from Rick Shefchick’s 100 Year History of MGC edited and combined with additional notes and minutes of Board Meetings from 1943-50.

WHAT’S NEW?

EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH

Wes Stoneback - Equipment Technician

Wes has worked at MGC for 4.5 years. He grew up on a farm outside of Alden, MN and attended University of Minnesota Waseca. Wes enjoys working at MGC because of the positive atmosphere and the focus on having a well maintained golf course.

FUN FACT: Wes played quarterback in college and had 99 rushing attempts for 9 yards

BOOK CLUB

The MGC Book Club meets the first Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m. for dinner & discussion. All ladies are welcome to join us! Feel free to email Katie Sisel at kdsisel@gmail.com for information about joining.

October Book Club - October 6th at 6:30 p.m.

October book selection is Carolina Moonset by Matt Goldman. He was also a writer on Seinfeld. Matt will be joining us and will host a book signing following the discussion. The author visit is open to all members of the Club.

SEPTEMBER EVENTS & PHOTOS

2022 Gal Pal Four-Ball Champions

Nancy Kelley & Mary Jo Lecy

Mixed Club Championship

Gross Champions - Katti & Pat Woerner

Net Champions - Shelby & Greg Strauss

Men’s League Finale

Women’s League Finale

Martinis and Mulligans Champions

Beth Cochran, Nancy Kloehn & Anne Tessien

18 Hole Season Long Ringer Winners

1st Place - Jennifer Fernandez

2nd Place - Erin Rafi

T-3rd - Laura Holmes

T-3rd - Patricia Bruer

9 Hole Season Long Ringer Winners

1st Place - Mary Czachor

T 2nd - Erin Rafi & Lynda Shaheen

Dog Pool Pawty

Minneapolis Golf Club Mission

The Mission of Minneapolis Golf Club is to maintain our legacy of good stew ardship, provide an exceptional golf club experience, grow the membership, and continually enhance our reputation.

Our Vision

The Vision of Minneapolis Golf Club is to be one of the premier private golf clubs in the Upper Midwest. MGC offers an exceptional golf experience on our classic Park/Ross course with welcoming members in a relaxed family friendly atmosphere.

Core Values - MGC is committed to:

Continuous improvement of facilities, amenities and programming

Delivering an elite golf experience

A strong social environment and welcoming atmosphere for member families and guests

Accessibility to golf and leisure facilities

Being an employer of choice

Superior service standards

A diverse, equitable and inclusive culture

Transparency in communication and governance

Hours of Operation Dining Hours

Tuesday - Friday: 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Saturday & Sunday: 8 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Golf Shop Hours

Tuesday - Sunday: Open one hour before the first tee time to 7 p.m.

2022 Board of Directors

Andy Bauer - President

Jocelyn Anderson - Vice President

Jeff Callinan - Secretary

Rick Ellingson - Treasurer

Tracey Donesky - Board Member

Jon Fitzgerald - Board Member

Troy Jensen - Board Member

Dan Maholias - Board Member

John Morioka - Board Member

Tom Whaley - Board Member

MGC Management Team

Joseph “JJ” Wagner - General Manager

Dan Simpson - Head Golf Professional

Jared Keller - Golf Course Superintendent

Fadi Zaatari - Food & Beverage Director and Clubhouse Manager

Tyler Hanlon - Executive Chef

Nancy Johnson - Director of Catering & Events

Anna Vanderlinde - Membership Director

Colleen Bakker - Controller

Rob Hodges - Head of Maintenance