Derek6079560

I've played this course several times. Overall, this is an excellent golf course but there are a handful of small details I dislike about it.
First, I don't recommend playing here without a range finder and/or a course guide and greens book. The sight lines are very deceptive. A lot of tee shots make it difficult to pick your target and yardage. You can't just pull out driver and stripe it down the center of the fairway. You need to figure out how far it is to clear certain bunkers and ponds. The greens are large and oddly shaped. This makes yardage markers deceptive as well. Several times I have hit just the distance I intended, only to find I am still 35 feet short because the green is 40 yards deep This is what I mean by deceptive sight lines. Pin positions get precarious quite easily. Small misses from the pin roll off the elevated, undulating greens and safe shots to the center make for challenging two putts. The deep gullies that surround the greens are trimmed to short fairway grass instead of rough. A standard chip shot isn't an option, and a flop shot off this tight lie is impractical. You're stuck pitching the ball into the side of the hill and rolling it up to the pin. Maybe fun, maybe annoying, definitely challenging. All of these things probably make this course exciting to a scratch golfer, but as a 9/10 handicap, it's quite frustrating.

The cart paths are far separated from the fairways and greens on most holes and often hidden behind rollings hills, (think of the Shire in the Lord of the Rings). While riding down the cart path, you can't see the fairway, nor are there convenient places to turn the cart into it. Combine that with extremely undulating fairways and it's easy to lose track of which hill complex your ball is hiding behind. Expect to spend extra time looking for it, even after decent shots. Additionally, these are the slowest golf carts I've ever driven, making this situation just a little more frustrating.

The course condition is overall very good. It is watered well. Greens are firm and roll true. Some beat up tee boxes but not too bad. I did have a problem with a few bunkers that seemed to be a thin layer of soft sand laid over top of a very firm, solid base.

I give Columbia 4 stars because it is pretty good for a municipal course. I think it is the best of the courses owned by the city of Minneapolis. Unlike many of the city courses in the Twin Cities, It has sufficient length to be enjoyable for long hitters.
Many of the greens are very large, fairly flat and slow. Expect to be smashing some putts a long ways.
Columbia has a great variety of holes: some begging for a birdie, some you'll be happy to make par. Fairways are somewhat generous. It's one of the only municipal layouts to hold up well against the evolution of the game, but it could really stand to benefit from architectural updates to improve the lack of water drainage in some areas, which routinely damages the course.
A lot of tee boxes get really chewed up and the staff does not replant or fix these. A little money could go a long way to making this a higher quality course.
The west side of the course has the lowest elevation and it does not drain well. These fairways get a lot of winterkill and water damage.
The greens are slow, which will annoy you if you're not used to it.

One of my favorite holes is the par 5 sharp dogleg left #5. If you hit a perfect draw of 250+ yards through a really tight treeline, you can go for it in two. If you play it safe with an iron off the tee, you're unlikely to make it to the bend, leaving a repeat of the first choice: hit a long draw or hit it short and straight.