Troy Burne Golf Club

Really fun course, great layout and conditions. Beautiful setting with woods and water. Front and back nines feel a bit different but that just adds to the experience. Nice range and pro shop, friendly staff.

Overall Rating 4.5/5

Course Conditions 4/5

Overall the course was in very good condition. The fairways, tee boxes, and greens were lush. The bunkers were not in the best condition due to recent rain, but also several bunkers had exposed weed fabric from underneath. All the holes did not utilize the hole liner or pvc in the hole so you were able to pull the pin. All bunkers also had rakes.

Course Design 4/5

The course offered many challenging holes, but over all driver was never really taken out of your hand with the exception of hole's 2 and 17. The back 9 offered many scenic and challenging holes. The par 3's on the back 9 were very fun to play. The 2 par 5's on the bank 9 are challenging with water in play off the tee. Hole 17 was a very fun hole to play despite the water not really coming in play with a good tee shot. Hole's 9 and 18 are fairly lack luster compared to the rest of the course for finishing holes.

Value 4/5

I ended up paying 65 to walk on a day where it was cart path only. It was a tough course to walk with a lot elevation between tee's. Overall 85 for 18 with a cart is reasonable for a top 70 public course in the Nation.

I have always loved to play Troy Burne when I get the chance. On this occasion I was a little disappointed with some parts of the golf course. First, the bunkers are not good but with so many to maintain I can understand that but for a course of this magnitude I would expect more. The greens were ok, they rolled fine but you can definitely see a lot of the daily wear and tear on them. I love this course and the rest did not disappoint, it is always a challenge to navigate your way around the Tom Lehman design without finding too much trouble. The staff was very friendly and very Covid focused which was pleasant to see. The only major issue was we did not see the beverage cart for the entire back 9, on a day when it felt close to 100 degrees that was very frustrating. I hope to be back soon and hope TB can make the improvements it deserves.

The Good: This Hurdzan/Fry design from the late 90’s is a quintessential quasi-upscale residential public golf experience right at the Wisconsin/Minnesota border. Very similar in style and aesthetics to WeaverRidge in Peoria, IL, Troy Burne utilizes a vast canvas that is painted with huge, elaborate sand traps and sprinkled with strategic streams and ponds to torment the errant shot. Much like many Hurdzan tracks, the front nine is more Prairie setting with exposure to wind, while the back nine weavers through more woodlands and requires target golf. Excellent design variety across the board and there are particularly some interesting Par 4’s on the back. Pretty good fairway conditions despite significant play in previous weeks and large, moderately flat greens hold well and putt very true. Very nice clubhouse and full comfort station sandwiched between the 1st and 10th holes that is very convenient. Excellent staff, including one of the best PGA schools in the Midwest (so I’m told). Appropriate practice facility given the other off-course amenities. I was able to start on the back nine as a single when a large outing was supposed to go out in front of me, thus pace of play was excellent! Solid value under $100 peak season for quality of course in the Twin Cities area.

The Bad: While conditions were above average, I was expecting a more pristine golf experience. There were a HUGE number of divots in the fairways and there were maintenance staff making repairs throughout the round during the middle of the afternoon. It appears that the carts once utilized a GPS system but it either wasn’t working or the course doesn’t sanction it anymore. For this reason, the course was poorly marked and I spent too much time walking around the fairways looking for my yardages. Other than the Par-4 2nd on the front, the Par 4’s are fairly unmemorable on the outward half.

The Verdict: Troy Burne is another notch to the Wisconsin public golf toolbelt and one of the most complete public facilities in the greater Twin Cities. A very fun, playable golf course with spectacular holes on the closing nine.

Best Hole: The Par-4 17th is, without question, the best hole on the course and one of the prettiest holes in the state of Wisconsin. A medium-length hole that requires a precise drive to a fairway that juts in with water on the entire right side. The green carves into the pond and is guarded by a stadium of trees behind.

I have fallen in love with this course. The amenities are great. Clubhouse, restaurant, driving range and putting green were all great. Better clubhouse than some country clubs I have played. Food was great as well. I loved the course, the grass was great and the greens were fair. Very well kept up course. Pace of play was good, took about 4:20 with food at the turn. The course is challenging and offers a lot to someone who likes the scenery aspect of courses. Some great holes on this course. This course has set the bar high for my future Wisconsin rounds of golf. I will absolutely be back.

Technically, Troy Burne is in Wisconsin, but everyone in the Cities (MN) claims it as ours. In my opinion this is the most underrated course in Wisconsin--only recently being acknowledged by the national publications in the state rankings. I've played 308 courses in the United States and this is in my Top 25. I'm seldom an advocate of claiming a $100 round as a "great value" but if there were one course in the Twin Cities area that I believe is "worth that" it's Troy Burne. The head pro, and golf director (Dave and Brent) are both awesome guys and will do anything they can to make your day better. Always great conditions, so many beautiful holes. Love this place.

In two words: Not impressed. The layout itself is worthwhile, with some holes that are ridiculously tough (e.g., #2, #10) and some holes that provide good birdie opportunities (e.g., #4, #12). I recall back to 2000 or so when this course first open and how everyone couldn't stop talking about it. I'm starting to think that's more a product of Lehman's involvement than the actual course itself. When we played it, on a July Saturday on a year when nearly every course I've played in the Twin Cities metro is in fantastic shape, Troy Burne was not in condition consistent with the hefty price tag ($90 rack rate, though it's in the MN golf card, so you can split the $120 or so total rate with cart between two people).

Let's start with the bunkers. There are a number of bunkers that the course has simply let erode away from the rainfall. They look like a sandbox would look after a heavy rain, as if the grounds crew just decided to ignore them because they couldn't do normal work on them. They still had rakes in them, as if people were expected to still play out of them (which would have been impossible). The rest of the bunkers looked really sloppy around the edges, like they would at a cheap municipal course, and the sand was not of the quality one would expect at a high-end course like this.

The greens rolled fairly well but were on the slow side for a high end course. Some of the holes, especially #15 (a short Par 3), had greens that were very beat up. Looking at the mowing marks, there's attention to detail lacking in the greenskeeping (it looked like they had been in a hurry cutting the greens).

The teeboxes are not flat. I know this is something you find at a lot of courses, and I expect it at municipal courses, but at high end courses, the teeboxes should be graded to be as flat as possible. On some tee shots I had significant downhill lies. Not something that you should experience at Troy Burne (they need to regrade and resod some of their teeing areas to flatten them out).

There's also a fair amount of brown spotches in the fairway and rough, and the rough was inconsistent in length and thickness. With as much rain as they've had, the course should be lush, and with as much as they charged, it should be near perfect.

The pace of play was maddeningly slow. We played in 4:50 and were told by a course staff member at the turn that they'd do something to speed up play on the back nine, but we never once saw a ranger on the course. The scorecard indicates 4:14 as the minimum pace of play. Why have a pace of play policy if you don't enforce it?

I get the feeling that Troy Burne is struggling a bit, and it shows in how they've let the course go. I'm not saying it's unplayable (except for the bunkers), and the fairways and greens are still a lot better than a municipal course, but it fails to deliver anything close to $90/round in value.

A few other observations, while I'm at it:
-No drinking water on the course, and no signs or indication at the clubhouse that there is none on the course (because they want to sell bottled water)
-No GPS on the carts. Thankfully I have a rangefinder, but if I didn't, you'd have to walk around looking for sprinkler heads.
-The driving range is so open and bare that it is very difficult to determine if your ball is heading at your target and on the intended trajectory. The range balls were also far more beat up than they should be at a course this high end.

This course I believe is overpriced. It is more or less a 60 dollar course not an 80 dollar course. Play it during non peak times. I average 240-260 as a recreational driver of the ball. There seems to be a bunker at that distance on most holes.

TB is a top end course (condition, layout, facilities, challenging, etc.). They used to play a Nationwide Tour event here. Very challenging (play from tees that fit your game) and scenic course with lots of white sand bunkers (both fairway & greens). Immaculate condition. Greens have lots of complex to them so need to land the ball in the right spot. Best enjoyed by better caliber players. Paid more than I like to pay ($75 w/cart & range balls), but as an occasional treat worth the money.