Columbia Golf Course

Columbia is a nice course to play in the Twin Cities. One of the better city courses. It is challenging yet very playable.

Don’t play here unless you have 6-7 hours to kill. Every time it’s excruciatingly slow and they do nothing about it.

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.

This is probably the hilliest course of the city options. Only the billy goats take it on without at least a push cart.

Just a fun variety of holes and nothing too scary. Yeah there’s a little water behind the hills but it will be the trees just off the fairways that will get you in trouble. Almost no bunkers between you and the greens so if you hit it straight, you will never find the sand or the water.

Wear bug spray though. Can get a little gnatty.

Enjoy the mountain of No. 2 and No. 7. You’ll need at least a club extra to mount the hill

I know this may fall on death ears as this is a MPLS Municipal course and the goal is to provide cheap golf for a number of people, but 8 minute tee time separation is just not realistic. Played 18 on the weekend and we had a 12 person gallery watching us tee off.... because we went off 32 minutes late due to pace of play issues. The course has some really fun holes but it's hard to get the motivation to play there and impossible to recommend to a friend knowing it will be a death march

Columbia is a nice golf course. It is a Minneapolis Parks course, so you know it is maintained pretty well. Heavy divots in some of the greens but that is not really the courses fault. Pace of play can vary, i have played here 9 times this season ranging from prime-time weekend slots to 6pm twilights. Just like other Minneapolis courses, it can get a little crowded. A little patience is needed at this course now and then but I can deal with that. Brand new Yamaha carts this year, very nice addition to Columbia. The staff is nice, I enjoy interacting with them and they help boost my opinion of the course. Frequent weddings about 25 yards off the right-side of the #18 green can turn your final approach shot turn into a mental game. Just have to trust your swing and let it fly. Valid concern about putting one in the crowd though. Course is a little loud for my liking. It is in a busy part of Minneapolis so you get heavy traffic noise and a train basically cuts the course in half.Clubhouse was nice but the training facility is by far their best amenity. Give it a try, I enjoy it even though its not overly tough.

Columbia Golf Course is almost one hundred years old, and is a fine example of the traditional American golf course, featuring rolling fairways lined with mature trees. The course is in the middle of an urban area, but with all the trees and hills you don't notice much traffic or industrial noise. The course is relatively short and has four sets of tees ranging from 6,371 yards to 5,152 yards. However, there are three holes of 400 or more yards from the middle tees, so short hitters may have to rely on their short game to score well. Although there were quite a few walkers on the course, riding may be a better option for many golfers. The elevation changes and long distances between a few greens and tees may be a challenge for walkers. I played the course the first week of May, and was glad to see that the fairways were in very good condition. Unfortunately, the greens were very slow. Everyone in my foursome, having played other courses this spring with faster greens, had difficulty getting the ball to the hole. This may be due to the early season, and hopefully the greens will be faster in the summer. This would make Columbia a much more enjoyable experience.

When I played the greens were nice, some of the fairways were nice and others were pretty bad.
The course was fairly easy and i had my current best score of the year on it so that was nice. I was stuck behind a 5 some of amateurs and that held us up for the entire front nine. Overall the course wasn't in the best shape that i've seen it in.