Rum River Hills Golf Club

My brothers and I went there for my dads birthday. His first birthday since he passed away. Looking forward to some time on the course. Got there and we sat in the office for a good 10 min before someone showed up. Was explained that they are plugging the front 9 so had to play the back twice. Not a big deal but they could have told us ahead of time. I’m guessing they didn’t decide to plug the front 9 on a whim. Played through 16 holes and was told we needed to skip hole 17 and go to 18. Still had over 30 minutes of daylight left. Drove the cart in and parked it, the guy came out and asked if I would go put it away for the night. I was asked to do his job. Went inside for a bite to eat and was served cold brats and was told they weren’t able to heat them up.

It’s an OK course if you have zero expectations for customer service and don’t mind doing a little extra work so the golf course doesn’t have to. If you do have the slightest expectations I would go elsewhere

Several holes on front nine have limited landing areas which are blind from tee unless you’ve played it before. Hit to the fairway marker on #7 and found ball had rolled into water. Unfair.

Pace of play was quite slow on second nine. Several groups very loud including one group blasting country music from their cart. Very annoying and distracting.

Didnt have drink cart out...but was very nice and fun .some greens are damaged, but overall. Fun couse

Great layout. A very fun and sometimes challenging course.

Great time playing on December 9th, shotgun start was awesome

I'll break this review down because it's not an all encompassing review for the rating.

Course: C- to D. If you don't hit it straight, or don't know where to hit it off the tee, you will struggle. You probably don't need a driver here either as even the Par 5's are short from the blue tees. Once you get to your ball, good luck having a good lie as the ground was firm for bouncing balls, but soft on approach shots. The greens are tough and not in good shape and the tees, especially on the Par 3's are in horrible shape. The landing areas were barren of grass and there were several holes where our group had to instill the "leaf rule" because the maintenance staff hadn't done any kind of leaf removal prior to the last week of warm weather here. For $40 (incl cart) this is a good deal if you don't care about the shape of the course.

Pro shop: F. This is still the original clubhouse/restaurant/pro shop its always been. You basically time warp to 1985 when you walk in. I was genuinely shocked to see a box of ProV1's for sale.

Pace of play was terrible and we were yelled at by 2 pro shop workers to get off the course after playing for 5 hrs (we had 1 hole left in a "last round of the year shotgun - not a scramble, just all players teeing off at the same time to make sure everyone finishes by dark").

The driving range was closed, so that wasn't great.

Their practice green is about 4 paces wide so you had 20+ groups of golfers all trying to practice putting and chipping on a sliver of a green. Not ideal

The only silver lining was the bev cart woman who had a great attitude and was really happy to see us every time she drove by, and she made sure we were staying hydrated as we saw her about 5-6x during our round.

I am currently trying ro obtain refund from the course or golf now as I was charged twice

Tee boxes are in fair condition.

Fairway's are the condition of an average city course.

Green's are only fair.

Amenities need updating.

This course is worth about a $30-$35 green fee.

first time playing for 10 years or more. course has matured and grown in well. enjoyed the round. played it in 3 1/4 hours.

They let two 5 somes out back to back; 10 guys in their 70’s. Well how do you think the pace of play was? Almost a 3 hour front 9. Then we skipped 2 holes just to get around them. From what I hear this is normal here; 5+ hour 18 holes

Rum River is a great treat. However the pace of play is ridiculous. It is course that can easily be played in 4 hours or less. The pace can only be controlled by a ranger which most public courses in Minnesota lack. Lots of couples and newbies which can be painful to play behind. Covid has brought a lot of new golfers out which is great but be prepared for slow play. Course layout us very nice and getting a beverage while playing was easy as cart staff did a great job getting to all the players. In fairness to the course I Played on a Sunday which I try to avoid at all cost at most all Minnesota public courses. Other than pace of play course was fun.