When Andrew Adamsick saw the posting in Sioux Falls this winter, he perked up. This job, he thought, is perfect for Nathan Vaughn. Adamsick is the head golf professional at Chicago's distinguished Conway Farms Golf Club, host of three recent FedEx Cup playoff events. Vaughn is his right-hand man, a ...

Suddenly Eric Peterson is looking for reasons to go. Jump in the car. Hop on I-29. Drive 40 minutes from his front door outside Brookings to his new playground outside Sioux Falls. Mapletøn Golf Club is changing every day and Peterson, the retired business owner, can't stay away. Just last week, he ...

Mike Nelson called it an accident. His friends called it crazy.Last spring, the golf course superintendent was playing in his Sunday night hockey league (against guys half his age) when an opponent's stick got lodged in the boards and caught Nelson's side, pole vaulting him off the ice. Ouch. The pa...

Anybody can fall in love with golf in the desert or on the coast. But try giving your heart to the game in Alaska.  Zac Gavlak, Mapletøn Golf Club's new General Manager, grew up swinging 4,000 miles north of the equator (and less than 2,000 miles from the North Pole). In Palmer, Alaska, seasons...

Danny Amundson, founder of the upcoming Mapleton Golf Club in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, shares his vision for a premier golf experience with Alexis and Marcus on the latest episode of Behind the Business, Founers in the 605. The club's origins stem from Danny's family's deep connection to the golf ...

At first light, a black Silverado truck slows to a stop on Slip Up Road. Johnny Christiansen turns into the 210-acre dirt playground that will soon transform into one of America's best new golf courses. By 6 a.m., with the birds chirping overhead, the 62-year-old shaper fires up his D3 bulldozer, ig...

The history defies logic. How could so many epic golf courses originate in such a short span of time? Pine Valley, Pebble Beach. Cypress Point, Shinnecock Hills, Augusta National, Fishers Island, Los Angeles Country Club, Riviera, Winged Foot, Seminole, Crystal Downs, Cal Club, Shoreacres, San Franc...

Every great golf journey has its signature scenes. The moments in a four-hour round that prompt deep breaths, wide smiles and photos. Mapletøn Golf Club's prime views will be a great surprise to members, but one of the best spots — spoiler alert — is right where you start. From the back of the clubh...

The call came in October 2022. Trent Bruce didn't know the topic of Danny Amundson's meeting request, but he had a hunch. A decade earlier, the DGR engineer had lived next door to Amundson. He knew Amundson as a golf fanatic and a visionary. Now Amundson wanted DGR Engineering's help to execute a pl...

Sioux Falls' first new private golf club in more than 60 years is being planned on the northeast side of town just outside the city limits. Mapleton Golf Club would encompass 210 acres northeast of interstates 229 and 90, across from the South Dakota Veterans Cemetery and along Slip Up Creek.&n...

If might seem like golf course architect Scott Hoffman came out of nowhere with his design at Lost Rail, opened in 2022 outside of Omaha. However, he'd previously worked for over a decade with Tom Fazio, designing courses in the western U.S. He then worked with Tim Jackson and David Kahn for a numbe...

Lost Rail, a private, stand-alone golf club near Omaha, earned second-place honors in Golf Digest's 2023 Best New Private Course awards. It's a remarkable property of uplands and ravines, prairies and clusters of hardwoods. A namesake abandoned railroad line cuts through a deep gully in one corner o...

"The fourth largest country in the world by area and the third most populous, the United States of America comprises the forty-eight contiguous states between Canada and Mexico, along with Alaska in the north west corner of the continent and the island state of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean, which bec...

Lucas Schroder calls it a "sickness." Building a golf course from scratch may feel like a two-year marathon, but once you complete the mission? Once you finish that 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle? You can't wait to do it again. Schroder, a general superintendent for Landscapes Unlimited's world-class co...

A simple gravestone in Woodlawn Cemetery marks an extraordinary life. Ralph J. Scoular lived 95 years and nine months — 1925-2020. The left side of the rectangular stone illustrates his World War II service in the US Army Air Corps. The right side shows a Sioux Falls project to which he contributed ...

Tom Jansa knows the local golf landscape like his own family tree. The executive director of the South Dakota Golf Association has done it all: Managed golf courses. Designed and built courses. Coached golf teams and standouts. He's a steward of the sport. Recently Jansa visited the state's top dest...

Five miles from downtown Sioux Falls, on the bank of Slip Up Creek, a cow pasture eases out of winter. Snowdrifts melt into dormant native grass. Deer hurdle barbed-wire fences. Birds shriek from towering cottonwoods. Near a ramshackle farmhouse, 50 years abandoned, a landmark stands tall. A silo. T...