The newest golf course in Minnesota will host some of the top women’s college golf programs next week when the ANNIKA intercollegiate tournament comes to the Royal Golf Club in Lake Elmo.
The course, just opened in May, was designed by golf legends Annika Sorenstam and the late Arnold Palmer. It will host the University of Minnesota along with 11 other Division I teams Monday through Wednesday in the course’s first official tournament. Nine of the nation’s top 10 ranked teams are in the field, including Alabama, UCLA, Arkansas and Duke.
“It’s huge for us,” said Shawn Weisen, head professional at The Royal, “with our first year of operation to host basically the nation’s biggest women’s college golf tournament.”
The annual tournament was started four years ago by Sorenstam’s organization, the ANNIKA Foundation, and Golfweek in Orlando, Fla. Last year, the tournament moved to Olympic Hills in Eden Prairie because 3M sponsored the tournament. Now, Sorenstam will have her tournament on the first course she helped design in the U.S.
“It was Annika’s first domestic course designed here in the United States, and it was Arnold Palmer’s last before he passed away,” said Casey Ceman, the global golf director at the ANNIKA foundation. “It’s the first major event that this course has hosted since it reopened, and everybody’s excited for the week.”
The tournament is free for the public to watch on any day, including Sunday’s practice round. Each day of the tournament, tee times start at 9 a.m. and end at 10:30.
The course didn’t open until this May, but the owner said it could have opened last year. They just wanted to make certain it was ready.
“We could have opened last year and got in a couple months of play, and I decided to hold the golf course,” said Hollis Cavner, owner of the course. “Let it mature, let it come out and be ready, and in that way when people first started playing it, it looked like what we wanted.”
The old course, Tartan Park, had 27 holes, but now the course has 18. The front nine are called the “queen” designed by Sorenstam, and the back nine are called the “king” designed by Palmer.
Cavner said the course is expecting a couple of thousand visitors next week to watch the 12 teams.
Weisen said the greens stand out most at the Royal Golf Club.
“There’s a lot of movement to them, a lot of undulations,” Weisen said. “So that’s kind of what protects par out here.”
Sorenstam, a native of Sweden who won 10 women’s major championships, earned the individual NCAA Division I national women’s golf championship in 1991 when she attended the University of Arizona. Her ANNIKA foundation has the goal of providing opportunities for women golfers in the junior, professional and collegiate levels.
“It lets people know that we’re a solid golf course,” Weisen said of the ANNIKA tournament. “It puts you on a level, kind of that next level of golf course where, hey, they can host an event like this. It’s challenging, and it’s that good a golf course.”
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