Rush Creek Golf Club At A Glance

U.S. Amateur Public Links
Rush Creek Golf Club, Maple Grove, Minn.
July 12-17
www.usapl.org
Yardage: 7,132 yards
Par: 36-36 – 72
Defending Champion: Brandt Snedeker
Opened: 1996
Designers: Robert Cupp and John Fought

Designer Note: Cupp and Fought, who won the 1977 U.S. Amateur, also combined their architectural efforts on Pumpkin Ridge in North Plains, Ore., site of five previous USGA competitions.

Previous Championships: This is the club’s first USGA championship. The course did host the World Championship of Women’s Golf in 1999.

Monster Course: At 7,132 yards, Rush Creek will be the longest course in the history of the APL, surpassing Blue Heron Pines (2003) and Edgewood Tahoe Golf Club (1980), both of which played to 7,127 yards.

Young At Heart: While it’s been 11 years since a mid-amateur won the U.S. Amateur, the last 25-plus-year-old golfer to take the APL was Tim Hogarth, then 30, in 1996. Hogarth defeated another mid-am golfer, the late Jeff Thomas, in the final, 8 and 7.

Twin Cities (APL) Love Affair: This is the sixth time since the APL’s inception in 1922 that this USGA event will be waged in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. The region last hosted the APL in 1992 at Edinburgh USA in Brooklyn Park.

Build It As They See It: Because the site's terrain was so varied – open prairie, pockets of hardwoods, cat-tailed marshes, floating bogs, generous elevation changes – Cupp and Fought decided that little dirt needed to be moved in creating the layout. The architects adapted natural golf holes to the routing and then enhanced their shot values with strategic tee and bunker placements.

Pebble Beach Of The Midwest?: The 569-yard par-5 finishing hole is a majestic right-to-left dogleg with water up the entire left side. While the backdrop is not the Pacific Ocean and the views aren’t quite as breathtaking, the hole is similar in design to the famous 18th at Pebble Beach.

 

 

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