SXSW x MN GOLF

Mary Jo Graphenteen has no pressing desire to break course records or play golf at tournaments like a U.S. Open champion.

“I don't need to keep score,” says Graphenteen, known as “MJ” to her fellow golfers. “I just like improving.”

Graphenteen, a member of Luverne Country Club, plays golf “every day, all day” in season, she says. And if she can't quite play like a U.S. Open champion, she surely can play alongside one. Graphenteen's frequent playing partner is Jerilyn Britz, who came out of Luverne High School and Luverne CC to compile a successful LPGA Tour playing career, highlighted by a two-stroke victory in the 1979 U.S. Women's Open. Britz remains a Luverne CC member, spending time in both Minnesota and Oklahoma.

The two women didn't meet until Graphenteen was in her 30s and took up golf. She and Britz met by chance on the course. “We happened to be on the same hole or something,” Graphenteen says. “We kindled a really deep friendship, and she's been my mentor ever since.”

Mentorship meant Britz passing along golf's finer points to Graphenteen, a gifted natural athlete, longtime physical education teacher and highly successful varsity volleyball coach at Luverne High before retiring in 2016. Britz helped Graphenteen discover there was more to golf than merely propelling the ball forward.

“I was very athletic,” she says, “and I did teach golf in my phy-ed classes, so I knew what to do. It just kind of took off from there ... I didn't really know the golf game until Jerilyn came along and taught me the ins and outs of the swing. I felt like I really grew into being a golfer rather than just an athletic hitter of the golf ball.”

Graphenteen has gone on to win five club championships at Luverne CC, where she says, “It's just a new shot every time. There's never a repeat.” She ranks as a prominent figure at her home club.

Across a 100-mile stretch of southwestern Minnesota, hugging Interstate 90 and the Iowa border, golf courses abound, with many other women contributing to the game and their clubs.

A Historic Club Under New Ownership
Sarah Totzke, a board member at Fairmont's historic Interlaken Golf Club, was among those who helped guide the formerly member-owned club through its sale last fall to Minneapolis air transportation executive Nick Swenson.

“We're all, I think, very excited about it,” Totzke said in March of the sale. “It's a good time to get a little bit of revitalization back into the club.”

Interlaken ranks near the high end of the I-90 courses that are distinctive for being satisfying to play yet not brutally difficult. Most are parkland-style, their routings adorned with older trees. Also, they are relatively affordable, with weekend, 18-hole greens fees ranging from $20 at Minn-Iowa in Elmore to $45 at Interlaken. Most of the courses are semi-private.

Interlaken boasts impressive architectural credentials. The club celebrated its centennial in 2019; the original nine holes were laid out by the renowned and prolific Tom Bendelow. A 1968 expansion to 18 holes was worked by Don Herfort. Among the featured holes is the dogleg 17th, 376 yards off the shortest tees and 468 off the longest. “It's a shorter par 5 for women, so I tend to enjoy that hole,” Totzke says.

“We're trying to get a lot more young women and young families to come in, so we started a ‘little extra things' to do with the 5 o'clock round,” she continues. “Maybe you start off with a putting lesson and then go out and play your round, or maybe there's a chipping contest and you go out and play. I think especially for women, we gravitate to that, and we will get involved rather than just go out and play your round.”

Up for a Challenge?
Five miles northwest of Interlaken is Fairmont's other course, Rose Lake Golf Club. Established in 1957, it was expanded to 18 holes in 1987 by the late Joel Goldstrand, a Worthington native and prominent Minnesota designer.

Club board member Jeannie Green describes Rose Lake as a challenging course. It is less tree-lined than others in the area, but water and out of bounds come into play. Featured is a “gauntlet,” as club manager Jack Von Bank describes it, the 11th through 13th holes. The par-5 11th is only 469 yards maximum, but water hugs the left side and out of bounds the right.

The par-4 12th has an approach over an inlet and past a large tree on the right. The 13th is more benign from the front tees but otherwise is a carry of 160 yards over water.

105 Years and Counting
GreatLife Golf & Fitness Club, formerly known as Worthington Country Club, is another historic venue, dating back to 1919. Playing from 5,282 yards to
6,282, its No. 10 is the signature hole, says Laura Ailts, longtime member and former club president.

“It's a par 3, not completely surrounded by water, but three-quarters of it is,” she says. “That's a fun hole. The other hole that's kind of unique is 14—that's a par 3 for men but it's a par 4 for women. The women actually tee off behind the men. So, it's kind of funny when people who play here are from out of town—you'll see [men] pull up to the red [tee] marker.”

The Labor Day Classic tournament is a staple of southwestern Minnesota golf, heading for its 71st year in 2024. “The caliber of golfers we get is wonderful, so that says a lot about the course,” Ailts says.

Lucky Number Seven
Windom Country Club dates back to 1947, a nine-hole layout measuring 5,130 yards off the front tees and 6,118 off the back. Tara Smith, a Windom native, is a board member, former Winona State player and has won the past 12 women's club championships. She calls her home layout a “fun little nine-hole course with a lot more trees than some people are used to, so you have to have a good punch shot in order to play well.”