Every once in a while, a destination surprises you with its charm and quality of golf. Welcome to Cragun’s Resort in Brainerd, MN. Located on the shores of Gull Lake, Cragun’s Resort is an outdoorsman’s dream. By “outdoorsman,’’ I’m including golfers, as Cragun’s Legacy Courses include a pair of outstanding Tom Lehman-designed golf courses – Lehman 18 and the Dutch.
Another nine holes on the Dutch, also designed by Minnesota native son Lehman, will open next May – and it might be the best layout of the bunch. The new “Dutch 9’’ is expected to bring another 10,000 rounds annually to the resort, which already sees approximately 50,000 rounds played in a six-month, weather-limited golf season. It also should reinforce Cragun’s as the top golf resort in Minnesota.
Each nine-hole layout in the Dutch comes with its own color distinction. For example, “Blue’’ and “White’’ for each of the current layout. The new nine-hole course will be “Red.’’
The ninth hole on the new Dutch Red Course
“We’ll be rotating the 27 holes on the Dutch, so people will be able to come here on a four-day package and play four different golf courses,’’ said Cragun’s Resort General Manager Eric Peterson.
Loaded with rustic charm and Central Minnesota hospitality, Cragun’s Resort – two-and-a-half hours from Minneapolis – has been a family-owned destination in the Brainerd Lakes area since 1940. Its lodging options range from Lakeview Lodge Room and cabins on the shores of Gull Lake to vacation rental homes and to the new Private Collection – a series of five, multi-bedroom private homes, each with views of the Lehman 18.
Each home in the Private Collection features a large common area and full kitchen – ideal for large families and golf buddy trips. A large back patio at each Private Collection home makes an ideal spot for cookouts followed by some amazing stargazing, and if you’re lucky, a show from the Northern Lights.
The Private Collection homes are a short drive from the main resort area that features five restaurants and bars, as well as the golf pro shop.
A resort for all seasons, Cragun’s – one of more than a dozen resorts on Gull Lake – is a popular winter destination for snowmobiling, cross country skiing and ice fishing on Big Gull. Director of Golf Jack Wawro often can be found in one of the small sheds on the lake during the winter months.
A Clydesdale-pulled carriage is a great way to get a feel for the resort’s main village. Don’t miss the barbecue sunset cruise on Gull Lake via Cragun’s “North Star’’ luxury yacht. And even novice fishermen will enjoy a guided fishing excursion from one of the area’s expert anglers.
Although founded in 1940 by Merrill K. Cragun Sr. and his wife, Louise, the resort didn’t embrace golf until 1997, when Cragun’s son, known as “Dutch,’’ hired Robert Trent Jones, Jr., to design 36 holes and a par-3 course. The first 18 – the Dutch – opened in 1998, followed by Bobby’s Course and the Legacy Par-3. Each nine-hole layout in the Dutch comes with its own color distinction. For example, “Blue’’ and “White’’ for each of the current layout. The new nine-hole course will be “Red.’’
The sand-based courses put Cragun’s resort on the golf map, but many resort players considered them too difficult because of their large bunkers and forced carries. So, in 2020, Dutch Cragun turned to fellow University of Minnesota alum Lehman, whose son, Sean, had played the Dutch in a practice round for the Minnesota Match Play Championship.
Inside a Private Collection home at Cragun’s Resort (Cragun’s Resort)
Lehman and his design partner, Chris Brands, broke ground in April 2021.
“The first thing Tom did was get rid of the hazards not designed for high-handicap players,’’ Peterson said. “The game is hard enough.’’
The Lehman 18, nearly half of which was created from the original “Bobby’s’’ course, is considered Cragun’s “signature,’’ course. Lehman and Brands removed trees from behind many of the green complexes to open up wider vistas, created larger chipping areas around the greens, and installed a stacked sod system of bunkers (using synthetic soccer field grass) around the greens.
“Tom did a really good job of making it more playable,’’ Wawro said.
Indeed, the par 72 Lehman 18 (7,491 yards from the tips) is a larger-than-life gem to play as its cart paths wind through and around seven miles of Central Minnesota’s hardwood forest, wooded wetlands and Stephens Lake.
“You kind of forget that you’re playing golf because it’s so beautiful,’’ Wawro said.
On the Dutch layouts, Lehman renovated (and improved) each of the nines by widening the fairways, expanding green complexes, removing bunkers, rerouting holes and adjusting tee boxes. The Dutch 18 (soon 27), with its fescue grasses and green complexes, pay homage to Lehman’s 1996 Open Championship victory at Royal Lytham and St. Annes.
The Blue/White course (7,053 yards, par 70) this past Labor Day weekend hosted the CRMC Championship (PGA Tour Americas) won by Denmark’s Frederik Kjettrup.
The Dutch Course
On the Dutch Red, Lehman kept most of the original routing on the front nine of the “Bobby’’ but installed new bunkering, four new greens, and all new green complexes. He also cleared trees and re-shaped holes to create some of the better views on the property.
“Tom widened the fairways where people hit their balls off the tee and widened the green complexes,’’ Peterson said. “Those are the two main things. The Dutch Red ends with a terrific 120-yard, par 3 that plays downhill to a green guarded by a large pot bunker on the left side. It’s a great hole to finish and around or to begin a new nine.
It’s also a great example as to how good the golf is at Cragun’s Resort and in the Brainerd Lakes area.
“I don’t think we received the notoriety when some of the new courses were being built here,’’ in the early 1990s, Peterson said. “It might be the way we are in Minnesota – we’re kind of subdued and forget to tell people about us. We want people to have an amazing time when they come here.
“We have eight golf courses in the Brainer area that are top notch. Some golf groups have been coming to play golf in this area for 20 years. They stay with us, but they play a number of the other courses, too.’’
“To get people to come from other areas outside of Minnesota is really our goal,’’ Wawro said. “Places like Sand Valley (in Nikossa, WI) and Whistling Straits (in Koehler, WI) – they are there already. We’re working our way there.’’