I'm headed up to Duluth in a couple of weeks to play in Northland's member-guest, and I look forward to these annual homecomings the way any of us would savor a return trip to the course where we first learned how to hold a club, line up a putt, eyeball a distance and go for that par 5 in two. Obviously, home-course bias and nostalgia are factors in my assessment, but after almost 50 years of golf, Northland still holds up as one of the best and most unique courses I've ever played.
Sorry that I can't compare and contrast with Rochester, but despite years of wanting to play there, I haven't made the trip yet. Maybe this fall...
Northland's main glories are its topography -- built above and below bluffs that offer spectacular views of Lake Superior -- and its greens, which have not changed substantially since I first saw them in the late '50s. The tilt of the land goes hand in hand with Ross's slightly raised, open-fronted greens to create problems and opportunites that you don't find on many courses. When the course is playing firm and fast -- as it should, and has been the last couple of years -- you can, and probably should, bounce and/or bank approach shots into the greens on #1, #7, #9, #11, #12, #13, #14 and #15.
The front nine essentially plays uphill and away from the lake. The thread about steep uphill holes that work reminded me of several of Northland's best holes: the short, tricky #2 with a severely sloped back-to-front skyline green, the longer #3, with a two-tiered green that can't be seen from the fairway, and the great #10, an uphill dogleg right that requires the two best shots you can hit to reach the elevated green in regulation.
Downhill approach shots are the primary feature of the back nine as you work your way back from above the bluffs toward the clubhouse. Consecutive par 4s 14, 15 and 16 test your club selection skills and your concentration as you try to ignore the views of the lake and figure out the firmness of the greens, the winds and the elevation changes.
I think Northland's 18th hole is perhaps the toughest and best finishing hole in Minnesota. The drive is into a prevailing wind, and the (usually mid-to-long iron) approach shot must carry a deep gully created by a creek. If your approach comes up a foot or two short of the severely pitched green, or comes in with too much spin, you'll roll back down the fairway to the flats by the creek, where you can't see the top of the flagstick. If you you do make the green, you could easily be looking at a putt with 20 feet of break.
Northland is loads of fun and requires great imagination. I can't think of a better way to compliment a golf course.