Keller Golf Club is located in the St Paul, MN suburb of Maplewood.
Keller is a public course that is run by the Ramsey County Park System. Greens fees are only $35.
Keller was built in 1929 by Paul Coates, an engineer with Ramsey County. With insufficient funds to hire a Professional GC Architect, he volunteered to design Keller on his own. He educated himself with visits on his own dime to both private and public courses around the country. He relied heavily on “Golf Architecture in America” by John C. Thomas Jr. and spent time with Donald Ross at Pinehurst during one of his trips. He stated that he owed Mr. Ross a great deal for the encouragement given by him. He eventually did 16 different routings until he found one that satisfied him. Paul Coates continued to design golf courses in the region through the 1950’s.
Keller was named a “Top 10 public course built from 1895-1930” by Mike Cirba in his interesting thread from last summer:
http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,44812.msg977703.html#msg977703Keller has hosted more professional tournaments than any other course in Minnesota, with professional events (including 2 PGA Championships) played nearly every year from 1930 to 1980. Keller winners who also prevailed at The Masters include Horton Smith (’31 – St Paul Open), Sam Sneed (’49 – Western Open), and Ray Floyd (’65 – St Paul Open Invitational). The LPGA took over from 1973-80, with Beth Daniel winning the last 2 Patty Berg Classics.
I first played Keller in the late 80s, and frankly it was in terrible shape. Paul Diegnau has been the superintendent since ’96. He has done an amazing job at improving the condition of the course and adding beautiful native areas to portions of the course. Paul has confessed that he is a GCA lurker!
The great / terrible par 3 is hole #4 which is 150 yards from the back and 130 yards from the middle tee. The hole is extremely unique and controversial because there is a giant oak tree that sits in front of the green. The oak is believed to be as old as the course is, if not older.
1st timers are a bit confused when they see the hole, because it is so unique, and at first glance appears “unfair”. Despite the visual confusion, a well struck iron with the proper trajectory will make it over the mighty oak.
Here’s the hole from the back tee:
And from the middle tee:
This shot from the side of the green shows that there is plenty of room between the back of the tree and the front of the green:
Here’s another shot from behind the green:
Here’s a satellite photo. After clicking below, click the plus sign/zoom-in on the map for a closer look. You will see that the right side of the green is twice as deep as the left, making it the safest play. And you can see how much room there is between the tree and the green.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Keller+Golf+Course,+Saint+Paul,+MN&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=20.702819,62.314453&ie=UTF8&hq=Keller+Golf+Course,&hnear=St+Paul,+Ramsey,+Minnesota&ll=44.999608,-93.056999&spn=0.002246,0.007607&t=h&z=17I think this is a great par 3!
If you make a good swing you will probably make par. If you miss hit your ball it will bounce around in the tree and you’ll have to scramble to get your bogey.
I do think the hole could be even more interesting by bringing some ground options into play. They could do this by 1) eliminating the sand trap, 2) mowing the rough that lies between the tee box and the green to fairway height, and 3) mowing the hill to the side of the green to fairway height. This would allow the crafty player to bounce the ball onto the green by playing it under the tree or off the hill on the right.
Maybe those are terrible ideas. After all, the whole idea is to get it over the tree!