Koronis Hills Golf Club in Paynesville is a must-play course: Lieser

If you love golf and need a hug, Cindy Fuchs, the general manager of the Koronis Hills Golf Club in Paynesville, is the person you most likely will meet as you check into play. Fuchs, a 1979 Paynesville High School graduate, has been associated with the local golf club for the past 35 years. She started as a beverage cart girl in the late 1970s and for the last two decades has managed the club for its nearly 200 members.

In a recent conversation with Fuchs, after our scramble team competed in one of many tournaments she efficiently runs, Fuchs talked about what she has witnessed during her tenure and what she has envisioned for the club as the decade advances.

“COVID-19 has been a boon to our increased play the last few years," Fuchs said. "Last year we did 18,000 rounds and the most observable change I noticed was that golf has become more casual than competitive among our members and guests.”

“Five years ago," Fuchs continued, “we hired Ben Arvidson as our course superintendent, and he has brought to our course the expertise he learned at Oxbow CC in Fargo. He and his grounds staff of Jim O’Fallon, Mark Mackedanz, John Herwig, Brad Hanson, Bill Wasik, Norm Wisted, Easton Rindahl, Mike Nehring, Alex Johnson and Connor Gunderson have added a class of conditioning to our course to make it enjoyable and more playable. People rave about their ability and attention to detail to our fairways and they have manicured our greens to be some of the smoothest and quickest in Central Minnesota.”

From my perspective, usually when a course makes a transition from nine to 18 holes, the layout becomes more mundane. Not so at Koronis Hills, since some of the best land which abutted the south side of the original nine was acquired to create the back nine which opened in 1997; holes 10, 11, 12 are a string of three of the finest tree-lined holes in the area. Don’t forget to smell the roses as you play the 17th hole ― one of the most scenic and spectacular 150-yard downhill par threes that Minnesota architect Joel Goldstrand has ever designed.

If any golfer has not played Koronis Hills, which opened in the first year of the Great Depression (1929), make it a must play yet this season. Fuchs will greet you with a hug and a smile and she will thank you for the opportunity to test this esthetic and challenging layout.

Golf notes

To set up a tee time at Koronis Hills, the toll free number is 877-399-2558. The club has three sets of tees and plays 6,218 (Blue), 6,005 (White) & 5,070 (Green). Koronis Hills has a Two-Person 6-6-6 tournament on Sunday, Sept. 11. Call the club to enter.

Bart Bradford is an entrepreneur from Hutchinson. He has patented a golf putting grip called Center Cutt which has a suction cup at its end that allows a golfer with back issues to retrieve the ball from the cup without excessive bending. He’s waiting for the United States Golf Association to approve his invention. The spokesman for the grip is Minnesotan Tim “Lumpy” Herron. Herron, 52, who had four wins on the PGA Tour, has a net worth of $20 million and currently plays on the PGA Senior Tour. To check out the grip and its many color options go to centercutt.com.

Kudos to former three-time Alexandria Resorters champion (1988,1991 and 1997) Rick Frieburg, who shot 75 at Hastings Golf Club on July 27 to secure his spot in the USGA 67th Senior Amateur Championship starting Monday through Sept. 1 at The Kittansett Club located in Marion, Mass.

The $200,000 Canadian PGA Tour event starts its tournament today through Sunday at Cragun’s Legacy Course in Brainerd. Admission is free and if any golfer wants to watch for a half day and then play the unique Gravel Pit, a 13-hole par three course, the two layouts are fewer than five minutes apart.

Club championships are heating up in the area and first to crown its champions was Blackberry Ridge GC in Sartell. Here are the winners from the Aug. 6-7 event: Men’s Champion Logan Hamak, Women’s Champion Abby Legatt, Senior Men’s Champion Joe Blonski (gross) and Andy Sternberg (net), Junior Boys’ Isaac Bergstrom, First Flight Brian Davis, Second Flight Corey Brown and Third Flight Josh Bach.

The St. Cloud Tech Activities Fundraiser Scramble was held at Wapicada Golf Club on Aug. 12 and here are the champions: Joel Buckley, Brian Anderson, Jeff Rydland, and Tom Pearson (Class of '86) shot -14 to prevail among the nearly 150 golfers who competed.

The St. Cloud CC held its club championship last weekend and here are the champions: Women’s Champion Emmy Inderieden, Men’s Champoin David Scharanbroich and Men’s Senior Champion Gerry Stinson.

The Wapicada GC club championship was played on Aug. 20-21 and nearly 100 members competed. The Men’s Championship was won by Daryl Schomer who fired a record -11 for the 45-hole event. It was Schomer’s eighth championship which included a course record 63 (-9) in the Sunday second round. Sam Sommers won her 10th consecutive Women’s title and 14th overall.

Here are the flight winners: Sally Deyak, Women’s Low Net; Sandra Haller, Women’s Senior Champion (low gross); Mary Klis, Women’s Senior Champion (low net); Terry Kurash, Men’s Senior Champion; Terry McGee, Men’s Super-Senior Champion; Mark Kuklock, Men’s President’s (low net); Mark Krueger, Men’s President’s (low gross); Kevin Hemsing, Men’s Senior President’s (low gross); Brian Bluhm, Men’s Senior President’s (low net); Chuck Eliott, Men’s Super-Senior President’s (low gross); Joe Dockendorf, Men’s Super-Senior President’s (low net); Justin Saengchanthalath, Junior Boys’ Champion; Teagan Ruprecht, Junior Girls’ Champion.

If any area club wants to cite its club champions in this column, please send them to me at my e-mail address below when the competition is completed.

— This is the opinion of Times golf columnist John Lieser. Contact him at Jgl1943@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Koronis Hills Golf Club in Paynesville is a must-play course: Lieser