Congratulations are in order.  We just turned over the files to the printer for Hacker's Guide to Twin Cities Golf Courses.  The first in what hopes to be a long series of golf course ratings guides. Since 87 courses is not even 1% of the total number of golf courses in the United States, based on my calculations, it will only take us 161 years to visit them all.  No problem. 

Since conceiving this idea in January, 2008, the book is scheduled to be completed before the end of January, 2009. I just realized that it really took a year to complete.  Going into this I didn't have a clue what was required nor how much time it would take.  Insanely, I even thought that rating every course in Minnesota would't be that difficult since there are only 440 courses to visit. Fortunately, I came to my senses quickly and decided to use the Twin Cities as the test market.

I also met with my distribution partner and they are exited about selling the book and anticipate that folks will be able to find it in all the usual places like Borders, Barnes & Noble, Walgreens, some Holiday stores as well as online at Amazon.com.  They also intend to call on golf courses in the hopes that they will have it available at their front desk right where you check in. I'll keep you posted as we learn more.

 

We recently completed a new sales sheet for the Hacker's Guide to Twin Cities Golf Courses that should give everyone the basics on the book and what it is about.  We've only got the cover to show you because we are still working on the rest of it with a deadline to the printer of the first week of December.  Wish us luck.

Here is the link to the sales sheet -- Download here.

 

 

Here in Minnesota we never know when we are going to see our first snowfall so the race to complete the Twin Cities golf course review was down to the wire.  Team Hacker members drove more than 3500 miles crisscrossing the Twin Cities, personally visiting every one one of the 87 golf courses within the 11-County Metro Area. Members traveled from Ramsey to Cottage Grove, Chaska to Stillwater playing each course and rating their experience.

So a big shoutout to all of the Team Hacker members that were willing to give us their opinions on area golf courses.

The next step is now underway with our design and production gnomes starting to layout the book and create a very cool cover design that you are going to really like.  We've lined up a printer, an illustrator and a designer and we're are rolling along.

The book called the Hacker's Guide to Twin Cities Golf will be ready to go before the Minnesota Golf Show at the Metrodome in late February, 2009.  Start planning today who will need a new golf guide.  I can think of dozens of dads, uncles, grandfathers, nephews, moms, nieces and others that need this guide.

 

We actually had 77 people sign up with us since June 1st, so because of the success we have had with signing up new members of Team Hacker, we've decided to close entry to the team for 2008.  That doesn't mean you can't sign up to be a part of the team in 2009, but it is just that we've got more response that we ever expected and we don't have enough rating slots for everyone at this point.

We are expecting to finish all of the course ratings for the Twin Cities by the end of October and next year, we will start visiting all of the courses in outstate Minnesota and Western Wisconsin. 

Thanks to everyone that signed up and joined Team Hacker in 2008!

 

Team Hacker has been very busy in August visiting and rating courses across the Twin Cities. We've completed reviews for the following courses:

Baker National (Medina), Columbia (Minneapolis), Monticello Country Club (Monticello), Greenhaven (Anoka), Valleywood (Apple Valley), Riverwood National (Otsego), Applewood Hills (Stillwater), Manitou Ridge (White Bear Lake), Logger's Trail (Stillwater), Victory Links (Blaine), Kilkarney Hills (River Falls, WI), Ridges at Sand Creek (Jordan), Daytona (Dayton), Theodore Wirth (Minneapolis), Chomonix (Lino Lakes), Como Golf Course (St. Paul) and Sawmill (Stillwater).

We also have the following courses scheduled for visits during the next week:

Dahlgreen (Chaska), River Oaks (Cottage Grove), Meadowbrook (Hopkins), Pioneer Creek (Maple Plain), Vintage (Otsego), Oak Glen (Stillwater), Southern Hills (Farmington), Eagle Valley (Woodbury), Dwan (Bloomington), Majestic Oaks (Ham Lake) and Elk River (Elk River).

If my numbers are correct, that makes 28 courses that will be reviewed by Labor Day.

Way to go Team Hacker!!

 

As we go out and rate courses in the Twin Cities this summer, people ask me why are we doing this? Well, one reason is an example that I bring to your attention on how Golf Digest rates the top Minnesota courses. I'm not going to get into my complaint about how they derived their scores in the first place. That is a discussion for another blog post.

According to their list (the latest I could find was 2005-2006) the Top 20 Golf Digest Golf Courses in Minnesota List is made up of 12 private courses, 5 resort courses and only 3 public courses. Only one of them, The Legends in Prior Lake, is accessible to a hacker in the Twin Cities (the other two are in Fifty Lakes near Brainerd and a second near Morton).

Aside from the distance a hacker has to go to play a top course that is open to the public, the cost makes you think twice ($79-119 on the weekends). I’m all for beautiful and challenging courses, but for typical golfers, driving too far, paying too much and playing poorly doesn’t seem to justify playing the top courses in Minnesota.

It’s better to stick closer to home in my opinion.

 

Things are moving along fast and furious. We just signed up three new raters and that makes 34 golfers willing to become a member of Team Hacker. Also, we've just completed three more course reviews: Columbia (Minneapolis), Applewood Hills (Stillwater) and Riverwood National (Otsego).

It's interesting to note where these golfers are coming from. Of the 34 we've signed up, our raters come from 24 different cities. We've also got members from Rochester and Detroit Lakes.

One thing we decided to add to our official course list are public 18-hole executive courses. We've just recently reviewed Applewood Hills and we have Vintage (Otsego) on the agenda. If its got at least 18-holes, we feel that it should be a part of Hacker's Guide.

 

Thought everyone would like an update of how we are doing.  You've been reading Tee Times magazine because we've been getting a lot of interest from our ad.  Its a great publication about local Minnesota golf so if you haven't read it before, pick one up at your local golf course.  I've seen it at every course that we've reviewed. The editor told me that he's increasd his circulation to 25,000.

We now have 31 people that have signed up to be golf course reviewers. Not all of them are out there reviewing courses, but we're getting them trained as fast as possible.  In most cases, we have our new guys rate one of the courses with 2-3 others and if their ratings seem consistent with the others as well as if their written review is good, we'll turn them loose to do them on their own.

We've also completed reviews of the following courses: Monticello Country Club (Monticello), Greehaven (Anoka), Baker National (Medina), Valleywood (Apple Valley), and Manitou Ridge (White Bear Lake). We'll soon be visiting five more so the reviews are coming in pretty quick.

 

With our AdWords promotion and the ad that just ran in the July issue of Tee Times (did you see it), we've had a lot of interest from golfers that want to join Team Hacker. Just this past week we've added seven new candidates across the Twin Cities and we will be running two golf course reviews this weekend with some of these folks.

Also, we've started contacting the golf courses directly asking if they would be willing to have us visit their course to conduct a review. Seven of these courses have already said "anytime, just send someone out". The courses are as diverse as The Ridges at Sand Creek in Jordan, Columbia in Minneapolis and River Oaks in Cottage Grove.

We are staring to pick up speed and we now have 18 golfers that are looking to join Team Hacker.

Keep up the good work guys!

 

To attract writers to Team Hacker, we've placed an ad in the July issue of the local golf publication Tee Times Minnesota Golf & Living Magazine. It is a monthly tabloid publication with 22,000 circulation and you can find it at most local golf stores and many golf courses across the Twin Cities. If you see our ad, tell us about it.