The 116-year-old Duluth, Minn. club and its Donald Ross course with “panoramic views of Lake Superior” were highlighted as part of a local Fox station’s weekly series. The report included interviews with a 99-year-old, second-generation, 60-year member, and with a former caddiemaster who joined after finishing college and whose wife and five children now use the club’s full range of family amenities.
Northland Country Club in Duluth, Minn., was recently featured in a report as part of the “Northland Uncovered” series aired by Fox 21 KQDS in Duluth.
“In this week’s Northland Uncovered, we take you inside a private country club with views stretching along Lake Superior,” the KQDS report began.
The station interviewed Warren Askeland, who has been a member of Northland for 60 years.
“It’s one of the nicest clubs in the state,” Askeland said. “It’s so good that you won’t have to worry about going someplace else.”
The club features a Donald Ross design with “some of the best views in Duluth,” including “a panoramic view of Lake Superior that has kept golfers on the course for more than a century,” KQDS reported.
“It’s a special thing. There aren’t many courses, especially in the Midwest, that have been around this long,” Gregg McCall, who has been a member for 15 years, told KQDS.
“This golf course is just an absolute hidden gem that a lot of people don’t know about,” added Jennifer Webster O’Connor, Northland’s PGA Head Golf Professional.
“We’ve hosted Western Amateurs, and we’ve hosted on a national stage, [including[ the women’s open for the USGA in 1956,” Webster O’Connor noted
Founded in 1899, this club has had three clubhouses on the same property, KQDS reported. Fires in 1918 and 1973 brought down the first two, and eight years ago, the new clubhouse was built.
“It’s new and updated, but it has the same feel of the old one, and you don’t feel like you’re in a brand new building,” said McCall.
But it’s not the clubhouse or course that makes this place home for long-time members such as the 99-year-old Askeland (who was recently made an honorary member because of his age), KQDS reported.
“I come over here for happy hour almost every day,” said Askeland, who said he joined the club because of his dad.
“I made a lot of friends here. Still have several of them,” he explained. And now he likes to hang out with the “younger guys.” “The guys in their seventies and eighties, they entertain me over here,” Askeland said.
He still remembers when the course had six holes on the other side of the road where Duluth East now sits.
“I never saw the course when it was on that side except when I was walking home from school I’d see where it was, where it had been,” Askeland explained.
McCall also grew up in Duluth and spent many years on the Northland course before becoming a member, KQDS reported.
“I started here in the early ’90s as a caddy, took over as the director of caddies my years through college and then joined as a member right out of college 15 years ago,” McCall said.
Now, he enjoys the club with his family.
“I ended up getting married and have five children now. Now, the reason we’re members is a little different. A lot less golf and a lot more pool, tennis and eating here as a family,” said McCall.
Families take in not just a game of golf, pool time, or a tennis match, but friendships that’ll last a lifetime, KQDS noted.
“There’s a lot of young families that weren’t here 20 years ago when I was growing up,” said McCall.
The club plans to add golf simulators this winter to be able to offer golf leagues year-round, KQDS reported.
The station’s report, which can be viewed at http://www.fox21online.com/features/country-club-becomes-home-away-from-home/34157764, concluded with a message that those interested in becoming members could visit Northland’s website or contacting Ryan Bauers, the club’s Membership Director.
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