The 262-acre course in Menomonie, Wis. was recently purchased by Minnesota native Mark Wallskog, who plans to restore and reopen the site after it was closed three years ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The clubhouse and restaurant will reopen this summer, along with the driving range and an events pavilion, but the par-71, 6,327-yard course will have to wait until 2024. “We felt it was a good opportunity for our family to buy and restore the course,” Wallskog says. “A course of this caliber that lies within the city limits of Menomonie is a great asset to the community.”
Mark Wallskog is a Minnesota native, still lives in the Land of 10,000 Lakes and it’s where his business is based, but he has a found a second home, it seems, in Wisconsin, Wisconsin.Golf reported.
His family loves to vacation at their Big Bear Lake cabin in Burnett County in the far northwestern corner of the state, and in 2019 they bought the 700-acre Heartwood Resort & Conference Center north of Trego, nearby in Washburn County, Wisconsin.Golf reported.
Last week he was a little farther south, in Dunn County, already hard at work on his latest Wisconsin connection — the 262-acre Tanglewood Greens golf course in Menomonie that he recently bought and plans to restore and reopen, Wisconsin.Golf reported.
Renovations already were underway in the clubhouse, where he was at a desk in the makeshift office behind plastic sheeting, Wisconsin.Golf reported. The clubhouse and restaurant will reopen this summer, along with the driving range and an events pavilion, but the par-71, 6,327-yard course will have to wait until 2024.
Three years after it was closed in spring 2020 by former owner Rajiv Lall, who cited the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason, it’s in dire need of some TLC, Wisconsin.Golf reported. The course was partially covered in snow at midweek, but bare spots revealed long, matted grass and a parking lot with foot-high weeds.
“The greens and tee boxes will need a complete overhaul. The fairways, we’re not sure,” Wallskog said.
Wallskog, 59, describes himself as a casual golfer and hasn’t previously been involved in the golf industry, but he has been an entrepreneur for more than 25 years, Wisconsin.Golf reported. He started Safe Step, a hotel bathtub refinishing company based in Prior Lake, Minn., in 2000 after his daughter fell on a hotel pool deck, sparking the idea for a new business. Safe Step has gone national and now refinishes 10,000 tubs a month for the Marriott and Hilton hotel chains, he said.
“We felt it was a good opportunity for our family to buy and restore the course,” Wallskog said to Wisconsin.Golf. “A course of this caliber that lies within the city limits of Menomonie is a great asset to the community.”
Tanglewood Greens, which opened in 1976 as a nine-hole course, was advertised for $1.5 million, Wisconsin.Golf reported. A sale price wasn’t disclosed.
Menomonie, a city of about 17,000, has two nine-hole executive courses but no other full-length layout, Wisconsin.Golf reported. The city is 20 miles west of Eau Claire and home to University of Wisconsin-Stout, along with two industrial parks that include 3M, Andersen Windows and a Walmart distribution center.
”We saw this as a good business opportunity. I’m a leader of leaders who listens to people. I’ll surround myself with people who have great knowledge of golf to restore Tanglewood Greens to a premier, championship golf course,” said Wallskog.
One of those people already is on the job, Sammi Folkenson, the new general manager, Wisconsin.Golf reported.
Folkenson, a Roseville, Minn., native, started her career at Oak Glen Golf Club in Stillwater, Minn., which has an 18-hole course and nine-hole executive course, Wisconsin.Golf reported. She was named assistant general manager before she graduated in December 2020 from UW-Stout’s hotel, restaurant and tourism management program. She also took golf enterprise management courses.
“I’m very excited because I love challenges,” Folkenson said. “We’re definitely starting from the ground up here. Our first priorities are getting the bar and restaurant open and the course restoration started.”
She also is excited to reopen the 5,600-square-foot events pavilion at Tanglewood Greens, which Lall had just built before closing the course, Wisconsin.Golf reported. It’s among the reasons Wallskog found the property attractive. The Tanglewood team plans to have live music there and will market it as a wedding and events space. Tanglewood’s 4,700-sq.-ft. clubhouse includes a bar, restaurant, deck and lower-level banquet room.
Folkenson had an events management concentration within her program at UW-Stout, Wisconsin.Golf reported. At Oak Glen, she focused on sales and marketing to help turn around the operation, including pursuing wedding business at the 400-seat events center. She sees a similar opportunity at Tanglewood.
Tanglewood Greens received a Class B combination liquor license in early March from the City of Menomonie.
“Weddings are my niche, and we’ll have such a beautiful space,” she said of the pavilion, which faces west toward the hills of the Red Cedar River valley.
During college, Folkenson completed a Forbes five-star hospitality training course while interning at the Little Nell luxury hotel in Aspen, Colo., Wisconsin.Golf reported.
“The Little Nell provided me with an exceptional foundation in hospitality, and I am so thankful for that opportunity. Patrons there regularly included renowned celebrities and corporate executives. I’m excited to bring this above and beyond, five-star service and my expertise in the golf industry to the community of Menomonie,” she said.
Folkenson and Wallskog hope to collaborate with UW-Stout, which has men’s and women’s NCAA Division III golf teams and the golf and hospitality academic programs, Wisconsin.Golf reported. The golf management program has collaborated with the course in the past. Students have used it as a hands-on location for learning about agronomy, sports event management and course maintenance and had internships there.
Wallskog and Folkenson have met UW-Stout Chancellor Katherine Frank and other key university personnel, Wisconsin.Golf reported. Folkenson has remained connected with faculty in the golf management and hospitality programs.
Wallskog envisions synergy developing between Tanglewood Greens and his Heartwood resort property, which are about 100 miles apart, Wisconsin.Golf reported. “We think owning this golf course will help promote Heartwood. We will co-market Heartwood and Tanglewood,” he said, noting that his company already had been promoting Heartwood in the Eau Claire and Menomonie markets.
In fact, he learned about Tanglewood Greens from Menomonie Mayor Randy Knaack while Knaack was visiting Heartwood, Wisconsin.Golf reported. Knaack was eager to see the course reopened.
Heartwood has 72 guest rooms, lakeside cabins for rent and a central lodge with 10,000 square feet of meeting space, Wisconsin.Golf reported. Amenities include kayak and canoe rentals, a disc golf course and more than 12 miles of mountain biking, hiking and cross country ski trails, some overlooking the Namekagon River valley and others skirting woodland lakes.
The resort’s Journeys bar and grill will host a large concert on Labor Day weekend featuring national acts the Marshall Tucker Band and Hairball, Wisconsin.Golf reported.
Tanglewood has had multiple owners since the original nine, designed by Gordon Emerson of Spring Valley, opened under that name (minus the word Greens) in 1976, Wisconsin.Golf reported. New owners in the 1980s renamed it Rainbow Ridge, and new owners in the 1990s renamed it Chippewa Valley Golf Club.
Eventually it was renamed Tanglewood Greens.
The course expanded from nine to 18 holes in the mid-1990s, Wisconsin.Golf reported. The new holes were designed by owner Jim Kloiber, with 7½ of the original holes remaining, according to the book “Wisconsin Golf Getaways.”
On the southeast edge of Menomonie, Tanglewood Greens has five holes cut through dense woods and several that run along or over ponds and marshes, making for some exacting tee and approach shots, Wisconsin.Golf reported. Others, such as the 600-yard, par-5 seventh and 444-yard 17th, are mostly open. The course is routed across a plateau, hillside and valley.
Jim Maguire was general manager and PGA head professional at Tanglewood Greens before it closed. He has offered his support to Wallskog.
“The course, properly retooled, has the opportunity to be one of the best in the area. It can be very challenging for its length and can also offer a variety of golf aesthetics unique to the property,” said Maguire, who still lives in Menomonie and owns the Wilson Creek Inn restaurant with his wife, Kim.
One of the golfers Tanglewood Greens produced was WSGA Hall of Famer and Menomonie native Ben Walter, Wisconsin.Golf reported. He won the Wisconsin State Open three times (including outdueling Steve Stricker once), played on the Canadian Tour and helped lead the University of Wisconsin to Big Ten titles in 1993 and 1994. He was the 1994 Big Ten individual champion.
“A golf course like Tanglewood is especially important for a community the size of Menomonie,” Maguire said to Wisconsin.Golf. “It brings people together. It supports charities and organizations and high school activities. It brings families together through weddings and family reunions. It can be a unique learning laboratory for UW-Stout. It can be a draw for Menomonie industry as an amenity to retain employees.”
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