Mankato Memorial Field Golf Course
Paperwork approved: 10/21/35 + 5/17/39
Cost: $12,610 + 6,844Architect:
Holes: 9 (now holes
Opened: Summer 1936 or 1942
Closed: 1944
Population of 1930: 14, 028
Now you see it. Now you don’t.
Maybe it was a slight suggestion of future problems, but locals called the location where they built the course, The “Slough.” After the course was built, the Mankato a local paper relates one city council member wanted a lake, and another wanted a course, and both got their wish - they took a boat ride in March 1936, but were playing golf on Memorial Field a month later. However, confusingly, the Mankato paper’s report on a council meeting in 1942, says the Memorial Field golf course would be opened that spring.
Unfortunately, the water/mud/weed problems persisted after the course was built. The Park Commissioner reported to the Council in 1943 the problem is not just the Minnesota River backing up, but there was a large watershed draining onto the course causing it to be underwater on more than one occasion. Compounding the problem of water on the course, a city tractor had been stuck twice on the course - this caused the greens and fairways to become overgrown with weeds. One does like a little bit of ‘rough’ on a course, but not on your greens or fairways.
The city council had a special meeting on the course in August of 1943, when it was decided not to spend any more money on the course. This set the final stage, and in what is probably one of the shortest WPA projects on record, the course went away and by 1944, it went down the drain.
They must have solved the water problems, Mankato West High School athletic fields, Stolzman Park an a large unoccupied area south and southeast of the park are located on this same property now.
Check out Joe Bissen's book, Fore! Gone. Minnesota's Lost Golf Courses, 1897-1999, for more info on this course.