History of Mississippi National Golf Links

The five-year lease with the Red Wing Municipal Golf Corporation (RWMGC) was set to expire in 2018 and the City Council approved a three-year lease extension that runs through the 2021 golfing season. The lease extension provides time to thoroughly study the operations and capital improvement challenges that must be addressed for the future of the course.

The city hired J.J. Keegan, a professional golf course strategist to complete a study and make recommendations and this report was presented at a council workshop held on June 17, 2019. In 2019, the City Council intends to develop a short- and long-range plan for the golf course.

Mississippi National Golf Course was originally constructed as an 18-hole golf course in 1986 and was later expanded into 27 holes in 1992 and 36 holes in 1998. From 1986 until 2012, the public course was operated by Wendell Pittinger through a lease arrangement. Unfortunately, by the mid-2000s it was increasingly clear that overall participation in golf had plateaued and even started to decline on a per capita basis.

To address what appeared to be an increasingly desperate situation, Mr. Pittinger asked to re-negotiate the lease for a longer-term and then went one step further and approached the City about buying the course. He ceased operating the course and stepped away after selling off equipment.

After conducting a request for proposals in 2013, the City worked closely with local residents to lease the property to the MWMGC. That lease has now been extended through the 2021 golfing season.

Below are links to various documents that help to provide historical and background information about how the golf course was initially acquired, restrictions that are placed on various parcels that make up the course, and the 2013 study that was completed by Schoenbauer Consulting LLC. This background information was compiled during the 2011 – 2013 golf course discussion.