Twin Cities Metro Golf Living Guide

Golf in the Twin Cities Metro splits cleanly into two eras and models. The older era is a set of century-old, member-owned private clubs (Woodhill, Wayzata Country Club, Spring Hill, Dellwood, Interlachen, Hazeltine National) built by and for an already-established, affluent clientele, with no developer-built residential component -- these clubs are destinations in their own right (Hazeltine has hosted two U.S. Opens, two PGA Championships, two U.S. Women's Opens, and the 2016 Ryder Cup, with 2029 to follow; Interlachen hosted the 1930 U.S. Open, a leg of Bobby Jones's Grand Slam) but the homes around them were independently built by many different owners and builders over decades, not sold as part of a unified real estate development. The newer era, largely mid-1980s through 2000, is a set of genuinely developer-organized golf communities -- North Oaks (1950s planned city), Wedgewood/Prestwick (1984 master plan), The Wilds (1995 course, master-planned community built alongside it), and TPC Twin Cities/Deacon's Walk (2000, built the same year as the course) -- where the golf course and the surrounding housing were conceived and marketed together, even though the specific access terms differ meaningfully from one to the next.

Golf-oriented buyers evaluating the Twin Cities Metro are really choosing between distinct county-level pockets:

- **North Oaks (Ramsey County, north metro).** A private, entirely privately-roaded planned city built around North Oaks Golf Club; among the highest median home values in the metro. - **Prior Lake (Scott County, south metro).** The Wilds' mixed-housing master-planned community, now paired with a public/daily-fee golf club following a 2025 ownership change. - **Blaine (Anoka County, north metro).** Deacon's Walk and the private, invitation-only TPC Twin Cities, home of the PGA Tour's 3M Open. - **Woodbury (Washington County, southeast metro).** The large, mature Wedgewood community built around the public Prestwick Golf Club. - **Lake Minnetonka west-metro suburbs (Hennepin County) and Chaska/Edina.** Home to the market's historic old-guard private clubs (Woodhill, Wayzata Country Club, Spring Hill, Hazeltine National, Interlachen) -- researched here and confirmed to have no developer-built residential tie, so none are documented as anchors in this guide.

No Twin Cities Metro golf property researched here bundles club membership automatically with a home purchase. North Oaks and TPC Twin Cities/Deacon's Walk both require a separate, paid, often-sponsored membership application regardless of residency. The Wilds and Prestwick/Wedgewood are, as of this research, public/daily-fee facilities with no membership exclusivity at all -- their residential relevance runs through genuine master-plan design and HOA structure rather than golf access. Several nationally significant clubs (Hazeltine National, Interlachen) were confirmed to have no developer-built residential real estate arm despite major tournament pedigree, and several old-guard clubs (Woodhill, Wayzata Country Club, Spring Hill, Dellwood) were confirmed private and historic with no residential development tie at all.

Home prices vary enormously by submarket: North Oaks runs roughly $600K to $2M+ on large private-road estate lots; The Wilds spans roughly $280K (condos/townhomes) to $890K+ (custom single-family); Deacon's Walk runs roughly $290K to $638K+ on select golf-frontage walkout lots; and Wedgewood runs roughly $440K to $638K+ across its 958 homes. None of these prices reflect a golf-membership premium bundled into the sale -- they reflect each community's own housing stock and master-plan design.

Beyond golf, this market's researched communities offer trail networks and conservation land (North Oaks), proximity to Mystic Lake Casino (The Wilds/Prior Lake), lake-country trail and park systems (Deacon's Walk/Blaine), and an extensive master-planned park system (Wedgewood/Woodbury).

The Twin Cities Metro golf-residential landscape spans four distinct counties in a rough ring around Minneapolis-St. Paul: Ramsey County to the north (North Oaks), Anoka County to the north/northeast (Blaine/Deacon's Walk), Scott County to the south (Prior Lake/The Wilds), and Washington County to the southeast (Woodbury/Wedgewood), with the historic old-guard club cluster concentrated in western Hennepin County around Lake Minnetonka and in Chaska (Carver County) and Edina (Hennepin County).