Minnehaha Country Club

Minnehaha Country Club. . In 1905 a few Sioux Falls men set out for a round of golf on a primitive nine-hole course situated on 40 acres of what was then the southern edge of Sioux Falls , now the McKennan Park area. It was the beginning of the Minnehaha Country Club (MCC), the first private golf club in Sioux Falls., When 20 acres of that land was willed to the city to be used as a park in 1906, the club leased private land just to the east of the park. The club ran informally for several years until members of the MCC voted on May 20, 1913, to incorporate. In the early years, a certificate of membership in MCC cost $100. Annual dues for certificate members were $35., In 1914 the club purchased land southwest of downtown Sioux Falls south of 22nd Street and west of what became Kiwanis Avenue. The land was developed into a nine-hole golf course. The club moved to this site in 1917 and began construction of a colonial-style clubhouse. While most courses of the day had oiled sand or dirt greens, the MCC golf course boasted the first grass greens in the state., Appreciation to 2004 MCC Directors Kent Cutler, Tom Graham, Jerry Awe, Dan Kirby, Mark Vanden Berge and the MCC 100th Anniversary Committee and its Chairperson Mary Jane Fenn. , The club purchased additional land nearer the Big Sioux River in 1921, expanding the golf course to 18 holes. The expansion was designed and executed by nationally known landscape engineers and golf course architects William B. Langford and Theodore Moreau. Considered to have a premier golf course in the region, MCC hosted its first of many South Dakota state tournaments in 1927 and has hosted national qualifier tournaments throughout its history., Over the years the Minnehaha Country Club became a center of social life in Sioux Falls. A new clubhouse, designed by architect Harold Spitznagel, was built in 1964-65. It was in that clubhouse in 1971 that members of MCC were instrumental in officially forming the South Dakota Golf Association., The Minnehaha Country Club has also provided an oasis of green space within the city of Sioux Falls. In order to preserve and enhance wildlife habitat and protect natural resources, in 1999 MCC was the first club in South Dakota and the 181st in the world to receive designation as a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary.