Golden Eagle Golf Club

The Brainerd Lakes Area has long been one of Minnesota's premier golf destinations, drawing players from the Twin Cities and beyond to its mix of resort courses and wooded retreats. Fifty Lakes sits on the quieter eastern fringe of that corridor, where the lake-dense landscape of Crow Wing and Cass counties gives the region its character — glacial terrain, stands of birch and pine, and water that seems to appear around every bend.

Golden Eagle Golf Club carries the feel of a classic Minnesota north woods course: a layout that works with the land rather than against it, where elevation changes shaped by glacial activity and mature tree lines do the heavy lifting. Courses in this part of the state tend to reward shot-making over raw power, with fairways that funnel toward water hazards and greens that demand local knowledge.

For Twin Cities golfers making the drive north, this is the kind of destination that fits naturally into a long weekend on the lakes — golf in the morning, a boat on the water by afternoon.