June 2023 Newsletter

Far up in the deep blue sky,
Great white clouds are floating by;
All the world is dressed in green;
Many happy birds are seen,
Roses bright and sunshine clear
Show that lovely June is here.”
— F. G. Sanders

I've truly appreciated the warm weather and longer days that June brought us. Longer days mean more golf, and that's what we've all been waiting for here at The Wilderness! At home, it just means my daughter gets to argue about going to bed while it's still light! I'm going to remind her about it in December when it's dark at 5pm...I'll let you know how that goes! Please read on for some news and golf tips from General Manager Joe Wisocki and an update from Course Superintendent Trevor Rintala.

I can't wait to see you!

Rebekah Tweten
The Wilderness at Fortune Bay
Director of Sales & Marketing

June from the General Manager’s Desk
Well, the golf season is off to a fabulous start with so many guests enjoying great weather and excellent course conditions. I don’t say this often, but we really needed some rain in the area! I kept asking Mother Nature to help Trevor and our course & grounds team out from 12:00-4:00am, but she hadn't seemed to hear me. Well, she finally listened, (except for the time of day!) and poured four out of the last seven days in June.

It’s hard to believe that professional golf has already crowned three Major Champions with Jon Rahm at the Masters, Brooks Koepka at the PGA, and Wyndham Clark at the US Open. It will be interesting to see if anyone can grab a second major for the year during the 2023 Open Championship held July 16th through July 23rd at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England. Who’s your choice a first-time winner or current major champion?

I had the great pleasure of getting fit for the new Titleist Irons a few days ago. I was extremely surprised by the feel of each of the new T-Series heads from T100’s the players blade to the T150’s, a little more forgiving players blade, and T200’s, another great forged iron with forgiveness. In the end, I decided on the new T350’s, a forged game improvement iron. Please feel free to reach out with any questions regarding this new series of irons.

Please remember we have a 48-hour cancellation/modification policy for tee times if plans or group sizes change. This allows other golfers the opportunity to book tee times and enjoy a great day of golf, too. Also, guests who book 36 holes on the same day will be required to pay for both rounds at the time of check-in, before the first round of the day. Finally, please remember The Wilderness doesn’t allow outside food and beverage on the property. Thank you for your cooperation.

The Wilderness Grill is enjoying a successful reopening so far this season with guests enjoying breakfast, lunch, and dinner featuring Chef Mitch’s blueberry flapjack cake, esquites salad, corn chowder, seared scallop fettucine, and, of course, Northern Minnesota’s favorite, walleye paired with a bottle of Witness Mark Chardonnay. Another option is The Far North BLT, and to end the dining experience, the S’mores Brownie with a godfather will make for the perfect day or night out. So, make sure to call 218-753-7804 today to make your dining reservations and enjoy our breath-taking views from both in the clubhouse and outside on the patio.

Here are some words of wisdom from my 31 years of being a golf professional (with numerous students on the practice tee) to help lower your scores and make your rounds more enjoyable.

The Set-Up: How to create good posture.
Posture is important because the swing is, in many respects, a geometric movement. There are certain angles involved that must be set correctly at address, and then maintained to produce a repeating swing and a controlled ball-flight. Specifically, creating and maintaining a consistent spine angle is one of the keys to repeating a good turn and to swinging the club on the proper plane. It also determines your ability to remain in balance, which is vital as you increase your speed through the ball.

This simple routine will help you create a good posture:
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, toes turned out 20 or 30 degrees, and hands on hips. From here, bend gently from the hips, stick your rear-end out, and flex your knees slightly feel your weight in the balls of your feet. Sense a little pressure on your thighs. Finally, let your arms just hang in front of your body. Relax your neck muscles, slide the right hand beneath the left (to the position it would assume on the club) and ease your left hip “up” so that it is set slightly higher than the right. Check your profile in a mirror.

The right side of your body should now be in a fairly passive position, which is important for the right-handed player. Your weight should be centered on the balls of your feet, underneath your shoelaces. (You ought to be able to rock back and forth, from the toes to the heels – that indicates good balance.) The lower part of your back should be straight, and your chin perked “up.” This gives you freedom to turn. This posture will remain the same with all full swings from the longest club, your driver, to the shorter clubs, such as your wedges.

Once again, it's such a great honor to be back at Minnesota’s premier golf destination and thank you for getting the 2023 golf and dining season off to such a great start!

Fairways & Greens,
Joe Wisocki, Certified PGA Professional

Wilderness Superintendent Trevor Rintala
It would appear that we went from winter right to spring in the matter of a month, drought stress seems to be the theme for golf courses this year as the lack of rain is ubiquitous. We have been watering to the best of our ability but we had been riddled with multiple issues along the way.

A local construction crew drilled through our 12” mainline crippling our irrigation system.
Luckily my assistant Michael Galindo and myself have been in situations like this before, and we knew just what it would take to have the system up and running by the following evening.

But the fun didn’t stop there! A severely neglected irrigation system over the past 4 years had to be completely worked through to find all the overgrown sprinkler heads and fix all of its many issues. Aerification holes were made in an attempt to get water to percolate down into the root zone of the plants. We even utilized an application nozzle and applied wetting agents to the turf.

Fun Fact: Did you know that holes 7, 8, and 16 were the first holes constructed on the golf course back in 2002?! A coarser soil was selected to form these holes while the construction crew sought a more suitable source of topsoil before continuing. Fast forward to 2023 and we now find that those three holes dry out days sooner than all the rest...the more you know!

In other news the crew from Mesabi Bituminous made an appearance one evening and finalized the repairs on the 9th hole cart path.

It’s been a long hot month thus far but we are winning the war against drought one drop at a time. With July just around the corner, we are standing by, hoses in hand, ready for rain. As we approach our 33rd consecutive day without a drop of moisture, we are thankful for the irrigation system we have knowing that not all of our fellow superintendents are so fortunate. But I rest assured knowing that dry turf is strictly cosmetic. It's irritating to say the least but doesn’t affect playability. In fact, before fairway irrigation was available, most course records were set during the hottest, driest of days; that allowed a short drive from a wood driver to roll a country mile. Strange how this game of ours has changed over the years!

As always, I’ll see you out there on the short stuff!

The Wilderness Superintendent,
Trevor Rintala