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The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board announced this week it will reduce the size of a historic south Minneapolis golf course to cope with flooding and groundwater issues.
Board superintendent Al Bangoura said the park board will reduce the historic Hiawatha Golf Course from 18 to nine holes. Bangoura introduced a series of three new design concepts intended to mitigate flooding at the golf course at a news conference on Thursday.
“We’re going to try to work with Mother Nature and work together to really improve this course. The course will be more resilient to floods, the park will be more welcoming to more people and the area’s ecology will drastically improve,” said Bangoura.
The course, which has ties to the Twin Cities Black community, was built out of a marsh more than a century ago.
To mitigate flooding over the years, Bangoura said the park board has built a giant berm — a raised strip of land — and brought in fill to raise the elevation of the golf course. He said the park board has installed water pumps and moved more than 200 million gallons of water from the course annually. Bangoura said the park board “fought back Mother Nature, and Mother Nature had won.”
Joined by park board staff and a golf course architect, Bangoura introduced three new design plans. Each of the concepts proposes to expand wetlands and marshes — features that are enhanced by flooding.
In 2018, the park board announced a plan that called for the golf course size to be reduced to address flooding issues. Activists and environmental groups supported the plan, which called for reducing the number of holes at the golf course. The park board’s plan had been shelved and revived multiple times to allow for one that might preserve the historic course. In 2022, the park board voted in favor of a plan for a 9-hole course.
For several years, members of the Twin Cities Black community have rallied behind an effort to preserve the course at 18 holes. In 2023, the National Park Service listed the course on the National Register of Historic Places, a campaign led by Minneapolis-based Bronze Foundation president Darwin Dean.
Dean remains opposed to the park board’s plan to reduce the course.
“The community has said over and over they don't want to change Hiawatha Golf Course, yet MPRB has refused to listen,” Dean wrote in an email.
Dean maintains that reducing the course to nine holes would prevent competitive play at the annual tournament the foundation has hosted at the course for decades.
The foundation has hired a design firm and proposed an alternative plan for the golf course. Dean said that plan would address flooding issues and preserve the existing 18-hole course.
Bangoura stated Thursday that the park board intends to move forward with the course’s renovation.
“I understand very clearly the history of this golf course and what it means to the Black golfers, and for me as a person of color, too. But I also know that change is hard, but I believe this is the way forward for this golf course,” said Bangoura.
Tyler Pederson is a design project manager with the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board. At the news conference on Thursday, Pederson said each of the concepts proposed by the park board preserves the Twin Cities Black community’s historic connection to the course.
"We're really focusing on the beginning stages of a golfer's golfing career. Rather than focusing maybe on the experts getting better, we really want to focus on bringing more youth to the golf course,” Pederson said.
Solomon Hughes Sr. plays at the Hiawatha Golf Course. Hughes was a golf pro who was the first to challenge racial segregation at course's clubhouse successfully. Community activism led the park board to rename the clubhouse in honor of Hughes in the spring of 2021.
The proposed redesign of the course includes a concept that would allow the nine-hole course to be played as an “18-hole experience.” The new concepts also include plans for winter recreation, including trails for cross-country skiing.
Pederson said the park board will need to raise more than $40 million to renovate the course. He estimated that work could begin as early as 2030.
Hiawatha will remain an 18-hole course until the funding for its renovation has been secured.
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