Until this week, I’d never played Golf in Minnesota. But I’m happy that I started with the state’s newest course, The Lehman 18, one of the Legacy Courses at Cragun’s Resort in Brainerd.

Named after its designer, Minnesota native and renowned Tour pro Tom Lehman, the 7,401-yard layout (from the tips) has been available for play since last fall. But its grand opening was this week. And the course – which meanders around a spacious 1,000-acre sanctuary of wetlands and woods – is nothing short of excellent.

It has large, undulating greens that roll remarkably true. Many of them have several tiers, yet none of the breaks our group experienced were unreasonable or completely unpredictable. The wide fairways are generous with respect to tee shot landing areas, but there are also sneaky side openings where shots can kick out easily into the rough. The scenery is spectacular, especially on the holes that border the massive Stephens Lake. The bunkers have short sidewalls up top, which apparently is a Lehman trademark. And the land is much more open than I originally thought. Thanks to the backdrop, you genuinely feel like you’re in an isolated nature preserve on several of the holes. And there’s more elevation than you might expect from a Northern Minnesota course. With the selection of tee boxes to play, I think this is going to be a fun and playable course for every skill level.

“Having grown up 90 minutes from here, it’s great to return to be a part of this resort’s golf legacy,” says Lehman. While it’s a brand-new course, several of the holes sit on what were the fairway corridors of a previous course. It was all part of a multi-million dollar renovation.

Its sister layout, The Dutch Course – originally a Robert Trent Jones, Jr. design from 1997 – that annually hosts the PGA TOUR Canada’s CRMC Championship presented by Gertens, debuted its renovated Blue Nine earlier this summer. The Championship layout (Blue and White Nines) stretches to 7,001 yards. While it has some similarities to The Lehman 18 – they’re both in top condition from tee to green – it has its own personality and challenges. I found it to be tougher to score on, too. Whether that’s because of my game or not, The Dutch Course is definitely demanding of well-played shots.

Coming next year is the Red Nine, which is also being aggressively renovated by Lehman. I took a golf cart tour of it and am impressed by the routing. I’d definitely like to come back at some point when there are 45 outstanding holes on property. “We ended up probably renovating 31 holes and building 14 new ones,” says Lehman. “A very large project spanning really three years. In Minnesota, you’re limited obviously with the weather but you know we had beautiful topography on a beautiful sand base out there that’s so easy to work with. We were very motivated to make sure we didn’t leave any stone unturned. I would like to see this place recognized as one of the great places to play golf in the region.” Mission accomplished.

The resort is located on Gull Lake and offers a variety of restaurants. Yes, you’ll find pan-seared walleye on the menus. My favorite meals were the pot roast at Irma’s Kitchen and the prime rib on the resort’s dinner boat sunset cruise around Gull Lake. The latter was the perfect way to end our two-day stay at the resort, where there’s also a wide array of outdoor activities for individuals, families and groups, including a mile-long sandy beach, biking, hiking trails, pickleball and watersports. While our group stayed in golf-centric houses on property, guests can also find accommodations in the form of main lodge rooms and private cabins that overlook the lake.