I looked at a couple courses for Sunday morning and decided to book a round at The Ridge Golf Club. The reviews looked good and the course is only about an hour and fifteen minutes southeast of Sioux Falls. From Sioux Falls there are a couple ways to get to Sioux Center, where The Ridge is located. Naturally, I took the way with the most turns and somehow found myself on a dirt road for part of the drive.

Anyway, after driving through many cornfields I made it to Sioux Center, which has a population of about 8,000. Needless to say, I wasn’t expecting much from the golf course by the time I arrived. However, The Ridge turned out to be a great course and a completely unexpected find.

The course is in a community and has a prairie-style feel to it. It is a newer course – opened in 2009 – and was designed by Jerry Slack. Slack isn’t a widely-known designer, with probably less than ten courses in his portfolio. The design might have some plain features for those who closely follow golf course architecture, but I didn’t have any complaints.

The Ridge has a number of things going for it including its great look with water, mounding, fescue and nice bunkering. Things are pretty open here and generally speaking, I found the playability to be good. The conditioning was excellent as well and the back nine has a handful of fun holes.

The front nine isn’t anything too memorable since it is flatter, although the opening two holes are solid. From the gold tees the 1st is a 540 yard par-5 that can be reachable with the wind. I’m not the longest hitter, but managed to get it up close to the green in two shots since it was downwind. The 2nd is a long par-3 over water and while the water shouldn’t be play, it can be with a jittery swing early in the round.

The back nine is where The Ridge shines. The back has more terrain change and has the course’s two signature holes – the 11th and 12th. The 11th is a 445 yard par-4 with one of the course’s many wider fairways. After the drive most golfers will have a long iron into a narrow green that has bunkers to the right and water to the left. A waterfall sits at the back of the green so a pinpoint iron shot is needed. The 12th is another long par-3 over water and has a wide green. It was 220 yards with plenty of wind but can play up to 243 yards!

From the gold tees the course has a rating of 73.0 and a slope of 127. It plays 6,808 yards while the black tees are 7,209 yards. The difficultly comes from the many long holes, multiple water hazards and I’m sure the normally windy conditions. As you’ll see in the pictures there is a lot of room to track down a wayward shot. The bunkers are flatter and the greens don’t have as much contour as the typical modern course. Those things likely lead to the lower slope.

The maintenance was flawless, especially for the $50 walking rate. The greens were some of the best I’ve putted on in quite a while. They were pure and fast. The fairways and tees were full. Considering how lush the course was, you’d never know winter was a thing.

The Ridge is one of those courses that builds up the excitement throughout the round. I know everyone won’t love it because of the flatter greens and a few long forced carries, but I think the course is a borderline hidden gem. If you don’t mind driving I’d recommend a round here and look forward to returning.

Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):