Hacker's Guide Announces 2010 Hacker's Favorite Award Winners for Minnesota

The Hacker's Guide, a Minneapolis-based golf course rating organization, and publisher of the Hacker's Guide to Minnesota & Western Wisconsin Golf Courses, has just announced the 2010 Hacker's Favorite Award winners for Minnesota. These 25 courses represent the best of breed based on total score and their award is a reflection of their excellence when it comes to catering to the needs of average golfers (hackers) across the state:

Coffee Mill (Wabasha) Eagle's Landing (Ft. Ripley)
Little Crow (Spicer) The Jewel (Lake City)
Ruttger's “ The Lake (Deerwood) The Refuge (Oak Grove)
Crosswoods (Crosslake) Breezy Point “ White Birch (Breezy Point)
Falls Country Club (International Falls) Cragun's “ Dutch's (Brainerd)
Wapicada (Sauk Rapids) Territory (St. Cloud)
Cragun's “ Bobby's (Brainerd) Greystone (Sauk Rapids)
River Oaks (Cottage Grove) Deer Run (Victoria)
Purple Hawk (Cambridge) Braemar (Edina)
Grand View “ The Preserve (Pequot Lakes) Rose Lake (Fairmont)
Village Green (Moorhead) The Wilderness (Tower)
Eagle Creek (Willmar) Giant's Ridge “ The Quarry (Biwabik)
Blackberry Ridge (Sartell)

The Hacker's Guide, begun in 2008, rates courses on five different areas, taking into account forty different factors that affect a golfing experience. For the Minnesota guide, members of Team Hacker, a group of more than 55 golfers assigned to rate courses, visited all 248 18-hole public golf courses in Minnesota. For comparison, the two leading golf course review guides are Zagat's and Golf Digest. For the state of Minnesota, Golf Digest lists 121 courses, Zagat's only 17. Hacker's Guide: 248 courses.

The rating system is designed to rate each course on five different categories: hospitality, playability, usability, facility and value. These categories are then weighted and a final score obtained. In addition, each course receives a 400-word review that gives readers insight into each course. Each course was sent a 2010 Hacker's Favorite Award certificate acknowledging their award and hopefully golfers will visit these courses when they choose where to golf this summer.

The Hacker's Guide was the brainchild of Bruce Stasch, a self-describe hacker who noticed a lack of good local golf guides for the average golfer. He published The Hacker's Guide to Twin Cities Golf Courses in 2009 and recently introduced the Hacker's Guide to Minnesota & Western Wisconsin Golf Courses which contain 283 courses -- every 18-hole public golf course in Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

I leafed through all of the major golf magazines, watched Golf Channel® and read any course rating guide I could get my hands on trying to learn about courses in my area. I soon realized that unless it was a review of a top golf course, I couldn't find anything about courses that fit my game or my budget, said an exasperated Stasch. We created Hacker's Guide to be the leading source for information and opinions on local courses.

According to Team Hacker member Dennis Delmont, I read several national golf magazines and cannot relate to the $200 greens fees and $300 a night resorts that they feature. Being a retired police officer, I have the time to play now and, as a member of Team Hacker, I have the opportunity to play courses that are available, affordable and playable for someone with my limited skills and budget.

Even golf courses seem to like the Hacker's Guide. The guide is really accurate and a good reflection of our course, said Beth Bloomquist, clubhouse manager of Viking Meadows in East Bethel, Minnesota. It gives people access to our course so they have an idea of what they can expect when they get here. Playing for the first time is no longer intimidating.

In 2011, the Hacker's Guide will publish the Hacker's Guide to Midwest Golf Courses, a huge book of every public 18-hole golf course in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa for a total of almost 700 courses. This book, without question, will be the largest and most ambitious golf course rating project ever undertaken in the five-state Midwest region.

About the Hacker's Guide:
The Hacker's GuideTM is the first complete state-by-state golf course rating system since the United States Golf Association established par and slope ratings. Starting with the Twin Cities Metro area as a test market, the Hacker's Guide is being rolled out to eventually include a review of the close to 9,000 public eighteen-hole golf courses nationwide.

The Hacker's Guide to Minnesota and Western Wisconsin Golf Courses ($19.95) and the Hacker's Guide to Twin Cities Golf Courses ($14.95) are both being distributed by Adventure Publications from Cambridge, Minnesota, the region's leading distributor of local titles, and can be found at major retailers like Barnes & Noble, Borders, Nevada Bob's, Holiday Stationstores, Love from Minnesota, online at Amazon.com, area golf courses or at www.hackersguides.com and www.hackerscentralonline.com.

About Hacker's Guide Founder:
Bruce Stasch, is the founder of Apex Golf Enterprises and originator of the Hacker's GuideTM a rating system which has been created to rate all eighteen-hole public golf courses in the country and eliminate the mystery of choosing a golf course appropriate for a golfer's game. In addition, he operates a blog and podcast about golf and equipment called Golf Gear News, and he is a frequent contributor to Tee Times Minnesota Golf & Living, Worldgolf.com and Minnesota Meetings & Events. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with his wife Eve and two dogs BJ and Annie.

Contact:
Bruce Stasch
Apex Golf Enterprises
Minneapolis, MN 55412
612-386-9062
ultimatehacker@hackersguides.com
http://www.hackersguides.com