"We hate seeing golf courses getting turned into data centers or housing developments," Kevin Unterreiner told the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal when Thompson Golf Group closed on The Wilds Golf Club last year. It's the kind of line that sounds like a talking point until you remember how many Twin Cities courses actually have disappeared that way. The Wilds didn't. It sold for $7.7 million after five years on the market, and more than a year into new ownership, the course is quietly playing its best golf of the season right when most Prior Lake golfers have already mentally checked out for the year.
That's the part worth knowing if you live here and haven't picked up a club since the Fourth of July.
A Course That Almost Went a Different Direction
The Wilds sits across from Mystic Lake Casino on Wilds Ridge, a Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish design that opened in 1996 and has spent three decades ranked among Minnesota's better public layouts. Unterreiner said the deal to buy it had been in the works for two years before it closed, and Thompson's interest wasn't incidental. The company's roots are in Alexandria, where it also owns Geneva Golf Club, and The Wilds became its second Minnesota property.
The point of raising the sale isn't nostalgia. It's that the ownership change is old news by now, which means there's been enough time to see whether the promised improvements actually happened or just sounded good in a press release.
What Actually Changed on the Ground
They happened. Golfer reviews posted through 2026 describe a course that looks and plays differently than it did under the previous ownership group, and the specifics line up with what Thompson announced when the sale closed:
- A full bunker renovation is done, and reviewers specifically call out the redesigned bunkers as one of the biggest visible changes.
- GPS-equipped carts are now standard, replacing whatever paper scorecard guesswork golfers used before.
- The club joined the Public Country Club multi-course membership program and now accepts Troon Access, which opens up reciprocal play that wasn't available under the old ownership.
- The on-site restaurant rebranded as Slate North, serving what the club describes as local flavors for anything from a quick snack to a full dinner, and it runs year-round even after the course itself closes for the season.
- Thompson set a goal of building one of the largest junior golf programs in Minnesota, a detail that matters if you've got kids and have been looking for a program with some staying power behind it.
None of this required taking the company's word for it. Recent reviews on GolfPass and TripAdvisor from golfers who'd played the course under both ownership groups independently confirm the same list: better bunkers, better carts, better food, and a course that's climbed back into conversations about the state's top public tracks.
Why October Beats August at This Course
Here's the part most Prior Lake golfers are missing. Multiple recent reviews specifically single out mid to late October as when the course is playing at its peak, with greens rolling exceptionally fast and true and fall color framing holes that get less visual credit in summer. One reviewer described greens stimping at 10-plus in mid-October. Another called the fall color on display that same month a standout part of the round.
That's not a coincidence and it's not marketing. Bentgrass, which is what The Wilds' fairways and greens are built on, actually performs better once summer heat stress backs off. Superintendents can mow tighter and roll firmer without cooking the turf, which is exactly what produces the fast, consistent greens golfers are noticing. At the same time, casual play drops sharply once school starts and the psychological "summer is over" signal kicks in for most weekend golfers. Fewer carts on the course means less compaction and faster pace of play, which reviewers have also praised, with one describing an 18-hole round finished in under three and a half hours including a stop at the turn.
Put those two things together and you get a course that's better conditioned and easier to get around in October than it was in July, at the exact moment most local golfers have stopped thinking about it.
The Calendar Has More Room Than It Feels Like
The course runs seasonally from April through October, with the clubhouse and Slate North operating year-round. As of late August, that leaves roughly two months of golf left this year, not the two or three weeks it might feel like once kids go back to school. The course isn't winding down either. Sanctioned tournament play was scheduled well into September this year, including MPGA professional events and a Pro-Official tournament, which tells you the course is still being maintained to competition standards deep into the fall, not coasting toward closing day.
If You Want to Catch It Before It Closes
A few practical notes for anyone weighing whether to get a round in this fall:
- Call the pro shop directly for tee times rather than assuming availability is tight. League play and casual summer traffic both thin out after Labor Day, and that's part of what's driving the better pace of play reviewers keep mentioning.
- Ask about Public Country Club and Troon Access if you already belong to another participating club. The reciprocal access is new since the sale and easy to overlook if you haven't checked in a while.
- If you've got kids interested in the game, ask about the junior program directly. Thompson has stated an intent to grow it significantly, and fall enrollment windows are worth asking about before the season closes.
- Even if golf isn't your thing, Slate North stays open through the winter, so the clubhouse itself is worth knowing about as a year-round option, not just a seasonal one.
The Habit Worth Breaking
Most of us treat Labor Day as the unofficial end of the golf season around here, and most of us are wrong about that, at least this year and at this course. The Wilds spent money on bunkers and carts and a kitchen relaunch, and the payoff is showing up in exactly the weeks locals are most likely to skip. If you've lived in Prior Lake for years and haven't played The Wilds since the ownership change, the version of the course you remember isn't the one that's out there right now.
If you're the kind of person who tracks what's changing around Prior Lake, whether it's a golf course under new ownership or a neighborhood you're watching for other reasons, that's the kind of local detail I pay attention to. I'm Nick Thull, and if you ever want to talk through what's happening in this market or just compare notes on where to spend a fall Saturday, Let's Connect.
