New private golf club planned on edge of Sioux Falls

April 6, 2023

Sioux Falls’ first new private golf club in more than 60 years is being planned on the northeast side of town just outside the city limits.

Mapleton Golf Club would encompass 210 acres northeast of interstates 229 and 90, across from the South Dakota Veterans Cemetery and along Slip Up Creek.

It’s being developed by Landscapes Unlimited, which has worked on more than 2,500 golf course construction projects, including Sutton Bay in central South Dakota.

Locally, a group of founding owners is forming to support the construction of the club, led by Danny Amundson, a former standout high school and college golfer whose late father, Mark, was the visionary and founding partner behind Sutton Bay.

Amundson is vice president of KWB Hotel Partners LLC. He once served as director of membership for Sutton Bay.

“We kept watching the growth of Sioux Falls and what’s happened with the two private country clubs in terms of demand for access,” Amundson said. “And part of it is the desire to do something fun and create a legacy project that is golf-oriented.”

Mapleton will be entirely golf-oriented. Unlike the city’s two country clubs, which have waitlists for membership, Mapleton will focus solely on membership-only golf. The club will not include a swimming pool, tennis or banquet facilities for large events.

The concept calls for an 18-hole championship course designed by well-known architect Scott Hoffman, a driving range and practice facilities, and a clubhouse with amenities such as a fine dining restaurant, bar/lounge, patio and private meeting space.

There’s also a plan to include lodging accommodations for up to 24 members and their guests, which could expand.

Sioux Falls is “certainly a golf-crazed market,” said Tom Everett, CEO of Landscapes Golf Management, which would operate the club. “That’s evidenced by the performance of the city’s properties. Since we’ve been engaged there and with all due respect to the terrific private clubs that exist in the market today, we just really felt like with the demand at those particular clubs for membership that the time was right to build a world-class, golf-focused club.”

Landscapes has managed the city’s public courses since 2018.

Post-pandemic, the company has been developing golf-focused clubs nationwide, including the recently opened Lost Rail Golf Club in the Omaha area.

“Omaha’s response has been overwhelmingly positive. We stopped selling memberships before we opened, and since the opening, the response has been entirely positive and very well received,” Everett said.

Like that club, the one proposed in Sioux Falls is envisioned as “a world-class, golf-focused club for the golfer that appreciates terrific service, terrific conditions at a relaxed pace,” Everett said.

The plan is to open the club for play sometime in the 2025 season, along with the facilities to support it.

Membership will be limited to 175 single memberships, 25 national memberships for those who don’t live in the immediate area and 30 corporate memberships.

The location, just northeast of the city limits, is “a gorgeous piece of property,” Amundson said. “I love to be out in the natural elements, and this piece of property affords that opportunity. When you are out on this golf course, you’re going to be very much in a private environment other than the other people playing the course around you.”

Architect Hoffman most recently designed Lost Rail and has a portfolio that includes Gozzer Ranch Golf & Lake Club in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, ranked 32nd in Golf Digest’s top 100 U.S. courses, in addition to working on courses such as Martis Camp in Lake Tahoe, Pronghorn in Oregon, Briggs Ranch in San Antonio and Wynn Las Vegas.

At Mapleton, Hoffman sees “a great setup for golf,” he said. “It’s got some natural elevation changes, creeks, trees, so it has a good variety to it, which is important for what I’m always looking for.”

Because the area is not surrounded by homes or other developments, Hoffman said his design can focus on its wide fairways and a more open prairie setting.

“It’s going to look so much different than the other two clubs,” he said. “You have to go to Valentine or Sand Hills (both in Nebraska) to get away from everything and get the look for a prairie golf course.”

He has the routing and grade plan done for the course but emphasizes the greens could adjust once he spends more time walking the site and prairie grass is cleared.

His design will focus on walkability, with “green-to-tee connections that are very short,” and an approach that will be accessible for golfers of all skill levels while still challenging the most talented players.

“Half the holes won’t have any trees on them, so it’s wide and open and not tight and constricted,” he said.

Slip Up Creek “is really cool winding through the bottom of the property,” Amundson added. “And we’ll intentionally create two or three manmade pond or water features throughout.”

The team behind Mapleton has reached out to area property owners to schedule a meeting about their plan and will bring a rezoning request for joint approval between the city of Sioux Falls and Minnehaha County.

“We’re looking forward to sharing the details of the project and listening to their needs and finding a good way to work together,” Amundson said.

The name Mapleton is inspired by the township formed in the area more than 150 years ago just north of Sioux Falls. Early settlers from Norway found rich soil for farming in the land watered by the Big Sioux River and Slip Up Creek. The township still counts 1,900 people living within its rural Minnehaha County boundary lines, where the golf club is planning to build.

“I really wanted to find something that is historically and even currently relevant. There’s a story there,” Amundson said. “There is thought and meaning behind this.”

Mapleton has started pre-selling memberships and launched a website, mapletongolfclub.com.

From a market that hasn’t seen a new private club since The Country Club of Sioux Falls opened in 1959, response has been “extremely positive,” Amundson said.

“We feel like there’s a lot of momentum. The response has been excitement and a belief that this is needed in Sioux Falls. We’re excited to try to make this happen.”

Want to stay in the know?

Get our free business news delivered to your inbox.



New private golf club planned on edge of Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls’ first new private golf club in more than 60 years is being planned on the northeast side of town just outside the city limits.

News Tip

Have a business news item to share with us?

Scroll to top