Jewel Golf Club

Overview: The Jewel Golf Club in Lake City is a public course set on bluff country above Lake Pepin, where hardwoods, elevation changes and broad views shape the round. Hale Irwin's design combines woodland corridors with more open, links-influenced stretches, creating a varied modern course rather than a uniform parkland track. The land's natural movement gives approaches changing lies, while the greens and surrounding run-offs ask for imagination around the target. The Jewel is a course whose identity comes as much from the setting as from its championship scale.

History: The Jewel was built in the early 2000s and opened for play in July 2005. Its site was associated with the Jewel Tree Nursery, a long-established Lake City property, before the golf development transformed the land into an 18-hole course. Hale Irwin led the design, and the course quickly attracted collegiate events, Minnesota championships and national recognition as a new public course. The club's current operation continues to emphasize bentgrass surfaces, wildlife habitat and the bluff views that distinguish the property.

Did You Know? The course takes its name from the land's earlier connection with the Jewel Tree Nursery. That history explains why the property contains such a mature collection of trees and why the course's landscape feels established despite its relatively recent opening.