Oct. 30, 2023

Construction is set to begin on the first new private golf club in Sioux Falls in more than 60 years.

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

“The golf course design is mostly complete,” said Danny Amundson, who is leading the group of founding owners to support construction of Mapleton Golf Club.

“There’s a lot of fluidity with golf course design, so (architect) Scott Hoffman will continue to make some changes and adjustments as construction progress unfolds, but for the most part, we’ve identified primary routing for the golf course.”

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

“If November holds together, in that 30-day window we should be able to accomplish significant grading, routing of three to four golf holes,” Amundson said. “For anyone taking a drive over Slip Up Creek Road through the fall and winter, you’ll be able to see that progress up the north side.”

As soon as the weather allows in the spring, golf course construction will restart, and work will begin on facility construction simultaneously, Amundson said.

“Final design of the facilities, the structure, the clubhouse and such will come through winter, so they too can start construction next spring,” he said. “The goal would be to have the primary structures enclosed before winter of 2024 and into 2025.”

Mapleton is designed to include a roughly 13,000-square-foot clubhouse with amenities such as a full-service dining room, bar, locker rooms, pro shop and nearly 1,300 square feet of boardroom space with an area for private dining.

Amundson called it a “perfect opportunity for members to host guests for an all-inclusive experience at the club – business meeting, golf, dining and overnight on-site in the adjacent lodging facility, which will have up to 24 suites.”

Unlike the city’s other country clubs, Mapleton does not plan to offer recreation such as tennis or swimming.

Its “practice greens” area has evolved into “what will be a cool four-hole, par-3 course and can also be used for short-game practice and development,” Amundson said.

Ideally, everything at the club would open at once, but the priority will be having a clubhouse ready to serve food and beverages to golfers, he said.

“Getting some of this initial work done this fall keeps us on schedule of hopefully fall golf, if you want to call it that, late summer or fall golf 2025 depending on how spring cooperates in both 2024 and 2025,” he said. “Based on our construction schedule, by August of next year they’ll be putting grass in the ground, which doesn’t take long to germinate, so come next fall, green will really start to pop out there.”

Getting this far in the six months since the project was announced is a credit to city and county officials who were instrumental in working through the unique land uses the development brings, he added.

“To go from where we were at conceptually in March and April and in six months to get shovels in the ground this fall, we are very grateful and thankful for the support we’ve gotten from both city and county officials,” Amundson said.

Member response has been strong too.

Landscapes Unlimited most recently opened a similar private club in Nebraska, and so far, the Sioux Falls response is about double the membership sales the Nebraska club had at this stage of development, Amundson said.

“Over half of all memberships are committed to,” he said. “We’re really, really happy with all the initial support, and we really think as we can continue to show construction progress, do site tours and people can see construction next year, we think that’s going to create significant momentum in filling the remaining memberships.”

Tours were offered through the summer and will continue this fall for current or prospective members, with the plan to resume in the spring.

“What’s hard to show people on paper that haven’t seen the process is what an asset like this is going to look like,” Amundon said. “We’re just excited to move this from concept to reality.”