Minnesota Loses Golf Visionary

April 18, 2018 | 2 min.


Fred Boos, 1933-2018


EDINA, Minn. (April 18, 2018) -- Fred Boos, 84 of Wayzata, Minn., passed away April 13 after a long illness. Boos was a strong supporter of the Minnesota Golf Association, first as a director from 1993 to 1999, and second for conceiving the MGA Amateur Net Team Championship, hosted annually by The Pines and Preserve courses at Grandview Lodge, and now entering its 26th season. 

In 2017, the MGA recognized Boos’ dedication and support of the long-running championship by renaming the permanent tournament trophy, the Fred Boos Cup. 

As early as 1966, Boos had a vision of building a golf course at his Brainerd-area resort that would attract customers in a way similar to fishing, boating and other resort activities of the time.

“It seemed like a slam-dunk to me,” Boos says. “We had the land—360 acres right across the road from the resort—and we didn’t have a really good golf course in the area. Some of our customers would play Brainerd Country Club or at Pierz. But the courses all the resorts had then were more for family play.”

Eventually, the resort’s board of directors saw things Boos’ way, and a plan was approved. Working with golf architect Joel Goldstrand, The Pines at Grandview Lodge debuted as an 18-hole championship course in 1990. Within four years, nine more holes had been added to The Pines.

“We did the whole thing for under $1 million,” Boos says. “From our grand opening, we had 280 golfers a day for a long time. I just knew it would work. I knew we had the people in Brainerd who could make it work. I knew we were the No. 1 tourist area in Minnesota. We just had to get it done.”

In 2014, Boos was inducted into the Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame in part for his support of amateur golf, but mainly for his initiative in developing The Pines in 1990. Within less than a decade, the Brainerd area became the center of golf related tourism in Minnesota and one of the leading golf destinations in the United States. Golf related tourism has grown from $50 million in 1990 to now $480 million annually. That growth, and its importance to the economic impact of Minnesota’s golf industry, is the Boos’ legacy.  

Memorial services for Boos are tentatively planned for later this spring in Brainerd, Minn. 

Portions of this obituary were excerpted from a profile of Fred Boos by Jon Roe, published in the April/May 2008 issue of Minnesota Golfer magazine. 

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