After years of being on the market, The Wilds Golf Club has been sold to an Arizona-based golf ownership group.
The course, opened in 1996, will be under the ownership of Thompson Golf Group. It will be the group’s second foray into the Minnesota golf scene, as the group also owns Alexandria’s Geneva Golf Club.
The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal first reported the sale of the course, at the price point of $7.7 million.
Kevin Unterreiner, one of Thompson’s managing partners and owner of media outlet TwinCitiesGolf.com, told the Business Journal that a deal to buy The Wilds had been in the works for two years, and the buyers hope to ensure the property remains a golf course.
“We hate seeing golf courses getting turned into data centers or housing developments,” he told the Business Journal. “We feel golf courses provide a critically positive and important role in local communities.”
In addition to making the course available through the multicourse Public Country Club membership program, Thompson is laying the groundwork to expand its junior golf program and host new public events.
Unterreiner said the rise in golf participation since the COVID-19 pandemic has the new ownership group optimistic about the future.
“The demand definitely improved our comfort level with the investment in the acquisition,” he said.