LeRoy and Michelle Wurm never dreamed they would buy a golf course, but that’s just what happened in January when the local couple became the new owners of Albion Ridges Golf Course south of Maple Lake.
It all started when Dennis Olson called LeRoy into his office.
"Anyone who plays here knows Dennis," Michelle said by way of introduction. He and his wife Jo Ann had the original dream to build a golf course in the middle of Albion Township farmland on what used to be a pig farm. Since construction started in 1989, the Olson’s have built it into a successful business that attracts golfers from around the state for its country setting and top-of-the-line practice facility.
"He said ‘you gotta buy this.’ He wanted someone he knew to have it," LeRoy recalled of that fateful meeting. "I didn’t know how it would work, but it did."
To Michelle, it was a privilege more than anything else.
"He didn’t put it up for sale, he chose LeRoy," she said.
Olson had good reasons for choosing his long-time superintendent to succeed him. LeRoy and his family have been a part of Albion Ridges since the beginning,
"Dennis had a dream to have a golf course and he worked it, sun up to sun down," Michelle said.
"He and Jo Ann built a great business out here in the middle of nowhere," LeRoy said.
LeRoy on the other had no aspirations to get into the golf course business. He grew up on a farm not far from where the golf course is now. He loved farming and wanted to make a career out of it, but it wasn’t in the cards. Olson, who knew LeRoy even back then through his son who was a classmate of his at Maple Lake High School, suggested he go to school for Turf Grass Management. There were enough similarities between running a farm and running a golf course that the idea appealed to him
"It’s kind of the same, you worry about the weather, watering and fertilizing; it’s like having crops but instead it’s grass," LeRoy said.
LeRoy graduated from the University of Minnesota, Waseca, in time for the golf course’s grand opening in 1992. Olson hired him, and he has liked it so much, he has been their ever since. During the summers, Michelle, an avid golfer, would take their three young daughters to the course for lunch with their dad, then practice their golf swings. By three-years old, the Wurm girls were golfing. Olson treated them like family and before long the golf course was like a second home.
"Our family understands the industry," Michelle said, noting that all their daughters have either worked at the golf course or helped in some way. "This is our world."
In 2001, LeRoy was instrumental in adding another nine holes on the north side of 20th street, turning Albion Ridges from an 18-hole course into a 27-hole course. Over the years he has dedicated countless hours on weekends and holidays to the course, much like a farmer would to his crops, and he credits Olson for teaching him much of what he knows.
Olson will still be LeRoy’s go-to man he said, and the new owners will continue to run Albion Ridges much as it has been since the beginning.
"Dennis ran a good business. It would be crazy for us to come in and change it up," he said.
The Wurms’ goal is to continue the Olsons’ practice of providing a well-kept, family golf course with affordable prices, and with spring just around the corner, they are eager for the 2018 season to begin.