Mapleton Golf Club ready to open for members this week

Aug. 25, 2025

Sioux Falls’ first private golf club in more than 60 years will welcome its first players this week.

Mapleton Golf Club opens for members and their families Aug. 30, set on 210 acres northeast of interstates 229 and 90, across from the South Dakota Veterans Cemetery and along Slip Up Creek.

“The golf course is in fantastic condition,” said Danny Amundson, who once served as director of membership for Sutton Bay and led the group of founding owners to support construction.

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

“It’s very different than the other two private clubs (in Sioux Falls),” architect Scott Hoffman said.

“They’re more park land and trees and grasses everywhere. We’re more like if you went out to the rolling hills of South Dakota. It’s more open … the holes are separated by prairie versus trees and grass, but it’s a big course. Big expanses of fairways … and when you stand on certain greens and tees, you can see a lot of the golf course and that’s unusual for a lot of places.”

It’s still a “very walkable” course,” he added. “But the elevation changes are very drastic compared to the private clubs that are here.”

Hoffman most recently designed Lost Rail Golf Club in the Omaha market  and has a portfolio that includes Gozzer Ranch Golf & Lake Club in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, ranked 32nd in Golf Digest’s top 100 U.S. courses, in addition to working on courses such as Martis Camp in Lake Tahoe, Pronghorn in Oregon, Briggs Ranch in San Antonio and Wynn Las Vegas.

With Mapleton, design began three years ago and changed over time, including holes 7, 13 and 14, which “completely changed at one point,” Hoffman said.

“It was more trying to fit the holes in properly and it felt like fitting the 13th hole to the east up the hill gave us land we didn’t have before and looks we didn’t have before, and it freed up the seventh hole which plays around Slip-Up Creek and is probably one of my favorite holes.”

Memberships are “almost sold out,” Amundson said. As of late last week, there were 14 single golf memberships left out of 175 and room for four or five more corporate partner memberships, plus a few national memberships.

“The market has responded,” Amundson said. “Once May hit this year, it was really robust. We’re thankful a lot of people could see the vision from the beginning, or we would have never gotten it off the ground, but understanding you have to build it for them to come, and it’s coming true.”

About one-third of members also have a membership in one of the other Sioux Falls private clubs, he said. That also means nearly 70 percent likely are joining a club for the first time.

“It’s been a fun dynamic to follow,” Amundson said. “A lot of people are at the point of their professional career that they can take advantage of a luxury amenity.”

Memberships allow a member’s spouse and child to come to the club as long as the membership is on the property and use the six-hole short course and driving range for no charge. There’s a discounted rate to use the 18-hole course.

“It also helps us maintain the crowdedness we want to avoid on the championship course,” Amundson said. “Through the fall and winter we plan on doing bourbon dinners and wine tastings and trivia nights, so we’ll have that type of programming here”

The club will open with some private previews this week, the member opening Aug. 30 and expand to allow guests to play with members beginning Sept. 8.

“For a project that’s three years in length with a million variables, it’s very much on schedule,” Amundson said. “I think members will be really excited when they get out there and see the mature conditions of the grass out there. It’s healthy to play on and safe to drive carts on.”

The clubhouse will be open from day one, including its full-service bar and restaurant plus a patio.

“We have a one-page fine dining menu with high-end beef, pork and chef specialty dishes, but we also have a broader menu whether it’s lunch or dinner for salads, sandwiches and a fun bar patio menu with nachos and wings and flatbreads and creative dishes as well,” Amundson said.

The restaurant will be open daily for lunch and dinner until the golf course closes for the season and then hours will adjust. In March, the plan is to open the first phase of overnight lodging units — 12 king suites with private baths — and then the restaurant likely will open longer. The spaces also are available for members to rent for meetings and events.

The six-hole “Slip-Up Six” course is seeded but still waiting for grass stabilization, so it will open in the spring.

“Great courses need a variety of environments,” Hoffman added. “We can do a lot with the golf, but if the environment doesn’t change it makes it hard to create memorable holes and we have that here.”

Amundson and the Sioux Falls owners “have been unbelievable to work with,” he continued. “Super supportive and believed in me and didn’t question what I was doing, and I think that creates a better product in the end. So I’m super excited for them to have this dream get to where it is.”