- [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(bright chiming music) - [Narrator] Coming up next "Off 90."

Join us as we visit a Beatles-themed golf course.

Learn with us about Albert Lea Civic Music.

And, finally, tag along as we learn more about the fascinating sport of disc golf.

It's all just ahead "Off 90."

(intriguing orchestral upbeat music) (mellow lively upbeat music) (mellow lively upbeat music continues) (lively orchestral music) (intriguing country music) (intriguing country blues rock music) - My name is Greg McKush, I'm the owner of Montogomery National Golf Club and we are themed all around Beatles music.

So, all of our holes are named after Beatles' songs.

We've got a "Yellow Submarine," I've got a huge guitar bunker, there's a lot of little Beatley things, I'm gonna put strawberries patch on Strawberry Fields, for example.

So it's all tied in with Beatles' things.

My first year here, so seven years ago, a gentleman had a massive heart attack at hole number 1.

And, by chance, a med helicopter was going overhead, picked him up, took him to Abbott.

And two months later, he walked into the old clubhouse, and I said, "John, we are gonna call that hole "A Day in the Life," it's a Beatles song for you."

And he said, "I would prefer if it was called "With a Little Help from My Friends.""

♪ Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends ♪ - And so, then, I started putting on Facebook "Name the holes and then I'll give you a round of golf."

And now, we've got all these holes named.

(dynamic blues rock music) So number 10 is called "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," that's where we have a guitar bunker.

I think it's 60-yards long.

Just the neck, you don't wanna be in the neck.

(chuckles) The neck is about 25-yards long.

And it's actually to the dimensions of guitars that I play, I play Olson guitars, and I've had Olson who makes my guitars out here, and I had a picture with him, and he's pretty thrilled.

James Taylor plays his guitar, so that's probably a little fancier than Greg McKush making a guitar bunker, but that's pretty cool.

17, there's a big pond that's "Octopus's Garden."

I hope to put a big octopus in it, eventually.

"Fool on the Hill," again, it's up on the hill, and it's one that can fool you a little bit with yardage, number 8.

"All My Loving," mainly just 'cause I love the song.

It's a really playable golf course, there's lots of trees, but you're not gonna lose a whole lot of balls.

And there's a nice variety, I always think of the three-hole loops, like 10, 11, 12 is a nice loop, the 12, 13, 14, 15, an interesting loop.

Our last three holes are awesome.

So for a little town golf course, I think we've got a lot of variety.

We're pulling golfers from all over, I had some from Elk River the other day.

Last year, I had 24 guys from Chicago with Beatles shirts on, you know, I've had somebody from California just come to take a picture with the submarine.

And that submarine is a prop from a movie called "Tora!

Tora!

Tora!," 1971, and they had two submarines, they didn't need a second take.

So I end up painting it yellow, buying it from a guy at an antique place.

And then people started taking pictures with it, and it just slowly kind of became a Beatley thing, but organically, it's not like I came in here and thought "That's what I'm gonna do."

(dramatic eerie music) Kind of a crazy thing about this golf course is, it's the top 10 most haunted golf course in the US.

And if you Google it, you'll find it next to Congressional, and there's all kinds of lore on YouTube about it being haunted.

And on our first hole, there's tombstones from the 1700s of the people who used to own the farm here, the berry farm.

In the beginning when I first bought it, I thought, "Well, this would be great.

I gotta make up some good stuff, 'cause it'd be nice marketing ploy."

And I had no conviction to it, so I went, "Nah, I'm not doing that."

But my second year here in the other building, I put my meal, my breakfast, in that microwave, took it out to cool it, when I came back, there was a jacket smooshed into my meal, and it totally gives me chills, like...

So, I kind of went, "How is this possible?

I'm the only one here."

I swear on my children that that happened.

The second thing, in COVID year, we were outside by the bar out there, 'cause we couldn't go inside, and no touch kind of thing, and I had a jar where it was $40, and people would put their 20s in for their round.

And one windy day a guy was putting his 20s in, and one went behind the bar, and it sat there and oscillated most of the day, I knew it was there, I would get it eventually.

And then somebody was just coming up, and that bill went up, and went into the jar, swear on my kids.

(bright upbeat music) My family owned a golf course called Lone Pine, and we had a log building that we built.

And so, I kind of am just reliving my childhood.

It's about 11,000 square feet total, so it's a good size.

There's highlights all over, it takes a while to go through the whole thing, but just this roof system is estimated at 250,000-pounds.

These trusses each weighed, the crane operator told us what they weighed, that one was like 19,000, that was 21,000.

There's 90 rafter logs in this thing.

So the weight is crazy.

And that's why you see some steel in this building.

We call it The Turret, and you can see the whole golf course, actually you can see 15 holes from there.

That truss in there weighs like 22,000 pounds, but it's a pretty spectacular room with pretty spectacular roof system in it.

If you look around, there's little tidbits of Beatles' stuff all over, there's some really neat stuff down below.

The neatest one you'll see is the jukebox, and that's thought of as the rarest jukebox in the world, and Ozzy Osbourne's got one, Steven Tyler, Ringo, I'm told there's 13 in the US and there was only a hundred made.

So pretty neat to get that.

And I've got a picture over here with Ringo and my family.

So there's lots of little things, and we've paid homage to my whole family, and we've been in the golf business for like 80 years.

♪ I once had a girl ♪ ♪ Or should I say, she once had me ♪ I'm a singer-songwriter, and probably played 500 gigs, generally played by myself, kind of James Taylor, Beatles, Gordon Lightfoot, that kind of thing.

Yep, I've got my corner over there, and we'll play on occasion, if there's a bunch of people in here, I'll go play 10 songs.

Golf Magazine did a big story in 2021, if you Google golf and Beatles, it'll tell a big story.

And, in there, they say something like the owner is like Willy Wonka if you traded candy for golf and chocolate for Beatles, or something like that.

(chuckles) (bright blues rock music) (bright orchestral music) (intriguing groovy orchestral music) (intriguing groovy orchestral music continues) - The Albert Lea Civic Music Association goes back to 1945.

There were about a hundred or 150 Albert Lea residents that banded together with a thought that, even though they don't live in a metropolitan area, they still can have an opportunity to enjoy fine music played by excellent professionals.

Since then, we have had over 350 different acts that have come to Albert Lea.

(groovy orchestral music) - I'm Molly Grimmius, I'm the current President of the Civic Music Association Board, and I've been on the board, I think, I'm going into my third term, and I also grew up going to civic music, not actually in Albert Lea, but in Fairmont, which is about an hour west of here.

And so, I remember many evenings going to civic music, and I loved it as a child, and it's just an opportunity to see such variety of professional music, and it definitely was something I wanted to have for my children as well, and I like to be involved in spreading music in the community.

(enthralling bright orchestral music) - There is a Board of Directors that meet, and, every year, we get together, and we select acts for the following year, and we try to get a broad range of acts from different genres.

(enthralling bright orchestral music) (enthralling bright orchestral music continues) We've had, as I said, many, many different performers that have come, everything from Isaac Stern to the Canadian Brass.

Some people love instrumentals, some people love vocalists, we try to provide a little bit of something for everybody.

(enthralling grandeur orchestral music) - I would agree that there is just such a variety, and even if it's something that is not exactly your taste, like, you are not sure about how you feel about two horns just playing together, (chuckles) going through different classical concertos, there's still so much to be appreciated, because it is their professionalism and their commitment to music.

It's just kind of wonderful to see how much they care about it too, and you leave always caring more.

I think it's a huge benefit to a community that doesn't have, like, daily opportunities to go to professional music.

And so, it comes right to our doorsteps, which I think a lot of people still don't realize in our community, which I'm glad that you're able to highlight us.

And I think it's especially wonderful for families.

I have a big heart for trying to get more families to come to our our series, concert series, because it is a wonderful opportunity for kids to see if they're just starting out in an instrument, if you don't sound fabulous at first.

And so, to see, "Oh, my violin can sound like that," or, "My trumpet can sound like that," or, "I can play the piano like that," and then also for them to hear about the commitment to what it is that takes to be a musician, and just to see, even if you aren't a musician, just to come and appreciate if you are into sports, just to see how much of a commitment it is to become someone who does this for a living, I think is super beneficial.

(dynamic grandeur orchestral music) - Great music is important to our lives, for our mental health, and just for quality of life.

And to have the opportunity for about $20 for a family to be able to enjoy five different concerts during the year, and not have to drive 200 miles, get a hotel room, drive through traffic, it's just a wonderful thing for the community, and we have free parking.

(enthralling grandeur orchestral music) - So one of the neat facets of our Albert Lea Civic Music is that we offer scholarships, and we do this yearly, and they are scholarships primarily for high schoolers, sometimes middle schoolers, just depending, and sometimes college students who are looking to have private lessons, and also go to camps, or help pay for All-State's music programs, and sometimes have lessons at college as well.

And so, it is an opportunity.

They audition and then they are selected, and then they are given scholarships that will help pay for private lessons, and/or camps as well.

Our mission is definitely clearly to help bring more music to our community.

And so, we care deeply about music, and we want to help that for the next generation, and to just keep encouraging that.

I think that professional level too, not that you have to go on to be a professional, but just caring about the quality level of music and going and pushing yourself further through private lessons as well.

Financial barriers is definitely, I would say, a hindrance for music.

As a mom myself, and someone who has two students who are doing music, the cost for lessons is going up, and well-deserved, I do believe the teachers should be getting that, but it can be very expensive.

And so, it is a wonderful opportunity to be able to help students pursue it without having that financial burden.

(dynamic groovy orchestral music) The best way to get involved in Albert Lea Civic Music is to come to our concerts and to be part of our subscription.

So we offer subscription, that means you pay one price for a whole year of concerts, which is five concerts here in Albert Lea, but we also do reciprocity with Clear Lake, Iowa, and they offer four concerts.

So that's a total of nine concerts you could go to through the 2025-2026 season, and they are able to come and see some wonderful music through that.

And it's a variety, we have an absolute variety next year, everything from a brass group, to Celtic, to gospel.

So, I would say, it's a lovely variety for next season.

Next year, our season starts off with American Tune, and that is September 7th, and then we have Mexican Brass, which will be October 23rd, and then we have Music Caravan, which is February 14th, it will be a matinee show, so you can still go out for a date afterwards, then we have Celtic celebration, which will be March 19th, so just right after St. Patrick's Day, and then we end the season with CeCe, and that is May 7th, and she's entitled her series "Divas of Soul," so it will be a lot of fun.

We see previews of these when the board gets to pick, and it was high energy.

The best way to get season tickets is that we start offering them in the summer, I would say, the end of July, and you can go to Hy-Vee here in Albert Lea, you can also go to Main Street Coffee in Austin, and you can also go to the Albert Lea Convention Center as well.

You also can just buy them the very first concert, or any concert that you come to.

We also do offer them online now, so we have a website, at albertleacivicmusic.org, and there you can go through Eventbrite and order your season tickets right through there as well.

- Many people experience music mostly through their children at school, and the Civic Music Association gives them an opportunity to broaden that scope and take in some incredible professional performers at a very affordable cost, and very convenient.

(enthralling grandeur orchestral music) (enthralling grandeur orchestral music continues) (tranquil lively orchestral music) - Well, finally, tonight, if you've ever played golf, or frisbee, have you ever tried combining the two sports?

Well, if you have, there's a name for it, it's called disc golf, and some folks in Austin got together this afternoon as part of the world's biggest disc golf weekend.

(chains clacking) - Frisbee golf is played just like regular ball golf, except you use frisbees, or, in our term, flying disc, disc, disc, disc, disc.

(tape whirring) Actually it's a lot the same as regular golf except you got your golf disc that you throw, you count how many throws, just like strokes to the object, basket.

And then, when it's in, that's like when you're in the hole.

- [Reporter] Over at Todd Park, a hole in one of a different sort this weekend, (group cheering) frisbee golf.

Dennis Ricky with the ace.

Check this thing out, it goes around the trees, and somehow... - I'm Scott Schied, this is my uncle Tom Hinkle.

- Yeah.

(chuckles) - And I went and knocked on doors, and Uncle Tom sold the discs, and that's why we have a course in Austin.

(mellow orchestral upbeat music) (mellow orchestral upbeat music continues) (mellow orchestral upbeat music continues) - Now these are the second set of baskets on this park.

The first ones were moved out of here, and we made Driesner with it.

Then we got good in Driesner and got all the baskets, so then we moved them out of Driesner to Marcusen and put new ones in Driesner.

But I've been playing since them guys showed me, and I play every Sunday religiously.

It's my religion, I'm coming out here every Sunday.

I play with the pros, I donate the money, I call it, 'cause I haven't hit an ace in seven years.

(chuckles) I loved the game, my wife and I, she'd be out here, but we loved the game, we loved the sport, we've worked at it a lot.

I mean, I loved it as much as they did when they showed me.

I grew up on the beach throwing a frisbee, you know, on the beach.

So when I met them, they said, "Do you wanna play frisbee golf?"

I'm like, "Show me what to hit," you know?

And I fell in love with it.

- We were just doing it for fun.

- Playing with the old catch discs.

- Yeah.

We were playing before there was actually golf discs.

- Yep.

Well, there probably were golf discs, they just weren't here.

(laughs) - Well, they came out in like '82, '83, so... - Oh, the golf disc did?

- Yeah.

- [Crew Member] '76 was the first course.

- '76 was the first course.

Oh, yeah, La Mirada, California, I think.

But yeah, they- - Yeah, the cones were made in the '60s.

- Yup.

- Like, that we originally started here with.

Cones were made in the '60s, and the holes are so big in the basket and the cone that like a golf disc now will fall through the hole.

You can hit the cone and drop in the basket and it falls out, 'cause it's used to being played with a big, whammo catch disc.

- [Announcer] Okay, today, we're gonna play for 100% payback today out on the course, and I'm throwing $20 in for the winner of the amateur-pro division.

- Yeah!

- Nice!

(audience applauding) - [Announcer] Let's get it playing, so... (audience applauding) (mellow orchestral music) - Five.

- Okay.

(mellow orchestral music) (chains clinking) (mellow orchestral music) (mellow orchestral music continues) (mellow orchestral music continues) (mellow orchestral music continues) - [Player] Come on, hit it.

Hole-in-one.

Hit it!

(chains clinking) (group cheering) - So when they got a hole-in-one, they ran up there and they wrote their name on the post.

That was the thing we did back then.

Instead of painting it on the, you know, we'd put it on the wooden post.

That's how that started.

- I have like five aces out here.

That was back when it all first started, the original 18.

- We're the early.

- We're the early aces in the '90s.

- My aces are all basket or cone.

- Pretty much, we have UDisc now on the computer and on your phone, so everybody's connected to it.

And that's the professional disc golf.

And it shows all the tournaments, and that it keeps your scores.

You put your name in it, and it keeps your scores, and knows your average, and how you shoot it, what course.

- And it's just for everybody to come out and play and have fun and get started, and just to get people started in the sport and to have fun playing.

I believed in it, and knew it was gonna grow, and thought it was... You know, there's no greens fees, there's no nothing, I mean, I sold a lot of golf disc to pay for the first 45 baskets out here, I had lots of help from other people too.

But, you know, I just believed in it so much.

Like I said, it doesn't hardly cost anything to play, it's not like buying golf clubs, and it's a lot of fun.

- Him and Dan Johnson, Larry Bell Richard and Dan, were playing the course this way, and we were playing our obstacle course that way.

And we met each other, and they had two frisbees, and we had frisbees, we all turned and went the same way.

And that's how we met 'em, and they've been playing ever since.

- [Announcer] Okay, from the Amateur division, fourth place, Larry Bell Richards from Austin.

(audience cheering) - Yeah, Larry!

- Whoo!

- [Player] Larry, Larry, Larry!

- That was my biggest selling point when I talked at the park and rec meeting was, once they finally... You could tell that they were cracking and gonna give us a chance, I told them, I said, "Once it gets started, it will take care of itself," and it did, in a big way, and they didn't, you know, and I think... - They gave us Driesner and told us to put another course in down there, 'cause you'd come out here and there'd be people on every hole, people standing in line to go and play.

- Yep.

Tom Graff come up one day, he says, "Yeah, park and rec wants you to put another course in."

(laughs) - We needed to relieve some of the pressure off out here.

- Yeah, off that park.

So that's when we put Driesner in.

- You know, like I said, I'm 65, and when I get to 27, I'm, (imitates panting).

(Randy chuckles) You know, I've had enough, it puts on me, and, you know, I'm fairly fit, I bike ride and everything, so...

But it keeps you healthy, it really does.

- Yup.

- Keeps the parks clean, everybody cleans up.

Disc golf makes bags for garbage now.

Disc golf companies, they send out bags for strapping to your cart and picking up garbage.

So it's really good for the parks, it really is.

(mellow lively country music) (mellow lively country music continues) (mellow lively country music continues) (mellow lively country music continues) (mellow lively country music continues) (mellow lively country music continues) (mellow lively country music continues) - [Player] Okay, there you go.

Now, you gotta make it.

- [Player 2] Okay.

(mellow lively country music) (chains clinking) (mellow lively country music) (mellow lively country music continues) (bright upbeat music) (bright upbeat music continues) (bright upbeat music continues) (bright chiming music) - [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(birds squawking)