The Mall of America,
Plus So Much More
From an abundance of lakes and rivers to four professional sports teams, the Twin Cities have plenty to offer – including lots of golf
By Jerry Zgoda
Harrington played in the 1993 Walker Cup and now two PGA Championships here. Those three consuming competitions have left precious little time to sample the bustling mix of theater, music, professional sports and progressive politics in a state and an area that has given the world Prince, Bob Dylan, Garrison Keillor and his long-running Prairie Home Companion radio show, as well as the Coen Brothers’ quirky collection of motion pictures.
“When you go back for a major, you don’t see a huge amount of what’s going on,” Harrington says. “But my wife could tell you about the shopping malls, if you like. The Mall of America, am I correct?”
WHEN THIS PGA CHAMPIONSHIP IS OVER, DEFENDING Champion Padraig Harrington will have spent three weeks of his life in Minnesota, home to more than 11,800 lakes, 500 golf courses and a Twin Cities
metropolitan area teeming with culture, big business and, yes, occasionally
even a passing bit of warm weather.
Yes, that’s the one.
For all of its countless delights – and sampling any kind of food on a stick at this month’s popular Minnesota State Fair is just one of them – outsiders who might other wise consider Minnesota only flyover land, for some reason do know all about a sprawling shopping and entertainment complex on a suburban site where a major-league ballpark once stood.
Metropolitan Stadium is long gone in Bloomington and the now venerable Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome is about to give way next summer to the Minnesota Twins’ new home, Target Field, built just on the other side of downtown Minneapolis.
Minneapolis nightlife heats up during the summer months.