Hacker's Guide to Twin Cities Golf Courses Now in Distribution Across the Twin Cities Metro Area

    MINNEAPOLIS, MN, April 13, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- After a successful launch at the Minnesota Golf Show in February, the Hacker's Guide to Twin Cities Golf Courses can now be found across the Twin Cities Metro area at local Borders and Barnes & Noble bookstores, in Holiday Stationstores, online at Amazon.com and at leading golf courses like Bunker Hills in Coon Rapids, Stonebrooke in Shakopee, Mississippi Dunes in Cottage Grove and the Ridges at Sand Creek in Jordan. www.hackersguides.com/buy-book/.

"As the courses begin to open this spring, in a very short time, we've had more than a dozen area golf courses agree to take our rating guide into their pro shops," said Bruce Stasch, publisher of the Hacker's GuideTM. "We've been more than pleased that courses think highly enough to carry the book and we expect that by May the book will be found in many more pro shops."

The book was the brainchild of Stasch, a self-describe "hacker" who noticed a lack of good local golf guides for the average golfer. The Hacker's Guide to Twin Cities Golf Courses is the first of a planned series of completely new course rating guidebooks that assess a golf course on forty factors in five unique categories--hospitality, playability, facility, usability and value. These categories look at a golf course from the standpoint of a positive golfing experience for an average golfer, not the difficulty or popularity of a course like other guides.

"I leafed through all of the major golf magazines, watched Golf Channel and read any course rating guide I could get my hands on trying to learn about courses in my area. I soon realized that unless it was a review of a top golf course, I couldn't find anything about courses that fit my game or my budget," said an exasperated Stasch. "What were available were flowery reviews in the major golf publications that seemed like advertorials, or rating directories that allowed anyone to rate a golf course with no consistency. I felt I couldn't trust anything that was out there."

Hacker's Guide golf course ratings are a totally new rating system and are completed by regular golfers that love the game. In preparation of the second book in the rating series, Hacker's Guide to Minnesota & Western Wisconsin Golf Courses, more than 170 golfers have signed on to be a part of Team Hacker. These non-compensated golfers have volunteered to visit all of the 18-hole public golf courses in Minnesota and western Wisconsin (285 courses) during the upcoming golf season.

Like the first guide, each course will be reviewed utilizing the same criteria and the scores will be computed using a proprietary scoring system, not known to the raters. Reviews are based on how a 20-handicapper (a "hacker") would rate a course, not how a teaching pro or low-handicapper would. The reviewer is also required to provide a 400-word write-up of each course.

At the same time the Hacker's Guide to Twin Cities Golf Courses was introduced, a new golf course recognition program was instituted called the 2009 Hacker's Favorite Award and recognized those local golf courses that finished in the Top Ten in each Hacker's Guide category. This year thirty one (31) golf courses out of the eighty-seven (87) Twin Cities courses were award recipients; some more than once. A couple of area courses have recently cited the Hacker's Favorite Award in their marketing.

The next guide, now in the planning process, will be the Hacker's Guide to Minnesota & Western Wisconsin Golf Courses which will include an additional 285 course reviews near cities like Duluth, St. Cloud, Mankato, Brainerd, Rochester, Red Wing, Eau Claire and La Crosse. In addition, there will be bonus content on the history of Minnesota golf and its many prominent golfers, architects and personalities.

Stasch commented, "We are looking forward to hearing from both golfers and golf courses on what they think of our guides. We expect them to be a bit hit at local golf courses."

About the Hacker's Guide
The Hacker's GuideTM is the first complete state-by-state golf course rating system since the United States Golf Association established par and slope ratings. Starting with the Twin Cities Metro area as a test market, the Hacker's Guide is being rolled out to eventually include a review of the close to 16,000 golf courses nationwide.

The Hacker's Guide to Twin Cities Golf Courses is being distributed by Adventure Publications from Cambridge, Minnesota, the region's leading distributor of local titles, and can be found at major retailers like Barnes & Noble, Borders, Holiday Stationstores, online at Amazon.com, area golf courses or www.hackersguides.com. The guide retails for $14.95.

About Hacker's Guide Founder
Bruce Stasch, is the founder of Apex Golf Enterprises and originator of the Hacker's GuideTM a rating system which has been created to rate all eighteen-hole public golf courses in the country and eliminate the mystery of choosing a golf course appropriate for a golfer's game. In addition, he operates two e-commerce golf equipment websites; a blog and podcasts about golf and equipment called Golf Gear News; and he is a frequent contributor to Tee Times Minnesota Golf & Living, Worldgolf.com and Minnesota Meetings & Events. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with his wife Eve and two dogs BJ and Annie.

About Apex Golf Enterprises
Apex Golf Enterprises is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Apex Mountain Holdings Corporation, and publishes the Hacker's Guide, a golf course rating system, and operates websites, blogs and podcasts related to the golf industry. www.hackersguides.com

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