Highlighting Minnesota's golf culture

St. Cloud State University alumnus Greg Wires turned a burgeoning hobby into a professional passion.

Then known as St. Cloud State College, Wires enrolled in 1972 as a psychology and sociology double major. He said he was part of SCSU's first international studies program to Denmark as a sophomore. Incidentally, Denmark is where Wires would meet another St. Cloud State sophomore who would one day be his wife.

"The most significant development of my attending St. Cloud State and Denmark was meeting my wife. We've been married since ’77, so this will be our 49th year," he said. "What could be better than that? You can go up to college, meet your spouse; you're together the rest of your life."

Wires graduated with his two degrees from SCSU in 1976. He worked in a related field for a few years before trying several different industries. While he strayed from his areas of study, Wires still appreciated his SCSU education.

"Getting the education from St. Cloud State University, it's really meaningful. I didn't go on and work my entire life based on my degrees, but that sort of a liberal arts education suited me well and is, I think, a great preparation for just getting out in the world," he said. "I mean, there's just a wide array of things that you can find that will become of interest to you and that you might want to pursue more deeply."

In the 1990s and after getting into golf, Wires noticed there wasn't a golfing magazine for general golfers. The Minnesota Golf Association published one, but only MGA members had access to the publication. So in 1995, Golf Minnesota was launched.

"Golf has a major economic impact on the state of Minnesota. I think it's estimated at about $3 billion. There's 34,000 jobs in the industry here in the state of Minnesota. There's 600,000 of us playing the game. We played 8 million rounds in 2025. We have about 400 golf courses in the state; 300 of those are public golf courses — you and I can just go and put our money on the counter and play the course. And the other 100 or so are private clubs and they have a good place in the industry as well," Wires said. "We're encouraging people to get out, exercise, have some fun. Hopefully don't take it too seriously, unless that's your thing and you want to be a highly competitive player — and we encourage that, too."

An annual magazine, Wires said the publication is a directory of golf courses in Minnesota and includes articles about travel, equipment, apparel and "all things golf." He ran Golf Minnesota as a print magazine for about 25 years, before moving to an exclusively digital platform in 2021 following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I had reached so-called retirement age, but I didn't really want to give up what I was doing. And the pandemic changed a lot of things. Interestingly, it did not have a negative impact on golf," Wires said. "Golf became one of those things that people could still do because you were outside separated from folks. So while the industry actually thrived during that period, it just seemed like a natural time to transition to digital."

While the magazine is put together by Wires, a freelance writer and a graphic designer, It isn't hard for Wires to find content for golfminnesota.com.

"We get pitched on ideas all the time. There's PR industry agencies out there who work a lot with the golf industry. We try to do at least a little bit of travel — both here in the state, but also destinations," he said. "We try to work with some resorts and places that Minnesotans — you know, we don't play golf here typically in January, February, those months — so we will highlight travel destinations."

Wires said the highlights from his time putting Golf Minnesota together are endless. From meeting Minnesota's own Tom Lehman, to working with golf icon Arnold Palmer several times, as well as the likes of Jack Nicklaus and Annika Sörenstam, among others — there's never been a dull moment.

Not to mention the locations he's visited.

"I have had the chance to play some amazingly great golf courses. I haven't played every great golf course, but I have been able to play in Scotland and play the historic old course at St. Andrews along with some several other ones up and down there. We have so many great courses here in Minnesota, and I get to play those. There's been developments over in Wisconsin like Sand Valley and Whistling Straits, and out in Oregon with Bandon Dunes," he said. "Getting out and seeing these properties and playing those, the other people I've met in the industry — other magazine publishers as well as equipment and apparel professionals and that — it's all been fun and significant."