grodney
* Ace Member *
I don't think they are at all. The suggestions I gave were mostly examples of smaller towns that aren't too far away from smaller cities with good courses. If the city gets too big then you have to get pretty far away to really be outside of the metro area and your drive will be closer to the hour range (Minneapolis/St. Paul is like this). However, if the city is smaller, like Des Moines or Madison, then you can find a small town environment withing a half hour of the city.
Another good example from your area is Indianola, Iowa (population 14,000). It is separated from Des Moines (and suburbs) by a solid 8-10 miles of farm land, isn't it? Yet you have:
4.44 Pickard - local
4.04 Ewing - 13 miles
3.71 Grandview - 20 miles
So that meets the OP criteria of 3 at 3.5+ within 30 minutes.
I'm not saying you WANT to live in Indianola -- I have no idea how good of a town it is. I'm just saying.