ake heart, soon – oh, please make it
soon – every day will be a golf day.
It's always worth the wait because
Wisconsin is one of the country's
top golf destinations.
With Sand Valley sandvalleygolfresort.com in
Nekoosa getting ready to open its Coore & Cren-
shaw and David Kidd courses in 2017, the state
will be several strokes ahead of other states.
Also in 2017 Wisconsin will be hosting the US
Open at Erin Hills in Hartford, 30 miles northwest of
Milwaukee. Plan now to attend the Open and play
a few other of Wisconsin's finest while you're here.
Here's our tour of the best courses to play in
Wisconsin.
We've got to start with Erin Hills erinhills.com,
designed by Dr. Michael Hurdzan, Dana Fry, and
Ron Whitten. It's caddies only and you'll be glad
someone else is toting your clubs at this behe-
moth. Erin Hills will make you appreciate the talent
of tour pros.
Just up the road from Erin Hills is my favorite,
Washington County golfwcgc.com, an Arthur
Hills design that Golfweek says is the 33rd best
municipal course in the country. Believe it. It's a
smaller version of Erin Hills.
About 25 miles to the southeast in Milwaukee
is another highly rated municipal course, Brown
Deer milwaukeecountygolfcourses.com, a former
PGA Tour stop. The parkland course, packed with
mature trees, puts a premium on keeping it in the
bent grass fairways. And the greens are some of
the fastest, truest and biggest around.
North on I-43 are seven excellent courses,
including some of the world's best. Fire Ridge
fireridgegc.com is the first stop. A combination
parkland and links course, it's always immaculate-
ly kept and a great test. A few miles farther north
along I-43 is The Bog golfthebog.com, an Arnold
Palmer Signature Design course that winds its
way over, up and down, and through 297 acres of
the Cedarburg Bog.
Continuing north to Sheboygan Falls, you'll find
The Bull at Pinehurst Farms golfthebull.com. This
time it's a Jack Nicklaus Signature course that
Golf Digest ranks the 70th best public course in
America. The Bull demands your full attention or
your game could get gored.
Just a couple of par 5s away is Blackwolf Run
americanclubresort.com/golf/blackwolf-run,
accounting for two – The Rivers and The Meadow
Valleys – of the famous Kohler kingdom courses.
These courses have played host to a number of
tour events, including two LPGA US Opens.
Five or six miles away is Whistling Straits
americanclubresort.com/golf/whistling-straits,
home to the other Kohler gems: The Straits and
The Irish. While I like The Irish, The Straits is the
famous course, having hosted several PGA Cham-
pionships, a Senior US Open, and soon the Ryder
Cup. You can thank Pete Dye for all of the Kohler
courses.
Before heading north to Green Bay, let's take a
slight tour to the west. Perhaps one of Wis-
consin's best values and a real hidden gem is
Whispering Springs whisperingspringsgolf.com in
Fond du Lac. No famous architect here; just a solid
course that's all bent grass manicured to a tee.
West of Fond du Lac in Green Lake are
The Links and The Woodlands of Lawsonia
lawsonia.com. The names tell you what type of
courses they are, but you have to experience
the beauty and challenges. The Links, ranked in
Golfweek's list of top 100 classic courses, opened
F O C U S O N G O L F
T
Wisconsin
golf's unlikely nirvana
40 keymilwaukee.com
By Jerry Slaske
KEY Milwaukee
Golf Editor
The Brute
