Best Golf Courses In Wisconsin

Best Golf Courses In Wisconsin

The Badger State has more than 500 golf courses, including the world famous Whistling Straits, which has hosted the Ryder Cup, the US Open and three PGA Championships. One of the advantages of golf in this state is that most of the top courses are available for the public to play, unlike many states where the best tracks are often hidden away at private members clubs. This makes Wisconsin an attractive destination for the travelling golfer. But where should he or she head? Read on for the lowdown on the best golf courses in Wisconsin.

Blackwolf Run (Meadow Valleys)

• Location: Kohler
• Designed by: Pete Dye
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 7,250 Yards
• Green fee: $85-$250
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When the US Women’s Open was held at Blackwolf Run in 2012 the composite course used the back nine from Meadow Valleys. This comes to a close with the par-4 18th which has two greens: one for those playing the red tees, one side of the Sheboygan River and another green for the rest (above) on the far side of the river.

Blackwolf Run (River)

• Location: Kohler
• Designed by: Pete Dye
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 7,404 Yards
• Green fee: $150-$360
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Any doubt as to how this course got its name will be dispelled on the opening hole, a par 5 which has the Sheboygan River running along its full length. The river and the mature trees give the course an elegant, relaxed look. Being able to carry the ball over hazards with accuracy is a skill much utilised here, as 14 holes have either a gorge or water on them. One of the rare exceptions is the par-4 15th, The Sand Pit (above), which requires two large bunkers to be evaded off the tee, and then a huge greenside bunker to be cleared to reach the putting surface.

Erin Hills

• Location: Haven
• Designed by: Michael Hurdzan, Dana Fry & Ron Whitten
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 7,731 Yards
• Green fee: $270-$330
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The Shamrock club logo gives a clue that this is modelled on an old-style Irish links course. But what primarily dictated the creation was the landscape itself, formed by mile-thick glaciers retreating, which left a rumpled landscape reminiscent of linksland over which the architects have gently laid a course with minimal earth moving by utilising the existing contours, mounds and humps.

Sand Valley (Sand Valley)

• Location: Nekoosa
• Designed by: Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 6,938 Yards
• Green fee: $175-$235
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The clue is in the name. The course has been built in amongst sand dunes and with large expanses of exposed sand. But the aim was to craft not a faux links course, but one looking like the famous English heathland golf courses. The back nine, which is longer that the front by 500 yards, opens and closes with strong par 5s.

Sand Valley (Mammoth Dunes)

• Location: Nekoosa
• Designed by: David McLay Kidd
• Par: 73
• Yardage: 6,988 Yards
• Green fee: $175-$235
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The course takes its name from the large hillsides of exposed sand. Other standout features are the wide fairways which seem almost impossible to miss and huge greens. So expect your Greens In Regulation stats to be good; but also be prepared for putts of up to 150ft.

Sentryworld

• Location: Stevens Point
• Designed by: Robert Trent Jones Jr., Bruce Charlton, and Jay Blasi
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 7,145 Yards
• Green fee: $300
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Host of the 2023 US Senior Open, this mainly flat parkland layout has water on two-thirds of its holes. Added beauty comes on the par-3 16th where 30,000 flowers give bold block patterns of colour. Built in 1982, the course was remodelled by its original architect, Robert Trent Jones II, in 2014.

Troy Burne Golf Club

• Location: Hudson
• Designed by: Tom Lehman, Michael Hurdzan & Dana Fry
• Par: 71
• Yardage: 6,978 Yards
• Green fee: $69-$96
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One million cubic yards of earth were moved to create this course. The front nine is more open, with mounded areas and bunkers defining the holes, whereas the back nine is slightly more constrained with the presence of pines, birch, oak, and maple trees. There are 120 bunkers on the layout, half of them greenside, and the four man-made lakes provide water hazards on eight of the holes.

University Ridge

• Location: Fitchburg
• Designed by: Robert Trent Jones II
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 7,286 Yards
• Green fee: $40-$95
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The ridge in question was formed where the Wisconsin Glacier stopped. The course is home to the University of Wisconsin golf teams. The front nine’s open holes run through prairie and marshland, and then the back nine starts with half a dozen holes cut through woodland. There are five par 3s and five par 5s, and only at the 14th and 15th do you play a hole with the same par as the previous one.

Whistling Straits (Irish)

• Location: Haven
• Designed by: Pete and Alice Dye
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 7,201 Yards
• Green fee: $85-$250
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Inland from the Straits course, this layout, although less demanding than the Straits, shares many similar characteristics. However it is more protected from the wind and has only about half the number of bunkers. However this still leaves a lot of bunkering, as evidenced on the par-3 6th with its island green surrounded by sand.

Whistling Straits (Straits)

• Location: Haven
• Designed by: Pete and Alice Dye
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 7,790 Yards
• Green fee: $225-$500
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This is as a dramatic a location as you could hope for. Well so long as you do not suffer from ammophobia, as there are estimated to be a thousand bunkers on this course, a hundred of which are on the 8th hole. But the most infamous bunker is on the 18th hole, one which confused Dustin Johnson and cost him him a play-off place in the PGA Championship of 2010. The majority of the holes are played dead into the wind or dead downwind. The Straits is a walking only course.