Golf and Travel: Midwest USA
The Straits Course is the flagship course at Whistling Straits in Kohler Wisconsin. It has a length of 7,514 yards and a par of 72. It hosted the 86th PGA Championship which Vijay Singh was the winner in August 2004, and was host to the 2007 U.S. Senior Open. In January 2005, the Straits Course was announced as the site for the PGA Championships in 2010 and 2015, as well as the 2020 Ryder Cup. The Straits Course replicates the ancient seaside links courses of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Nestled along a two-mile (3 km) stretch of Lake Michigan, the course features vast rolling greens, deep pot bunkers, grass-topped dunes and winds that sweep in off the lake. At 7,514 yards, it is the second longest course to host a major. The seventeenth named "Pinched Nerve", the unofficial signature hole, is the most difficult par-3 on the course. At 223 yards, with towering sand dunes and the lake to the left leaves golfers with no option but to go straight for the green. The course also features two miles (3 km) of shoreline on Lake Michigan, eight holes hugging the lake, a flock of Scottish Blackface sheep, elevation changes of approximately 80 feet (24 m) and three stone bridges at holes 9, 10 and 18. Although the Straits Course duplicates British and Irish links layouts, its original state was not linksland. Before the course was built, the property was a more or less featureless abandoned airfield called Camp Haven (1949-1959) [1], with a stream running through the middle. Its one saving grace, from a golf standpoint, was its two miles (3.2 km) of lake frontage. Kohler Company CEO Herbert Kohler signed up Dye as course architect, giving him a basically unlimited budget.[citation needed] During construction, the original landscape of the Straits Course alone was covered with about 800,000 cubic yards (610,000 m³) of dirt and sand. Until recently, the amount of earth moved would have been considered extreme for a golf course, but this amount has been dwarfed by that required by several other courses, most notably Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, where 25 million cubic yards (19.1 million m³) of earth were moved. (Article sourced from Wikipedia.com) CaddyBytes image 17th Green Whistling Straits Course: (Click Here to See our Slide Show).
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Brown Deer Park golf course, Milwaukee Wisconsin
Brown Deer Park Golf Course is a public golf course maintained as part of the Milwaukee County Park System. The course was designed in 1929 by George Hanson.[1] Since then, the course has been partially redesigned[2], the clubhouse has become an historic site and the course is currently home to the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee, a PGA Tour event. Located in the northwest side of Milwaukee, WI, the course is surrounded by trees and features deep rough. Many famous golfers have played tournaments at the southeastern Wisconsin course. Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Lee Trevino, and Ed Sneed have all competed here at some point in their careers. In 1996, Tiger Woods made his pro debut at the course when he played in the Greater Milwaukee Open. Despite making a hole-in-one on the 14th hole, he finished tied for 60th and took home $2,544 in earnings.CaddyBytes image Par 4 16th Hole Brown Deer Park golf course. (Click here to see our Slide Show of Brown Deer Park golf course):