Blackwolf Run (Meadows Valley) and Whistling Straits (Straits)
Our first two courses at "Destination Kohler" were pretty damn good.
Our final leg of the Wisconsin trip was at Kohler Resort, where we met up with the other four guys in our group who weren’t quite so golf thirsty as to spend a full week playing. Instead, we met up here to tackle four top-100 courses, including the site of last years Ryder Cup, the Straits course at Whistling Straits.
All four of the courses were designed by Pete Dye, a man who snapped that “No one said golf is supposed to be easy” when someone mentioned how hard his courses were. Suffice it to say I expected to get my rear handed to me. In reality, it was a mixed bag. This will detail the first two of those courses.
We first played what many consider to be the “worst” course - Blackwolf Run - Meadow Valleys. It’s ranked 74th on the Top 100 Public courses in the U.S. and that is the lowest of all the courses we played this week except for the unranked Wild Rock. The first hole requires about a 200-yard carry over water from the green tees and I think over half our group rinsed their tee shot. This is the kind of thing that drives me crazy - it’s not the hardest thing to do but on Hole #1? I prefer the gentle handshake opening hole, something that welcomes you to the course and gets your sea legs under you before smacking you in the face. Mr. Dye feels otherwise.
Of all the courses at Kohler, Meadow Valleys has the smallest personality if that makes sense. There isn’t anything particularly distinctive about it - but on its own, it’s a VERY, very solid course.
Above is the par-3 8th hole which from the white tees (I smartly decided to move up a set after the first hole) is maybe 150 yards at most. But going long and right means a Pete Dye bunker, left is death … I made par here and I felt like I’d eagled it. In fact, if anything DOES stick out about this course, it’s the par-3’s. Most of them force a dangerous carry, and the 17th has a gigantic tree on the right side that isn’t really in play if you hit a normal ball but it’s so present in your line of sight it absolutely messes with you.
The 18th is a TOUGH par-4 with a river on the approach to the green. The good news for us is our buddies finished before us so they watched all four of us hit absolutely awful approach shots.
As the second-18 of the day for some of us (after Lawsonia and a 90-minute drive), I didn’t play well and got frustrated at times by how perfectly Dye had laid some traps throughout the course. But there’s no denying it was a top-notch course.
The next morning, we played the true gem, Whistling Straits (Straits). This course has held the PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup and will undoubtedly hold more premier events soon. It deserves every bit of it.
Caddies are required - for good reason - at the Straits and we got two great ones, J.J. and Adam. J.J. was all about pumping me up and encouraging good shots and made it an absolute delight. There’s no getting around it, it’s a TOUGH course - and I can’t imagine it from back tees.
You can see Lake Michigan there and at times the water looked almost like the Caribbean, a statement I never thought I’d make after living in Chicago for two years. It’s worth pointing out how good J.J. and Adam were at pointing out the lines on the green - lines I never would have taken on my own. While I didn’t score well, my score would have been truly absurd without their help.
You finish the 9th hole - above - and make a well needed pit stop at the turn.
Finally, we found our way to the 17th hole, where Jordan Spieth famously made this shot during the Ryder Cup:
It’s clear from the video how steep it is, but even crazier standing on the green and looking down.
A friend of mine said I should have dropped a ball down there to try it, and my only honest answer was if I’d hit my shot down there I would have left it there. I wanted NO part of that sauce.
The Straits course is ranked a top-5 public course in the United States and it deserves every bit of that ranking. I certainly did get beat up - and there’s a lot of rough that if you hit into, you well may never find your golf ball let alone advance it. But when you hit a great shot, you are rewarded and it feels SO good to pull that off. Having top notch caddies truly helps there, too. I can honestly say that this and Erin Hills were two of the best golfing rounds of my life.
That night we ate at the Wisconsin Room, the fanciest of the restaurants on property that we dined at. The interesting thing about Kohler is that everything they do related to golf is perfect - everything is better than you hope it will be in terms of quality, service, etc. And everything else - the lodging (The Inn at Woodlake for us), the food, etc. - is just short of being great. That said, I did discover a new drink that soared up my rankings - the Fescue Rescue. That’s Jameson Irish whiskey, ginger beer and lemonade and … yeah, baby. (Every course also offers a free brat at the turn. So Wisconsin and so good.)
Next up, our final two courses: Blackwolf Run (River) and Whistling Straits (Irish).