Kohler's River Course at Blackwolf Run was one of four Wisconsin courses to make the Top 100 list. (Brandon Tucker/WorldGolf.com)

Wisconsin curdles up four of America's top 100 public courses in Golf Magazine list

By Brandon Tucker,
Staff Writer

The public golf courses in Wisconsin are among America's best, according to a list recently released by Golf Magazine.

The magazine's 2008 "Top 100 Places You Can Play" used an expert panel to list the nation's best public-access golf courses. Anchored by the renowned Kohler Resort, Wisconsin checks in as one of America's best states for public golf, but it doesn't end at the internationally famous Straits Course.

Wisconsin golf courses: The "Top 100 You Can Play"

No. 3: Straits Course, Whistling Straits: The Straits moved up one notch from its 2006 position to the third-best golf course in Wisconsin. This Pete Dye design is plenty challenging from the back tees to demand precision out of the world's best and will host two PGA Championships in the coming years, and the 2020 Ryder Cup Matches as well. For the amateur, its rugged appearance is demonizing enough to make your knees shake, no matter which tee you play from.

No. 13: River Course at Blackwolf Run: Though just a few miles from Whistling Straits, Dye's River Course is a complete 180. It's set on hilly and forested parkland property along the Sheyboygan River. It's so secluded all you hear is the bubbling current. This is one of Dye's best compilations of risk-reward holes that often feature mulitple ways to play it, from bold to conservative. No hole depicts this better than No. 9, a short par 4 with three very different ways to play the hole, from short and safe, to over trees, to over the river.

No. 27: Erin Hills Golf Course: One of several new golf courses to debut on the magazine's list, Erin Hills leap frogs ahead of the pack to land at 27th best in the land. The course is located 35 miles from Milwaukee and is close enough to Kohler to include on an all-star trip.

Designed by Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry, Erin Hills is full of remarkable features. For starters, it can stretch to 8,200 yards. It also features a blind tee shot on the par-3 seventh hole, and greens range from 78 yards long to just 1,800 cubic feet. Certainly one of the year's most controversial courses, it's receiving plenty of buzz and is host to the 2008 U.S. Women's Publinks championship. It's also believed to be considered for a U.S. Open as early as 2017.

No. 68: Irish Course, Whistling Straits: Jumping up seven spots from its 2006 ranking is the Straits' lesser-known neighbor, the Irish. Whistling Straits' Irish Course features the same rugged mounding and bunkering created by Dye, the only difference is that it plays mostly hidden to Lake Michigan, though it does peak out on both nines. While the Straits' lakeside par 3s attract all the photographs, the Irish's "Blind Man's Bluff" par 3, played to an enormous green partially blind by a dune right in front of a tee box, scores points for Kohler's most imaginative hole.

Golf Magazine's rankings are put together with input from the magazine's World Course Ranking Panel, its editorial staff, industry insiders, and the magazine's network of "course spies." Click here to see the complete list.

October 21, 2008