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Chris Munoz

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Erin Hills Golf Club
« on: April 18, 2005, 04:59:43 PM »
Has anyone seen or know any new information regarding Erin Hills Golf Club....I hear its going to be a real gem....Maybe even host a major in the next couple of years....Those are just rumors that I heard..........

Chris Munoz
Christian C. Munoz
Assistant Superintendent Corales
PUNTACANA Resort & Club
www.puntacana.com

Tony_Chapman

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Re:Erin Hills Golf Club
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2005, 05:07:28 PM »
Chris - There have been a few threads on this in the past and no one seems to know that much. A google search only seems to lead to some column in a Milwaukee paper, I believe.

There is nothing on the hurdzanfry website with pictures or updates, either.

Steve_ Shaffer

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Re:Erin Hills Golf Club
« Reply #2 on: April 18, 2005, 08:18:06 PM »
The Hurdzan website is woefully out of date. They must be too busy to have it updated. The article in the Milwaukee paper,previously posted here in another thread, is the only news of substance. Perhaps you should call Hurdzan's office and get an update on construction.
"Some of us worship in churches, some in synagogues, some on golf courses ... "  Adlai Stevenson
Hyman Roth to Michael Corleone: "We're bigger than US Steel."
Ben Hogan “The most important shot in golf is the next one”

cary lichtenstein

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Re:Erin Hills Golf Club
« Reply #3 on: April 18, 2005, 08:21:09 PM »
I'm going thru Wisc in Sept. Anyone know where Erin Hills is? I'd like to stop and tour it.
Live Jupiter, Fl, was  4 handicap, played top 100 US, top 75 World. Great memories, no longer play, 4 back surgeries. I don't miss a lot of things about golf, life is simpler with out it. I miss my 60 degree wedge shots, don't miss nasty weather, icing, back spasms. Last course I played was Augusta

Steve_ Shaffer

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Re:Erin Hills Golf Club
« Reply #4 on: April 18, 2005, 09:54:20 PM »
Cary
Erin, Wisconsin

Here's  the Milwaukee Jornal-Sentinel article:



  Posted: Oct. 30, 2004
Golf Beat



Gary D'Amato


   

Town of Erin - For years, I had known about an extraordinary property a few miles west of Holy Hill that was said to be designed by God and glacier to be the perfect site for a golf course.

The fortunate few who had toured the land talked about it with reverence, as if it were some sort of living shrine.

I saw the site for the first time recently, and now I understand.

Erin Hills Golf Course won't open until the spring or summer of 2006, but it is destined for greatness.

I toured the course with Bob Lang, the owner, and Steve Trattner, the project manager who will become the general manager when Erin Hills opens. Both were purposefully restrained in their comments, asking that I contact others who have walked the property.

"This isn't about me, it's about the land," said Lang, a Delafield developer who bought the property in 1999. "All I will say is that our goal is to build the most natural, challenging and traditional championship golf course we can build."
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You don't have to be a golf course architect to see the potential. The topography is breathtaking, a humble-jumble of hills and eskers left behind by the glaciers. Most of the land had never been farmed because of the terrain.

The course, in the initial stages of construction, winds through majestic old-growth oaks, around wetlands and along the Ashippun River.

Lang hired Hurdzan-Fry Golf Course Design Inc. of Columbus, Ohio, to design Erin Hills. Ron Whitten, a respected golf course architecture writer, has joined Mike Hurdzan and Dana Fry as a consultant on the project, and all three will be listed as the designers.

So how good is Erin Hills?

"Put it this way," Fry said. "I've played the top 100 courses in America and 97 of the top 100 in the world and Erin Hills arguably is the best site I've ever seen. It's a cross between Ballybunion and Sand Hills.

"It's got a larger-than-life, grandiose scale to it. It's so big and dramatic you almost gasp when you see it. It's like when you go to (Irish courses) Ballybunion or Royal County Down or Lahinch for the first time. You're in awe.

"It's a freak of nature, there's no question. It's truly one of the great pieces of land for golf anywhere."

Said Whitten: "It's a very special piece of property. Everyone who has seen it has been blown away. It's probably one of the five best properties I've ever seen in my life."

OK, the architects are paid to build the course; naturally, they are going to say glowing things about the land.

So I asked other people who have seen Erin Hills to comment.

"I think it's stunning," said Jim Reinhart of Mequon, a member of the United States Golf Association executive committee. "It's just beautiful. You could play golf there right now. It's kind of a cross between Shinnecock Hills and Prairie Dunes."

Tim Moraghan, the USGA director of championships agronomy, toured Erin Hills in August with Mike Davis, the USGA director of competitions. Both came away impressed.

"We were blown away by it," said Moraghan, who likened his visit to "how people felt when they first envisioned the National Golf Links and Shinnecock Hills on Long Island."

Lang is a casual golfer and a developer by occupation. But he is adamant that Erin Hills be preserved as a natural setting for golf and said there were no plans for houses or condos anywhere on the 532-acre property.

"I've been building houses since 1975," he said, "but this land should never be developed. It's our responsibility to put this land to its best use and preserve its natural beauty."

Unlike Whistling Straits, a flat piece of ground on which huge dunes were bulldozed into place, Erin Hills will be largely untouched by machinery. Lang said fewer than 30,000 cubic yards of dirt would be moved, a tiny amount by today's standards.

Amazingly, on 14 of the 18 holes, the ground will be virtually undisturbed.

"Not only are 14 of the fairways untouched," Fry said, "but everything around the greens is staying pretty much natural with the exception of adding sand bunkers."

Erin Hills will be an inland links course, with fescue fairways similar to those found at Whistling Straits and on the classic seaside links courses in the British Isles. The course will play firm and fast.

"I'm used to doing irrigation systems with 1,300 (sprinkler) heads," said Fry, who started his career with architect Tom Fazio in 1983. "This is probably going to have half of that. The primary roughs will get virtually no water. That's the look we're going after at Erin Hills."

The course will have a smallish, understated clubhouse. There will be no swimming pool, no tennis courts, no weddings or banquets or socials.

"We're trying to create an atmosphere for solitude," Lang said. "Golf is a journey and we want to offer golfers solitude and variety in their journey."

The course will measure about 7,800 yards from the back tees and no two holes are alike. Even many of the best courses in the world have a weak hole or two, but there will be no weak holes at Erin Hills.

"We don't want an ordinary hole," Whitten said. "We've got some things you haven't seen on a golf course before. That sounds arrogant, but it's true."

Moraghan agreed.

"They're all really, really strong holes," he said. "There are really good shot values on every hole."

Good enough to play host to, say, a U.S. Open someday?

"To say it's premature (to talk about that) is an understatement," Moraghan said. "But it's kind of like 'Field of Dreams.' Build it and they will come."

Said Fry, "There's no question this course could host any event that would ever want to go there."

The best thing about Erin Hills is that it won't be an ultra-exclusive private club with a Trump-like initiation fee. It will be a true public course; the green fee has not yet been determined.

"We want it to be like Bethpage (site of the 2002 U.S. Open)," Whitten said. "It has the potential to be one of the great public courses in America.

"I feel quite lucky. People ask me how many home sites and I say, 'None.' They ask about power lines and I say, 'None.' They say, 'You (expletive).' It's our hope that we don't screw it up."

Hurdzan, Fry and Whitten aren't as well-known as Fazio or Pete Dye and they understand Erin Hills could be their legacy course.

"It's going to be a unique and special place and everybody involved in the project knows it," Fry said. "We all know this is it. In 100 years, I really believe it will be a shrine to the game of golf. It's that good of a place.

"And that's nothing we did. God did that."



"Some of us worship in churches, some in synagogues, some on golf courses ... "  Adlai Stevenson
Hyman Roth to Michael Corleone: "We're bigger than US Steel."
Ben Hogan “The most important shot in golf is the next one”

cary lichtenstein

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Re:Erin Hills Golf Club
« Reply #5 on: April 18, 2005, 11:09:17 PM »
Steve:

Thanks.

Mapquest indicates it is just east of St. Paul, Mn. in Wisconsin

Cary
Live Jupiter, Fl, was  4 handicap, played top 100 US, top 75 World. Great memories, no longer play, 4 back surgeries. I don't miss a lot of things about golf, life is simpler with out it. I miss my 60 degree wedge shots, don't miss nasty weather, icing, back spasms. Last course I played was Augusta

Jonathan McCord

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Re:Erin Hills Golf Club
« Reply #6 on: April 18, 2005, 11:45:42 PM »
    I believe Erin Hills Golf Course will be located WNW of Milwaukee.  I do realize that the article says it is located near Erin, but the Ashippun River is located just North and West of Thompson, WI, and there is a Holy Hill Road nearby.  All this considered, I think this is probably the site or general location of Erin Hills.

   If you type in Thompson, WI, using Mapquest, and then look around the surrounding area you should see the Ashippun River and Holy Hill Road, a.k.a 167.

    So from what I have researched and from what my buddy tells me who lives in Mukwonago, just south of the site, I think it is WNW of Milwaukee.  Regardless of where it is, it sounds like an amazing property, one I myself, can't wait to see.
« Last Edit: April 18, 2005, 11:46:40 PM by Jonathan McCord »
"Read it, Roll it, Hole it."

Jack_Marr

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Re:Erin Hills Golf Club
« Reply #7 on: April 19, 2005, 02:41:35 AM »
I have heard that somewhere before - the best site ever. In fact, I hear it all the time from designers.

Actually, eskers provide a very good landscape for golf courses. They also have a sandy moraine base. Esker Hills in Tullamore is an excellent course, I think.
John Marr(inan)

PThomas

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Re:Erin Hills Golf Club
« Reply #8 on: April 19, 2005, 08:52:18 AM »
it is  near Milwaukee, for sure
199 played, only Augusta National left to play!

Mike McGuire

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Re:Erin Hills Golf Club
« Reply #9 on: April 20, 2005, 08:22:50 AM »
I spoke with the owner a couple of  weeks ago. His is very passionate and has high expectations for this project. He offered to give me a tour in May. I will post details and pictures. If anyone has a specific question let me know.

Erin Hills is 1/2 hour NW of Milwaukee. South side of Hwy O ..2-3 miles West of HWY 83.

Mike McGuire

Steve_ Shaffer

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Re:Erin Hills Golf Club
« Reply #10 on: April 20, 2005, 09:03:16 AM »
Mike

Looking forward to your pics.

Here are some obvious questions:

1. When will course open?
2. What is the cost to play?
3. Will there be a website soon?

Thanks

Steve
"Some of us worship in churches, some in synagogues, some on golf courses ... "  Adlai Stevenson
Hyman Roth to Michael Corleone: "We're bigger than US Steel."
Ben Hogan “The most important shot in golf is the next one”

Scott_Burroughs

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Re:Erin Hills Golf Club
« Reply #11 on: April 20, 2005, 09:43:36 AM »
Here are some obvious questions:

1. When will course open?
2. What is the cost to play?
3. Will there be a website soon?

Thanks
Steve

Steve,

The answers to your first two questions were stated in the article that YOU posted above!   ;D


Here's the land for Erin Hills:





Interestingly (to me), just a couple of miles from a friend's/co-worker's hometown, Hartford.

RJ_Daley

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Re:Erin Hills Golf Club
« Reply #12 on: April 20, 2005, 09:52:44 AM »
Mike McGuire, I'd like to accompany you on a tour if you could arrange that.  I have heard from a mutual friend of Rod Whitman that this is a really special piece of ground.

That whole kettle-morraine area is interesting topography.  I myself looked at 2 different properties in that northern section of Kettle-Morraine forest.  The eskars left by the glaciers are tricky to evaluate as is the other land forms.  Some of those eskars are chuck full of ground stone from being drug along and deposited from the glaciers as they melted.  Then there are the bowls or kettles that often are underlined with ledge or rock strata.  Yet, other places one finds elluvial sand-gravel washes from the melting glacier.  It is a real mishmash of material and tricky to find the right quadrant of suitable ground.  It sounds like they found a sandy-gravel washout.  

I used to go up to Holy Hill on family outtings often as a kid.  It really is inspiring countryside.  Besides what we cheeseheads call "gods country" along the bluffs and coulees of the Mississippi river, this area NW of Milwaukee in the Kettle Morraine is some of the most scenic that we have.  The course ought to be a big hit.
No actual golf rounds were ruined or delayed, nor golf rules broken, in the taking of any photographs that may be displayed by the above forum user.

Steve_ Shaffer

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Re:Erin Hills Golf Club
« Reply #13 on: April 20, 2005, 10:58:03 AM »
Scott

The article did say the course would open in the spring or summer of 2006. That's a big window. I'd like something more specific, if possible.

The article did say that green fee has yet to be determined. Maybe it's been determined now as the article was published Oct 30, 2004.

Steve
"Some of us worship in churches, some in synagogues, some on golf courses ... "  Adlai Stevenson
Hyman Roth to Michael Corleone: "We're bigger than US Steel."
Ben Hogan “The most important shot in golf is the next one”

Scott_Burroughs

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Re:Erin Hills Golf Club
« Reply #14 on: April 20, 2005, 11:13:28 AM »
Scott

The article did say the course would open in the spring or summer of 2006. That's a big window. I'd like something more specific, if possible.

The article did say that green fee has yet to be determined. Maybe it's been determined now as the article was published Oct 30, 2004.

Steve

True, but in terms of construction, how much can be done from Nov to mid-April in Wisconsin?  I'm guessing they pretty much shut down for most of that time.  They could probably be more specific on opening come this fall.

The fees will be interesting to see, since there will be no hotel/resort like the American Club and it's 4 high-end courses an hour+ from here, and if they adopt the walking-only w/caddies option that Whistling Straits has considering the links-like nature the course seems like it will be.

Don't think I saw a mention if there will be cart paths or not.
« Last Edit: April 20, 2005, 11:14:05 AM by Scott_Burroughs »

RJ_Daley

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Re:Erin Hills Golf Club
« Reply #15 on: April 20, 2005, 02:46:12 PM »
Quote
Don't think I saw a mention if there will be cart paths or not.

Man, would it be too much to hope for that they take a firm stand and not run a concrete ribbon through the whole darn course?
No actual golf rounds were ruined or delayed, nor golf rules broken, in the taking of any photographs that may be displayed by the above forum user.

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