In the past two decades, Wisconsin has seen an influx of upscale, high-quality public golf courses. Architects like Dye, Nicklaus and the Hurdzan-Fry team have left their mark with courses such as Whistling Straits, the Bull at Pinehurst Farms, and Erin Hills. More than a dozen other high-profile public courses have opened in the state since the mid-1980s.
The new courses have tended to obscure some of the state’s older public courses, many of which have considerable architectural merit. One such course is Old Hickory Golf Club, near the small town of Beaver Dam, about 45 miles northeast of Madison.
Old Hickory has an interesting pedigree. Its first nine holes were designed in 1920 by Tom Bendelow, the Johnny Appleseed of golf course design, who did several courses in Wisconsin. The course was updated over the next few decades, including the addition of a par 3 that plays over a small pond. In 1968, the course expanded to 18 holes. The design work and routing on the new nine was done by Billy Sixty Jr., son of the well-known Milwaukee golf columnist Billy Sixty Sr., who at one time held the course record at the original nine-hole Old Hickory GC. Robert Greaves, who had his hand in a number of golf course projects in Wisconsin in the 1960s and 1970s, did the engineering work on the new holes.
The result is a solid, 18-hole layout in which both the front and back nines blend the older and newer parts of the course. The course, set on rolling, wooded terrain, is well-regarded by Wisconsin golf connoisseurs. It has enough bones to host a number of strong regional tournaments, including this year’s Wisconsin State Amateur. (NBC golf analyst Roger Maltbie at one time was a frequent visitor, owing the relatives nearby, and was known to have high regard for the course.)
Course details: It plays to a par of 72, at 6,727 yards from the tips (rating 72.9/slope 130); the white tees play at 6,433 yards. Although a traditional layout with 4 par 3s and 5s, along with 10 par 4s, the course ends somewhat unconventionally with a 5-3-5 finish. The course’s most notable feature is the use of the rolling terrain to create a number of shots through valleys and up hills, along with a few blind shots. Seven of the course’s 14 par 4s and 5s feature significantly uphill approach shots, and the course features a few green sites that utilize a “shelf” approach, in which any approach shot that doesn’t reach the green on the fly will fall away.
The following is a tour of some of Old Hickory’s more notable holes and features (yardages listed from tips):
No. 1 (390 yd par 4)
A solid opener that provides a good flavor of what’s to come. The tee shot is into a valley, with an uphill approach shot.
A large bunker guards the left side of the green.
No. 2 (400 yd par 4)
A newer hole, but one with some nice strategic elements. Two large groupings of old trees frame the approach into the green. The choice on the tee is to drive short of the trees, and take a longer approach shot; an accurate drive through the tree corridor leaves a shorter approach. The view here is from 190 yards, with the tall framing trees left and right; note how the terrain hides the surface of the green.
The green is long but narrow, and well guarded by traps.
No. 4 (510 yd par 5)
The shortest par 5 at Old Hickory may be the best par 5 on the course. The drive is uphill to a ridge line and a feature I’ve always enjoyed -- a reverse canted fairway. The fairway slopes significantly from left to right near the landing zone, and gently doglegs to the left. For the bold golfer, any tee shot short of the ridge will have a blind second into the green.
Those going for the green here may also have to contend with a unique feature of the course – walls built from glacial rock deposits. The newer section of the course was built on farmland; the land contained several glacial-rock walls, built to keep livestock within the farm property. (A still-in-use stone wall can be seen on a working farm that lies to the right of the 4th fairway.) The stone wall on the 4th pays something of an homage to the 13th hole – the Pit -- at the North Berwick links in Scotland.
A look back at the ridge line of the 4th fairway, and the rock wall fronting the green.
No. 5 (429 yd par 4)
A fine par 4 that is one of the newer holes on the course, but would feel right at home on the older section – evidence, perhaps, that Sixty Jr. and Greaves sought harmony with the old Bendelow holes. The drive is straightaway to a ridge line in the distance, guarded by a massive oak tree on the right side.
The approach is downhill to a tiny green – 28 paces deep and only 13 paces wide. A steep fall-off on the backside of the green makes the golfer think twice about attacking a back pin. A running approach shot short of the green is possible, but delicate, as the fairway slopes significantly toward the green; it’s not unusual to see such an approach shot run through the entire green and off the back. Note the bell to the right of the green; one of three bells used on the course because of blind shots and approaches.
A look back at the approach shot of the 5th, with the ridge line in the distance.
No. 8 (316 yd par 4)
A Bendelow original – the kind of quirky short par 4 he was known to design. The tee shot is into a valley, and the fairway stops abruptly at about 280 yards (the tee is in a grove of trees – near the ones with the yellowing leaves middle-left of photo).
Turn 90 degrees to your right, and here’s the green. The green here is one of the better ones on the course; everything slopes away from the hill in the back of the green, and toward a pond right of the green.
Another view of the hole, about halfway down the fairway from the tee. Those who can sling a tee shot around or over the trees, and don’t mind the risk of dumping one in the pond, can tempt fate by driving at the green.
No.9 (414 yd par 4)
A strong ending to the front nine, and another Bendelow original. The tee shot is blind over a small ridge line no more than 100 yards in front of the tee.
The fairway moves abruptly right and downhill into a valley – a terrific use of the natural contours of the land available to Bendelow.
The approach shot is sharply uphill, to the first of the course’s shelf greens.
A closer look at the shelf that has to be carried to stay on the green.
A look back at the 9th – in my mind, probably the best hole on the course.
No. 10 (380 yd par 4)
A dogleg left that hugs the boundary of the course; the tee shot is toward another ridge line where the fairway turns left.
The approach is to another shelf green; this is the most built-up green on the course.
Those who have been short at the well-known par 3 boxcar 7th hole at nearby Lawsonia Links will feel right at home with a timid approach at Old Hickory’s 10th.
No. 11 (421 par 4)
A rugged par 4 that’s uphill all the way over a rollicking fairway; a very stern test. The players on the right side of the fairway in the distance are a good 30-40 yards short of the green.
No. 13 (336 yd par 4)
A short par 4 that utilizes another shelf green site as its chief defense. OB lines the entire left side of the fairway; the approach shot (this is from 100 yards out) is uphill, and through a corridor of trees. Even from only a short distance away, the golfer can only see part of the green, causing uncertainty on the shot.
No. 14 (419 yd par 4)
Although water is present on the course in the form of a few ponds, it rarely comes into play in a significant way. The 14th is an exception. The sharp dogleg left hole features a tough approach shot – the golfer who steers too far away from the pond lining the entire right side of the fairway does so at peril, as a creek runs menacingly close to the left side of the green, which feeds balls toward the water.
No. 15 (334 yd par 4)
A short par 4 with another significantly uphill approach shot; again, the golfer even from 100 yards away cannot make out the entire green.
No. 16 (540 yd par 5)
Another stone wall fence guards the outside corner of the dogleg on this long par 5.
No. 18 (577 yd par 5)
The last hole on the course is the longest, and it’s a rugged hole in which two shorter Bendelow holes were converted into a long par 5 over tumbling terrain. The tee shot features a blind landing area; way off in the distance, where the sky meets the land, are two grain silos – that’s your aiming point.
The hole dives down into a narrow valley before running uphill for the final 200+ yards.
The final stretch of fairway is severely canted; here’s what it looks like at the 200 yard mark (to the green).
A look back at the 18th fairway from near the green.
Old Hickory Golf Club is in many ways an ideal member-owned, public-access course. The course staff maintains it in fine condition, and the club actively promotes and participates in state association tournaments. It is the home course for two local high schools, and annually hosts regional high school tournaments for both boys and girls. In short, Old Hickory exhibits a true commitment toward nurturing and growing the game. And it’s both fun and a challenge to play. Those lured to Wisconsin’s notable new courses would do well to seek out this old standby.