[Joe Bausch]

I tthink it will be a terrific site for the US Open.

I agree.  Been thinking that since I played it.

[Jim Colton]

The slower rounds are much more due to the fescue being 5 yards off the fairway (and looking for golf balls) then the routing.  If they give the course more width, rounds will be in line with other walking courses, like Bandon and Ballyneal.  That is why I was encouraged when I heard that the USGA may request added width to the course.

Michael,

 The green-to-tee walks and elevation changes at Erin Hills are the most onerous of any walking-only golf course I've ever played. I think I could probably do 36 there, 54 maybe tops.

 I agree with Terry that the US Open here will be a home run, and my guess is Erin Hills will be considered "great" as a result, eventually rising to top 25-30 in the U.S. status down the road.

[Don_Mahaffey]

I've never been to EH and so I'm looking in from the outside, but there seems to be a pretty big gulf between a course needing to be "perfect" when it opens and needing significant rebuilding and redesign shortly after opening. I guess all is well that ends well,  unless you're the guy paying for the first iteration.

[John Kavanaugh]

The only thing that needed to be changed at Erin Hills were the critics opinions. It was a better course on opening day. It's evolution to fit a mindset is sad state of affairs which hopefully will signal the end of magazine influence. Btw:  I easily walked the course sans caddie and I don't walk anything.

[William_G]

EH will be a great US Open site, I think the design is for those who can hit it long and high, those back tees at 7800 yards are no accident, and the hikes to those tees aren't either LOL...

I love Lawsonia Links, but I'm an old guy

[JR Potts]

I like Erin Hills much more than Whistling Straits. I think it will be a terrific site for the US Open.

It's because you played great.  For me, that fescue is more akin to a water hazard as it is thick, lush and ridiculously penal.  I enjoyed it...and will play it again...but I'll wait until it's a drought year.  In my opinion, Whistling > Erin

[William_G]

I like Erin Hills much more than Whistling Straits. I think it will be a terrific site for the US Open.

It's because you played great.  For me, that fescue is more akin to a water hazard as it is thick, lush and ridiculously penal.  I enjoyed it...and will play it again...but I'll wait until it's a drought year.  In my opinion, Whistling > Erin

EH>Straits(fake)  

will be fun to watch

[Josh Tarble]

I agree with JR, WS is better than EH.  In my opinion it's a little more playable as it's not a fatal mistake missing 5 yards off of a fairway.

However, they are both really fun and having them in one itinerary would make for a very fun trip.

[Dan Moore]

I visited Erin Hills recently to take some photos (thank you John Morrissett).  It was my first visit in a few years (probably since shortly after the new ownership took over) and the improvements in conditioning were simply phenomenal.  

No longer are the fescue fairways patchy and bare or marred by tire marks and cart paths nearby.  No longer were the bunker edges barely grown in and ragged.  One of my early complaints with the course was with what the original owner called the "Sea of Fescue" which was in fact a jungle of invasive chest high weeds.  In a project started under the original owner the jungle is gone in most places and wispy brown fescue was blowing in the wind.  Another huge improvement has been the elimination of over 300 mostly scraggy looking trees which has opened up views across the course.  

While there are still some routing issues and few other small improvements can still be made, clearly things have changed at Erin Hills and for the better.  I'm working on a separate post to show some of the changes in a series of then and now photos, in the meantime here are a few recent shots.  

I don't think there is any question Erin Hills will be a fantastic US Open Venue.  

1st Hole


From 5th Tee Overlooking 7th Green


18th

[Michael George]

Jim - I don't disagree with you that it is a very undulating golf course and a tough walk and never intended to say that it could ever be a fast round ever.  

However, my experience was that the delays in play were often caused by the fescue being unnecessarily in play too often.  I was there 2 weeks ago (I organized a group of 32 guys from Akron so we had 8 foursomes in our group).   In monitoring the pace of play, I thought it moved along fine.  Other than delays due to frequent visits to the drink cart girl, the only delays seemed to be due to those holes where frequent golfers were in the fescue (like 3/4 & 13/14).  I feel that the undulations of the golf course provide it sufficient challenge and it really does not need the fescue to defend it.  Here's hoping that they add width because otherwise, it is a spectacular place.

  

[Ran Morrissett]

Dan and Howard, Tremendous photos!

In regards to pace of play at Erin Hills, here are some random thoughts:

1) Erin Hills was never meant to replicate the charms of the speediest tracks I know – Swinley, Pulborough, Southern Pines, etc.  After all, it is a 1,000-1,500 yards longer than those courses. It was geared from the beginning to test the best and that stretches things out. Often times you walk past the back markers to get to the ones that you are playing. True, Ran Morrissett has longer walks from green to tee than Henrik Stenson. Is that a design flaw? I don’t think so. Erin Hills was built specifically with hosting big events in mind. I spoke extensively with Ron Whitten on this subject matter.  Spacing and crowd issues were a primary consideration and those considerations trumped building an intimate course like Wild Horse.

2) There are a few destination places (Pebble, Kiawah, Kapalua) where the environment and golf holes are so compelling that I don’t get bent out of shape if it takes ~4 1/2 hours. Erin Hills falls in that category. Even it takes 4 1/2 hours, it doesn’t feel like it/you aren’t unaware of it as you are engaged throughout.


Decision time for the 8 handicap. You are 230 yards from the elevated 14th green – do you have a go? Or do you have the discipline to lay up well to the left (out of the picture) for the sake of having the best angle down the length of the green?

3) The MacLehose Trail up and down the peaks of Hong Kong is a tough walk. How hard is walking ~8 miles in the Wisconsin countryside?! In the golf world, is it any more strenuous than favorites like Yale or Royal Hague?  And it is not like you are walking between rows of condos as you go from green to tee either. Like Yale and Haagsche, you are in pretty land from the 1st tee through to the 18th green as Howard's aerial indicates. If you stay submersed in nature, I tend to think all is well. The 600 yard walk along the river bank between 12 and 13 at Cape Breton Highland is hardly torture.

4) I love carrying my bag and zipping around my beloved Southern Pines late in the afternoon. One reason? It is my local and I have tons of other things to do. When I go play Erin Hills, it isn’t near my house or any place else for that matter. I am going to stay there too so ... time pressure isn’t as acute. So what if it takes 4 1/2 hours? What was I going to do with those extra minutes in the countryside of Wisconsin?! I am on vacation, I am relaxed, I am in a pretty place, and I am having fun. Life is not bad.

5) Ultimately, the beauty of golf is that all the battlefields are different. You don’t have to confine yourself to one sort or the other. Erin Hills was conceived as a big boy course and it serves a purpose. Ala TPC Stadium and its state cousin Whistling Straits, you’ll get to compare your game to the famous players of the day when televised events emanate from there. Let me know when you see an event televised from Swinley . If you don’t like playing such places on occasion, so be it – I get that point of view too and I will certainly always hold fast walking designs as the ideal. Having said that though, I enjoy the full range of all that golf has to offer.

Best,

[Phil McDade]

Ran:

My concern with the walk (and thus the routing) of Erin Hills isn't so much the length (as you say, it's a brawny course meant to host majors in an era of unrestricted technology), nor its up-and-down-ness -- this is pure glacial moraine territory, and some courses built on similar land (see West Bend's front nine) have some similar ruggedness to them.

It's that the walk around the 18 holes isn't intuitive; it doesn't flow very well (with a few exceptions, such as the corridor of 2-3-4 -- ironically, the same corridor envisioned in other routings of the course, only reversed ), and it often lends itself to a question (upon holing out on the green) that I think poorly routed courses lead to: "Where do I go next?" (e.g.: the transition after 4 is particularly bad; the flow of the land takes you to 17, not the abrupt turn and up for the 5th tee.)

Eric T.'s point about the Wisconsin back-woodsman is a good one; EHills strikes me a course with a bunch of good-to-very good holes, some exceptional ones as well, and -- when played in the fast-and-firm conditions of the recent US Am there -- a real neat exercise in what comes close to approximating links golf in the Midwest. Properly set up, and with some dry weather, the US Open in 2017 will be a blast to watch the pros take on. But it seems to be a collection of 18 holes, each with its own test, rather than a seamless whole. And with such a vast canvas to work with, and lots of interesting terrain not used, I think a central question of Erin Hills will always be: was there a better routing out there somewhere?

[William_G]

1) Erin Hills was never meant to replicate the charms of the speediest tracks I know – Swinley, Pulborough, Southern Pines, etc.  After all, it is a 1,000-1,500 yards longer than those courses. It was geared from the beginning to test the best and that stretches things out. Often times you walk past the back markers to get to the ones that you are playing. True, Ran Morrissett has longer walks from green to tee than Henrik Stenson. Is that a design flaw? I don’t think so. Erin Hills was built specifically with hosting big events in mind. I spoke extensively with Ron Whitten on this subject matter.  Spacing and crowd issues were a primary consideration and those considerations trumped building an intimate course like Wild Horse.

2) There are a few destination places (Pebble, Kiawah, Kapalua) where the environment and golf holes are so compelling that I don’t get bent out of shape if it takes ~4 1/2 hours. Erin Hills falls in that category. Even it takes 4 1/2 hours, it doesn’t feel like it/you aren’t unaware of it as you are engaged throughout.

4) I love carrying my bag and zipping around my beloved Southern Pines late in the afternoon. One reason? It is my local and I have tons of other things to do. When I go play Erin Hills, it isn’t near my house or any place else for that matter. I am going to stay there too so ... time pressure isn’t as acute. So what if it takes 4 1/2 hours? What was I going to do with those extra minutes in the countryside of Wisconsin?! I am on vacation, I am relaxed, I am in a pretty place, and I am having fun. Life is not bad.

5) Ultimately, the beauty of golf is that all the battlefields are different. You don’t have to confine yourself to one sort or the other. Erin Hills was conceived as a big boy course and it serves a purpose. Ala TPC Stadium and its state cousin Whistling Straits, you’ll get to compare your game to the famous players of the day when televised events emanate from there. Let me know when you see an event televised from Swinley . If you don’t like playing such places on occasion, so be it – I get that point of view too and I will certainly always hold fast walking designs as the ideal. Having said that though, I enjoy the full range of all that golf has to offer.

no doubt that life is not bad at EH.

also, great write up in courses by country...

there is no doubt that the course is designed for a big competition with big players who hit the ball in the air, that was what I thought during play, and it will be fun to watch for sure

when I finished 18, I thought that I would not invite 7 other buddies to visit EH with me for a buddies trip as they may all slit their wrists after 18 if faced with another 18 the next day,  

for the singular, individual golfer, it is a beautiful place

cheers

[Keith Buntrock]

Erin Hills hosted our USGA Public Links qualifier this year again. The first round took 6 hours in 10 minutes to play. I've played maybe ten tournament rounds there and never got around in anywhere near under 5 hours. There's provisional ball opportunities on each shot with how demanding the course is. One of the caddys told me its actually a nine mile walk, but I'm guessing he's including all tgw extra steps needed to search for wondering golf shots.

It will definitely serve its purpose when the US Open comes in 2017.

[Adam Clayman]

The walk is arduous enough where they won't let caddies out twice in one day.

Nice pix. Dan

[Tim Pitner]

I haven't played Erin Hills so can't comment on the course, but I was struck by the seemingly charitable comments of Mr. Morrissett here, especially when compared to other reviews, say, for example, of Bandon Dunes.  Here's an excerpt of the Bandon Dunes review:  "Given that there was no real estate concerns and a relatively blank canvas, the golfer is faced with several regretable long tee to green walks at Bandon Dunes....Fortunately, Kidd continues to refine Bandon Dunes (ironically, a sign that it wasn’t as good as everyone initially thought)."  Double standard?

[Michael George]

Tim - different golf courses.  Bandon was built for resort play.  Erin Hills was built with tournament golf in mind.  Walks will always be longer for tournament golf courses.  As I indicated above, the walk is long at Erin Hills, but it is not unpleasant.  The only walks that I really noticed were from 4 green to 5 tee and 9 green to 10 tee and those walks are no more than 100 yards.  

You talk about a double standard.  This site is full of them, but I am not sure that Ran is guilty of one here.  For instance, there are some really long walks between green and tee at Sand Hills and Pacific Dunes - where is the string discussing those walks?  If there is a double standard on this site, it is in favor of certain architects and against others.....and I certainly doubt that Hurzdan and Fry are one of those favored architects.  And I say this being a huge fan of those favored architects.

Erin Hills is a special place.  It is certainly one of the best golf courses that I have played in the US.  Could have another architect have done better - maybe, but the list of courses which could not be better is pretty small.  

[Tim Pitner]

Michael,

I'll have to take your word on the walks at Erin Hills.  Maybe I'm still chapped at Ran's review of Bandon Dunes.  While he tends to accentuate the positive in his reviews, the Bandon Dunes review is a departure and the overall impression he gives of Bandon Dunes is that of an opportunity missed.  And some of the reasons for this (routing, having to rework holes after opening) seem to apply to Erin Hills as well.  Why does Erin Hills seem to get the benefit of the doubt when Bandon Dunes doesn't?  Does Ran like to go against the grain (criticizing Bandon Dunes when it was being lauded, praising Erin Hills after much criticism) or might his admitted bias have an effect?  By the way, I've enjoyed the few Hurdzan/Fry courses I've played (Keystone River, Heritage at Westmoor) so I'm favorably inclined toward their work.

[Chris Mavros]

I enjoyed the review and found the course very intriguing.  I have yet to play there, but will need to soon.  I'm a big fan of sprawling landscapes and EH seems to utilize it very well. 

[Pete_Pittock]

Erin Hills was only the second course I walked this year (the other was Pacific Dunes). Caught it on a perfect day, temperature and humidity wise). First off the green on #4 gave me a good start to the fifth tee, tacked around the hils at the beginning the eighth hole, and exiting the fifteenth green. Did not have to use the ruse of stopping to take a picture half way up a hill to catch my breath. The walk was easier on me than Chambers Bay, and I'm three years older, and nowhere as good a shape as I was back then. Our threesome played in about 4:25, waiting on every shot on the back nine.

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