The Club at Lac La Belle in Oconomowoc, WI, must be one of the most architecturally interesting courses to have opened in the last year or so. Consider:
* The state of Wisconsin has become a major golf hotbed, and especially on the public side. This course makes that bed hotter, and sits about 10-15 miles from Erin Hills between Madison and Milwaukee.
* It was built on the site of one of Wisconsin's oldest clubs. Golf has been played on the property since 1896, but the course that opened in June represents almost a complete overhaul intended not only to improve the golf itself, but also the drainage of the flooding-prone site. The new course showcases classic golf principles with a decidedly 21st-century aesthetic.
* The reopened course is discussion-worthy. In a state loaded with quality public-accessible golf, Lac La Belle would comfortably make my top 10 list.
I'll share a few pics and thoughts:
The first hole gives a good idea of what you'll find. A shorter par 4, the drive plays to a fairly wide fairway where the best line probably favors the left side for a clearer view of the green. As you see below, a bunkered mound well short of the green obscures the view a bit from the right.
2 is another shorter par 4, but a much tougher hole. I'm not sold on the tee shot that plays through a gap in the trees with much of the fairway well left of that gap. But it also has, without question, one of the boldest and most challenging greens I've seen... anywhere really.
The tee shot at 3 needs to stay short or left of a wetland that cuts into the landing area, although only longer hitters will reach it. The approach plays over the wetland to another very sloped green.
I would guess many will cite the 4th as their favorite hole. A mid-long par 3 with a big green with some serious gathering areas that will make for plenty of aces when pins are placed compassionately, and plenty of 3-putts as well.
The course gains a unique character when it crosses back over the road to holes 5-7, as they play through a little lakefront neighborhood. No houses come into play, but this section of the course has a really nice, communal feel. The 6th is a longer par 4 with a stream meandering down the right side and causing all kinds of consternation on the tee shot, before crossing a wetland to a large and not-too-crazy green.
More wetlands down the right at the shorter 7th, but the hole has a very different character from its predecessor.
Much like 4, you can use the slopes on the par 3 8th to work a ball closer to a pin. This one plays about 150ish.
9 is a drivable par 4, and not totally dissimilar in character to the 9th at Sand Valley really. As I understand it, this hole hasn't changed much in routing from the original course but has certainly had aesthetic updates.
If one thing leaps out about Lac La Belle, it's that the greens stand among the 10 boldest sets I've ever played. Here's a look at the 13th, which is wild, but not really uniquely so among the 18 greens and complexes around the course.
The very attractive 14th will be drivable for some.
The approach to the medium-long par 4 15th.
16 might win my vote for favorite hole. It certainly boasts one of the more interesting tee shots I've seen in a while. The hole sweeps to the left, and a big ball can carry the leftmost bunker to set up an excellent chance to reach in two.
The most conventional par 3 on the course, the tee shot at the short 17th gives a good feel for the intimate, part-of-the-neighborhood character of the site.
The big par 4 18th played into the wind at my visit and with the rainy conditions, it played as a full three shotter. The green ties right into the club's putting course behind.
I found a lot to like here, and a few things I wasn't totally sure about. The course feels a little Sweetens-esque to me, although maybe not
quite as free-spirited. Considering that anyone driving up to places like Sand Valley, Lawsonia, Erin Hills, or Kohler when coming from Chicago and other areas south will pass within 30 minutes or so of this place, I wouldn't be surprised to see it garner plenty of attention of its own. I know others have played it. I'd be curious to know favorite holes, least-favorite holes, and general impressions. I saw it on a wet, cold day during which I spent 8 hours in the car, and still came away excited for a return visit in the not-too-distant future.
Likes:
* Wonderful setting
* Beautiful and bold shaping
* A lot of really interesting shots
* Not one person said a word to me about a riding cart. I paid my all-inclusive greens fee, and was pointed in the direction of the club's push cart fleet.
Dislikes:
* A few of the tee shots felt a little too punishing (2) and/or awkward (3, 12, 13)
* Revoke my membership to this Discussion Group if you want to, but I feel like I'm officially ready to see a cool new course with nice, round, flash-faced bunkers surrounded by well-kempt rough. That's not really a dislike - Lac La Belle is beautiful and does the wild & wooly look in a parkland neighborhood setting better than I would've ever thought a course could do it. I never would've thought that I'd play a hole that looks like 5 at Lac La Belle with a lady in capri pants unloading her groceries from the Volvo parked in the driveway of her suburban lakefront semi-mansion in the background of the hole's periphery. That's sort of the point - between this place and Sweetens and countless other courses in the post-Sand Hills era, we've seen a whole new vintage-inspired rugged look go mainstream and lots of great courses get built around it. But I don't want the next new course I play to try to do that look even better - I'm ready to see some RTJ-inspired shit with lots of fairway striping, white sand bunkers, and greens that even Billy Horschel would call "fair."
Questions:
* How will the club manage the native areas around some of the hole corridors as they grow in? The course has plenty of width right now and it's pretty hard to lose balls, but keeping it in that state will require some effort.
* How much does the course come alive when it's, say, 70 degrees and dry as opposed to 50 degrees and soaked by a couple inches of rain in the last few days?
* Will they stay open to the public for the long-term? Conversations around the pro shop made me wonder...