A recent Discussion Board thread…
http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?topic=39580.0… discussed whether the United States has a true links course. Among other observations, one was that many courses like the cache of the term “links” while displaying few of the attributes of a true links course.
Wisconsin has two big-league courses that fit that description – Herb Kohler’s Whistling Straits and Irish Course, near the shores of Lake Michigan. But a self-described links course set in the rolling dairy farmland of southern Wisconsin predates those two high-profile courses by several years.
It’s called the Bonny Meade Links, near the small town of Milton, about 30 miles southeast of Madison. How does it measure up as a links? To borrow the hackneyed phrase of Fox News -- we report, you decide. The recent GCA links thread, and Bonny Meade’s $5 a round greens fee (that’s correct…) prompted a return visit this spring to the nine-hole course.
Course stats: The nine-hole course plays to 3,132 yards from the tips, 2,902 yards from the whites. The course rating is 69.9 with a slope of 117. It has the traditional mixture of two par 3s and par 5s, with five par 4s.
Holes and features of note (yardage from tips):
No. 1 (par 4, 391 yds)
From the highest point of the property, the first hole tumbles down an uneven fairway to an offset green right. OB (the course boundary) lines the entire right side of the hole, an attribute of nearly all the par 4s (so slicers beware).
A decidedly non-linksy pond (well, save for the Eden course at St. Andrews) guards the approach to the 1st green.
Those straying away from the pond on the approach can use some high ground left of the green to feed their ball to the putting surface – a nice feature.
No. 2 (par 3, 147 yds)
A nice par 3 inexplicably marred by the presence of several tall trees that guard the left side of the green. A links course with trees fronting the green? Chop ‘em down!
The aforementioned trees detract from what is a decent, short par 3 – a rugged and deep, but dry, ravine fronts the entire green and wraps around its left side. The wide but quite shallow green is a tough target to hit from nearly 150 yards away.
No. 3 (par 5, 467 yds)
A doglegging left, downhill par 5 that can be reached in two. Here’s where the fairway turns; those who choose to cut off the dogleg to shorten the second shot have to deal with a very narrow landing area sandwiched between mounds and whispy grass, along with another un-links-like pond.
The course has a fairly wide-open feel to it; this is near the 4th tee, looking toward the uphill par 5 7th (middle of picture) and the fairway of the 3rd (middle-left of picture).
No. 4 (par 4, 368 yds)
A par 4 with a slight turn to the right halfway down the fairway; this bunker running alongside the fairway has been grassed over.
Despite its modest length, the course can extract revenge on those wayward off the tee. Here’s my drive on the 4th hole – less than a foot off the fairway, and I was left with a crummy lie in 3-to-5-inch whispy grass.
No. 5 (par 4, 381 yds)
Another straightway par 4 that’s also set against the course boundary, and thus OB lines the entire right side of the hole. Still, it has some interest – a small ridge no more than 100 yards in front of the tee hides the outcome of the drive.
A nifty use of the terrain hides the green from only 75 yards away. The terrain hides small depressions fronting and to the left of the green, and a bunker right of the green.
No. 6 (par 4, 370 yds)
The only par 4 unburdened by right-side OB, this is a chance to loosen the shoulders and take a big swing. The hole doglegs sharply to the right; the green lies beyond the taller trees middle-right of photo.
Another nice use of the terrain, which hides the green in a small depression. This is the view of the downhill approach from 170 yards; the players in the distance are putting on the green.
No. 8 (par 3, 155 yds)
A decent, downhill par 3 to a green angled away from the tee, with the same ravine featured on the par 3rd guarding the back and right side of the 8th green. The two-tier green is one of the better ones on the course.
No. 9 (par 4, 373 yds)
This is more like it – something you’d find on your average Midwestern parkland course. Here the fairway is framed by two large stands of trees.
A true links course would’ve routed the final hole over this large mound, ala the 17th at the old Prestwick links or the Old Tom Morris-designed 11th at Tain.
Alas, the hole turns left, and the golfer is confronted by the backstop of all backstops. It seems nearly impossible to go long here.
So is Bonny Meade a links, or even a faux links? Well, the grassland off the fairways is appropriately whispy and thick, and the course has the openness often associated with links courses. Maintenance appears fairly skimpy, and thus the fairways are anything but over-fertilized and plush; the holes on the higher portions of the land (holes 4 through 7) featured fairways that ran pretty quick for springtime play (certainly quicker than the Madison WI munis I often play). But the two ponds that prominently come into play, a few too many trees, and greens that are more spongy than firm detract from the feeling of being on a links course.