Wisconsin golf tour: Erin Hills/Lawsonia/Blackwolf/Whistling (URLs fixed!)

[Joe Bausch]

Joe...does your lack of commentary on Lawsonia indicate it was not up to expectations?  Curious as to your impressions and thoughts...

Not at all.  I loved it.

[Cliff Hamm]

Agreed...played it last week for the fourth time or so...remains one of my absolute favorites....I think of it as Yale 'lite'...that is not a criticism.  Yale on a smaller scale.  Not as challenging, not as big, but just maybe more fun for a bogey golfer.

[Joe Bausch]

Agreed...played it last week for the fourth time or so...remains one of my absolute favorites....I think of it as Yale 'lite'...that is not a criticism.  Yale on a smaller scale.  Not as challenging, not as big, but just maybe more fun for a bogey golfer.

Yale Lite.  I like it.

And I had played Yale in the week before the cheese-land trip.  Perhaps I really should do a Lawsonia tour, even with the crappy photos from my early morning round.

[Cliff Hamm]

Joe, I for one, would enjoy your commentary on the individual holes and overall impression of Lawsonia.

[PCCraig]

Joe:

I would be interested to hear your take on a few of the holes, perhaps your favorites or any holes you may not of liked.

Side note: how many cheese curds did you eat on your journey?

[Jud_T]

Yes Joe please do it if you have time.  Probably get a nice continuation discussion on specific details from the Mashie group...

[Joe Bausch]

I sure wish I had a yardage book for Lawsonia.  I was not able to get one while I was there.  If anybody has one, can I borrow it?  PM me if so.

[Joe Bausch]

Ok, had to take a couple of weeks break there to concentrate on a four-week long summer session of Orgo 1.   

So, instead of a full photo tour of Lawsonia, course #2 of 6 on my cheesehead-land tour, I'll just choose one photo from each hole with just a few comments.  I teed off early and the weather was lousy for photos with it being misty for most of the round.

But as I think I mentioned earlier, I loved everything about Lawsonia.  I had played Yale a couple of weekends earlier and the two courses are similar.  Somebody called Lawsonia "Yale light", which is a pretty good quick phrase for the course.  And the guys I met and the employees there made me feel right at home.

#1.  I hit it left on my approach shot, just so I could get a good look at the daunting recovery shot, which it certainly was.



#2.  View from over the green on this tough par 4.  I'm assuming it is normally receptive to a run-up shot, but it was a bit soggy this morning so my attempt screeched to a halt.



#3.  What a perfectly placed bunker that got me, and a green with way more movement to the right than I could pick up at first look.



#4.  Pretty good Redan-inspired 1-shotter.



#5.  I would need to play this nice par 5 more to see why exactly it is the No. 1 stroke hole at less than 500 yards, but maybe the bogey golfer gets in trouble over the green, as this view shows.

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#6.  Loved the green on this par 4.  A great pin location this day.



#7.  Miss the green on this par 3 and good luck making par.



#8.  Really liked some of the bunkering and, I guess, created landforms, like this left off the tee.



#9.  Nice, wide view from the par 5 9th tee:



#10.  Tough, long par 3 to open the back nine.



#11.  Nice view on the approach of this par 5.



#12.  Another nice green on this par 3.



#13.  Probably my favorite hole at LL, here's a neat view from the start of the fw on this par 5.



#14.  A little breather par 3:



#15.  Nice view from the tee on this dogleg right par 4.



#16. View from just over the green on this longer par 4.



#17.  Approach shot view on this par 4.



#18.  Tee shot view on this closing 3-shotter.

[Joe Bausch]

Once I process the photos, next on the tour will be the River course at Blackwolf Run, which was probably my favorite course at Kohler.

[Cliff Hamm]

Joe...thanks for posting.  I too played Lawsonia a few weeks ago in similar weather.  Have played before when it was much more fast and firm.  Still enjoyed it immensely and had the side benefit of being empty and playing in 3 1/2 hours.  I like the course enough that I don't have a favorite hole.  I also don't think there is a weak hole on the course.  BTW your 18 holes do a great job of capturing the overall feel of the course.

[Bradley Anderson]

Great photo tour Joe! This is exactly what we need more of on GCA.

[Jud_T]

Joe,

Thanks for posting these.  Anyone who hasn't been to LL, or hasn't been there since the restoration, needs to make the effort when in the area.  And by area I mean Chicago/Milwaukee/Minneapolis.

[Joe Bausch]

After my early round at Lawsonia, I fired up the rental to make the 1.5h drive east over to Kohler.  First up was Blackwolf Run River.  This course is highly ranked, which is understandable in my opinion.  A wonderful use of angles by Dye, and a good routing to bring many holes near the river.  I can quibble about a few things here and there, but overall it was very good.

The routing from a Google aerial:



The first hole, a par 5, eases you into the round.



Middle tee view:



2nd shot view:



From the left rough:



Real fun, up pin this day:



From just over the green:



Hole 2 has the tees offset on an otherwise straight par 4.



Middle tee view:



Approach shot view:



Me with the fried egg third shot.   



From the back of the green:



Hole 3 is a dogleg-right par 4, the No. 1 stroke hole on the River course.



Middle tee view:



This deep bunker right isn't really in play for the better player:



Approach shot view:



From just short of the green:



From just over the green the long bunker right is clearly in view, probably a big part of the difficulty for the bogey golfer and the #1 handicap hole:



More later....

[PCCraig]

Great stuff Joe, thanks for posting. Loved the rare angle photos of Lawsonia and glad you enjoyed your round there. Keep the photos coming of BWR, regardless of what Adam Clayman says I think holes 5-13 are awesome on the River Course.

[Adam Clayman]

Pat, You douche! I never said the holes were bad.
 I said they ruined the masterpiece that was the original course.

If you are going to be a dick, get it right.

[PCCraig]

Pat, You douche! I never said the holes were bad.
 I said they ruined the masterpiece that was the original course.

If you are going to be a dick, get it right.

Adam...I was kidding around...

[Andy Troeger]

I love the River Course. I can kind of understand Adam's preference for the original given the quality of the back nine holes on the Meadow Valleys course that were replaced, but the best holes on the current course IMO are #5, 8, 9, and 11, so that makes it worth the trade to me. I think the course as a whole still blends together pretty well, although its interesting to me how the 5-13 stretch stays closer in proximity to the rest of the course than I would guess--you admittedly feel like you're in a more secluded area on that part of the course.

[Joe Bausch]

Next three holes today before I head out to play LuLu.   

The 4th is a one-shotter where you really need a straight shot!



Middle tee view:



Just grass bunkers and mounds left:





As the routing above shows, there is quite a trek from the 4th green to the 5th tee, where a very elevated tee shot begins a scenic par 4.



Middle tee view:



Approach shot view;



From just short and right of the green:



From a hill long and left of the green:



Another nice dogleg-right par 4 where distance control and line are very important off the tee:



Middle tee view:



Approach shot view:



Looking back down the fw:



From short and right of the green:



From an elevated position over the green:

[Adam Clayman]

Andy, It has little to do with the individual holes, but rather the whole.

#'s 6, 7, & 13 are nothing great in the current config. 13 may actually be one of the worst holes I've ever played. Along that river, it is a real wasted opportunity, imo. #8 is one of my favorite holes, anywhere. And the par 3 10th is so subtle as it lulls you into thinking it should be a push over, yet, not.

Joe, thanks for this thread. It takes me way back. And, as always, your pictures are great. Even if mother nature didn't cooperate.

[Phil McDade]

Joe:

Thanks for a detailed look at what must be the most over-rated course in Wisconsin -- the River course at Blackwolf Run.

Where does one begin? How about at the very beginning, where Dye constructs a field of artificial mounds to the right of the 1st fairway, perhaps in an attempt to emulate the links of Ireland, in what is one of the most non-links settings imagineable -- a beautiful, wooded river valley in Wisconsin.


Here's a repeating Dye theme at the River course -- artificial ski mounds dotting the course. Maybe he viewed the River course as one of those British "common ground" courses, and cross country skiers could navigate the terrain during Wisconsin's snowy winters.


Here's an ugly cart path jarring the view of the tee (middle) where many a player will tee off (more offensive to the eye, from where I sit, than any cart path at Sunningdale New). Note how many ugly cart path views there are so far in the six holes presented for the typical, middle tee player.


Does anyone really think this is good architecture? A narrow fairway, with severe penal areas (lost ball territory) very close to the left edge of the fairway, and those dang moguls to the right?


Ugh! Artificial, squiggly fairway lines, narrow fairway, squiggly bunker lines, really severe penal grass some 10 feet left of the green edge left.


A horrible par 3 -- a runway tee that makes for a terrible view of the hole, which is long and narrow in the first place; more artificial-ness with the rocks lining the man-made pond; more stupid moguls.



Worse than #4, a truly awful stretch of golf from Mr. Dye. A wonderful little valley next to a river, and Dye doesn't know what to do with it. Look at how close the fairway left hugs the cart path -- 10 feet or so? Then look at all that wasted space next to the river, with a huge bunker catching the wayward shot right. Why not build a massively wide fairway, that incorporates the river into play, with a green placed more closely to the river at the hole's conclusion? Note how the fairway turns away from the river toward its end? I'm no golf architect, but this just strikes me as a truly wasted opportunity -- on a very good piece of land for golf. And get rid of that dang tree hugging the left side of the fairway near where the fairway starts; looks close to death anyway.


I do think the greens themselves are very good at the River course.

[George Freeman]

Great stuff Joe, thanks for posting. Loved the rare angle photos of Lawsonia and glad you enjoyed your round there. Keep the photos coming of BWR, regardless of what Adam Clayman says I think holes 5-13 are awesome on the River Course.

Pat - those are all the holes we missed last fall when we played the original 18, correct?

[RJ_Daley]

Phil, I agree with your observations about the cart paths and moguls.  Some of the squigly long bunkers are a bit of a trademark of Dye's and I wonder if Weed was with Dye when they did BWR, since what I have seen of Weed's work uses alot of the same long bunkers with stepdown RR ties spaced along their length.  But, I also wonder - with regard to the placement and routing features along the river, if the DNR, flood plain issues drove some of the design decisions.  I'm guessing that Sheboygan Co land planning dept, and DNR had more to do with much of the design than is  normally considered in evaluating the architecture.

[Phil McDade]

Richard:

Maybe -- but #9 really hugs the river, and incorporates it into play with the triple-option play there, and #10 plays pretty close the river as well. And don't portions of the Meadow Valleys course come very close the river or one of its outlets?

[PCCraig]

Great stuff Joe, thanks for posting. Loved the rare angle photos of Lawsonia and glad you enjoyed your round there. Keep the photos coming of BWR, regardless of what Adam Clayman says I think holes 5-13 are awesome on the River Course.

Pat - those are all the holes we missed last fall when we played the original 18, correct?

Si.

The holes we played in their place (usually the back nine of the Meadows) are really good too, but 5-13 River features some really dramatic land and some neat golf holes. Apparently Pete Dye wanted to use the land for the first 18 holes, but Kohler said no because that was his family's best hunting/fishing land.

[RJ_Daley]

Phil, that is a good point that some holes are hard by the river, so my guess may be way off.  But, when one just looks at the aerial of the river water way and all the oxbows and how it just makes some sort of giant meandering cloverleaf of lobes and such, it seems to me that the routing and construction were highly influenced by DNR, Corps of engineers, and County land planning dept.  I'd be interested if anyone can point us to any other course where and aerial would show such a meandering mess that the Sheboygan River is on the above aerial.