Whistling Straits Golf Course is a championship course in the British Isles tradition. The landscape, sculpted from 1,600 acres of windswept dunes along two miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, has been transformed into two distinctive courses: The Irish and The River.
The Irish was designed by Pete Dye to look like an “old country” links course. It’s first nine holes are routed along bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan, while the inland nine traverses open meadowland bordered by tall native grasses and wetlands.
The River course is also a traditional links design, reminiscent of courses found along the sea in Scotland and Ireland. With less severe landforms than The Irish, The River rolls through open meadows and wetlands before reaching its conclusion on the shores of Lake Michigan.
Whistling Straits Golf Course is situated on 800 acres along two miles of Lake Michigan shoreline at Blackwolf Run in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. A sister property to Kiawah Island Resort’s Ocean Course host site of the 1997 Ryder Cup Matches — this Pete Dye design presents a memorable challenge for golfers of all skill levels.
Whistling Straits Golf Course, located in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, 50 miles north of Milwaukee, was designed by Pete Dye and opened in 1998. It was named “Best New Public Course” by Golf Digest and “Best New Upscale Public Course” by Golf Magazine.
The course is located on a former military training ground along the Lake Michigan shoreline and features two courses: The Irish and The Straits. The Irish course is considered the easier of the two courses. It has wide fairways, gently sloping greens, and many bunkers without too much undulation in them.
The Straits course has very narrow fairways lined with tall grasses, dunes, deep bunkers and large wispy fescue roughs. The greens are generally very small and difficult to hit accurately with large undulations in them that make putting challenging.
Both courses are unique because they were built on an abandoned army base as opposed to traditional golf courses that are built on a wooded area or open prairie land. The property is built on a sandy beach which allows for the course’s fairways to be extremely firm and fast. In addition to the sand traps that line many holes there are also railroad ties that were used as retaining walls
Whistling Straits Golf Course is located in Kohler, Wisconsin, USA. It is a public course that has been open since 1998. It was designed by Pete Dye and has two courses – the Straits Course and the Irish Course. These two courses are considered to be some of the best golf courses in America. The Straits Course has hosted major championships such as the 2004 PGA Championship and 2007 U.S. Senior Open. In 2010, it will host its first U.S. Open, when Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson battle it out for the title of America’s best golfer.
In 2006, The Irish Course at Whistling Straits was named “Best New Public Golf Course” by Golf Digest magazine. This course is a replica of Ireland’s Ballybunnion Golf Club and features rolling fairways, deep pot bunkers and blind shots over hillocks to greens with severely sloping surfaces that require precise approaches for any chance of par or birdie.
Whistling Straits Golf Courses also have a spa and other amenities on site so that you can pamper yourself after a long day on the green!
Whistling Straits Golf Course, constructed on a former Wisconsin Army base, is the culmination of a professional golf course design effort by Pete Dye. The Straits Course at Whistling Straits has been ranked as the
When Pete Dye and Herb Kohler set their sights on creating a world-class golf course, they knew that the land would be key. So they scoured the state of Wisconsin, searching for the perfect site. And they found it along two miles of Lake Michigan shoreline in Haven, Wis., just north of Sheboygan.
The former military training ground is now home to one of the most celebrated courses in America — Whistling Straits. The Straits Course has hosted three PGA Championships, one U.S. Senior Open and will be the site of the 2015 Ryder Cup. In addition to its 18-hole sibling, The Irish Course at Whistling Straits adds another 18 holes on site, adding up to 36 of some of the most challenging holes in golf.
The 7,790-yard course is named for the “straits” between the course and Lake Michigan. In fact, there are more than 1,000 bunkers on the property and several holes along the lake resemble courses in Great Britain – where golf originated. The Whistling Straits golf course has hosted four major championships: 2004 PGA Championship, 2010 PGA Championship, 2007 U.S. Senior Open and 2015 PGA Championship. Whistling Straits will host its fifth major championship in 2020 when it hosts the Ryder Cup for the first time in its history.
The land that is now Whistling Straits was originally settled by Belgian immigrants who farmed and raised dairy cattle between 1870 and 1930. In 1998, Herbert Kohler Jr., president of Kohler Co., purchased 5 miles of pristine Lake Michigan shoreline with the intention of building a world-class golf resort on these former farmlands. He hired Pete Dye to create three unique 18-hole courses along with a nine-hole Irish Links course (called The Irish), which opened in 2000.
Whistling Straits first opened for play in 1998 and immediately gained international recognition for its authenticity as a links course and its resemblance to many of the great seaside courses in
As you drive into the grounds of Whistling Straits, it’s easy to see why many people consider this golf course to be one of the best in the world.
It is simply stunning. The golf course is set on two miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, and is framed by hundreds of acres of wild grasses and sand dunes.
The landscape could easily be mistaken for a traditional links course in Scotland and the architecture of both courses — The Irish Course and The Straits Course — were inspired by St. Andrews, Carnoustie and Prestwick.