Whistling Straits

Last updated
Whistling Straits
WhistlingStraitsClubhouse.JPG
Clubhouse during 2010 PGA Championship
Club information
Location Town of Mosel, at Haven,
Sheboygan County, Wisconsin
Established1998, 25 years ago
TypePublic
Owned by Kohler Company
Operated by The American Club
Total holes36
Events hosted PGA Championship
(2004, 2010, 2015)
U.S. Senior Open (2007),
Ryder Cup (2021)
Website Whistling Straits
Straits Course
Designed by Pete and Alice Dye
Par 72
Length7,790 yards (7,123 m)
Course rating 77.2
Slope rating 152 [1]
Irish Course
Designed by Pete and Alice Dye
Par 72
Length7,201 yards (6,585 m)
Course rating 75.6
Slope rating 146
Map of Wisconsin showing Sheboygan Co. Map of Wisconsin highlighting Sheboygan County.svg
Map of Wisconsin showing Sheboygan Co.
11 Fairway on the Straits Course WhistlingStraits11Fairway.JPG
11 Fairway on the Straits Course

Whistling Straits is one of two 36-hole links-style golf courses associated with Destination Kohler, a luxury golf resort owned and operated by the Kohler Company in Kohler, Wisconsin. The other course is Blackwolf Run, located in the Village of Kohler. The Whistling Straits complex is located north of Sheboygan, in the unincorporated community of Haven in the Town of Mosel in Sheboygan County. Whistling Straits is separated into two courses, the Straits Course and the Irish Course.

Contents

The courses at Whistling Straits (and Blackwolf Run) were designed by Pete and Alice Dye.

Straits Course

The Straits Course is the flagship course at Whistling Straits. As of 2012, it had a length of 7,790 yards (7,123 m) and a par of 72. It hosted the 2004 PGA Championship, the 2007 U.S. Senior Open, and the 2010 PGA Championship. The course hosted the PGA Championship for a third time in 2015 and the 2021 Ryder Cup was held on the course with the United States winning 19–9.

The Straits Course replicates the ancient seaside links courses of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Nestled along a two-mile (3 km) stretch of Lake Michigan shoreline, the course has eight holes hugging the lake, a flock of Scottish Blackface sheep, three stone bridges, and elevation changes of approximately 80 feet (24 m). It has vast rolling greens, deep pot bunkers, grass-topped dunes and winds that sweep in off the lake. Being a coastal links-style course, there are few large trees or woods on the course, which is open and exposed to wind and the elements.

Before the course was built, the property was an abandoned airfield called Camp Haven (1949–1959), [2] with a stream running through the middle. Wisconsin Electric purchased the property in the 1970s and attempted to build the Haven Nuclear Power Plant on the property, but its construction was opposed by local residents and Wisconsin Power & Light (Sheboygan County's major electric utility), and the company never built the plant. It then sold the property to the Kohler Company in the early 1990s.

Kohler Company CEO Herbert Kohler hired the Dyes to be the course architects. During construction, the original landscape of the Straits Course was covered with about 800,000  cubic yards (610,000 m3) of dirt and sand. [3]

Hiroshi Iwata holds the course record for the Straits Course with a 63 in the second round of the 2015 PGA Championship.

Irish Course

The second course at Whistling Straits is the Irish Course, an inland grass-and-dune layout. It is a par-72 course that features 7,201 yards (6,585 m) of golf from the longest tees, with a course rating of 75.6 and a slope rating of 146. Also designed by Pete Dye, it opened for play in 2000. [4] The course record of 67 was shot by Mike Frechette in 2007 and then matched by Garret Buckley at the 2014 Whistling Straits Intercollegiate.

View of Lake Michigan from the Irish Course Whistling Straits Irish.jpeg
View of Lake Michigan from the Irish Course
Par 5 along Lake Michigan WhistlingStraits-Shoreline-Par5.jpg
Par 5 along Lake Michigan

Major tournaments hosted

YearTournamentWinnerScoreMargin of
victory
Runner(s)-upWinner's
share ($)
2004 PGA Championship Flag of Fiji.svg Vijay Singh 280 (−8)Playoff Flag of the United States.svg Justin Leonard
Flag of the United States.svg Chris DiMarco
1,125,000
2007 U.S. Senior Open Flag of the United States.svg Brad Bryant 282 (−6)3 strokes Flag of the United States.svg Ben Crenshaw 470,000
2010 PGA Championship Flag of Germany.svg Martin Kaymer 277 (−11)Playoff Flag of the United States.svg Bubba Watson 1,350,000
2015 PGA Championship Flag of Australia (converted).svg Jason Day 268 (−20)3 strokes Flag of the United States.svg Jordan Spieth 1,800,000
2021 Ryder Cup Flag of the United States.svg  United States 19−9Flag of Europe.svg  Europe n/a

Course layout

Straits Course

HoleNameYardsParHoleNameYardsPar
1Outward Bound408410Voyageur3614
2Cross Country593511Sand Box5635
3O' Man181312Pop Up1433
4Glory489413Cliff Hanger4044
5Snake603514Widow's Watch3974
6Gremlin's Ear355415Grand Strand5184
7Shipwreck221316Endless Bite5695
8On the Rocks507417Pinched Nerve2233
9Down and Dirty446418Dyeabolical5204
Out3,80336In3,69836
Source: [5] [6] Total7,50172

Previous course lengths for major championships:

Irish Course

HoleNameYardsParHoleNameYardsPar
1High Ground400410Shepherd's Post3984
2Giants Leap372411Lamp Chop2083
3Sleeper147312Highland Trek4134
4Sandbanks489413Blind Man's Bluff1833
5Devil's Elbow570514Tullamore Dew5645
6Mulligan's Watch160315Frog Water4794
7Troll372416Deep Dye4744
8Garden Creek555517Irish Mist3754
9Last Gaspe484418Black and Tan5585
Out3,54936In3,65236
Source: [5] [6] Total7,20172

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Links (golf)</span> Style of golf course

A links is the oldest style of golf course, first developed in Scotland. Links courses are generally built on sandy coastland that offers a firmer playing surface than parkland and heathland courses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Firestone Country Club</span> Private golf club in Akron, OH, US

Firestone Country Club is a private golf club in the United States, located in Akron, Ohio. It was a regular stop on the PGA Tour and has hosted the PGA Championship three times. It is the current home of the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship through 2026.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sahalee Country Club</span> Country club in the northwest United States

The Sahalee Country Club is a private golf course and country club in the northwest United States, located in Sammamish, Washington, a suburb east of Seattle. In the Chinookan language, Sahalee means "high heavenly ground." The 27-hole course is located on a heavily forested plateau immediately east of Lake Sammamish.

Hazeltine National Golf Club is a golf club located in Chaska, Minnesota, a suburb southwest of Minneapolis, United States. It is a private club and therefore closed to guests not accompanied by a member. The golf course was designed by Robert Trent Jones and opened in 1962.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carnoustie Golf Links</span>

Carnoustie Golf Links is in Carnoustie, Angus, Scotland. Carnoustie has four courses – the historic Championship Course, the Burnside Course, the Buddon Links Course and a free-to-play short, five-hole course called The Nestie. Carnoustie Golf Links is one of the venues in the Open Championship rotation and has hosted golf's oldest major on eight occasions, as well as the Senior Open Championship in 2010 and 2016 and the Women's British Open in 2011 and 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winged Foot Golf Club</span> Golf club in Mamaroneck, New York, United States

Winged Foot Golf Club is a private golf club in the northeastern United States, located in Mamaroneck, New York, a suburb northeast of New York City. The club was founded in 1921, by a group largely made up of members of The New York Athletic Club, and opened in June 1923. Winged Foot's name and logo are taken directly from a sculpture in the lobby floor of the New York Athletic Club in Manhattan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheboygan County Memorial Airport</span> Airport

Sheboygan County Memorial Airport is a county-owned public-use non-towered airport located in the Town of Sheboygan Falls, three nautical miles (6 km) northwest of the City of Sheboygan, in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, United States. It is included in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2021–2025, in which it is categorized as a regional general aviation facility. Sheboygan's National Weather Service observation station is based at the airport.

Herbert Vollrath Kohler Jr. was an American billionaire businessman, a member of the Kohler family of Wisconsin, and the executive chairman of the Kohler Company, a manufacturing and hospitality company in Kohler, Wisconsin, best known for its plumbing products, golf courses, and resorts, with the latter two fields of business directly entered into under his chairmanship. Before his death, Forbes estimated the net worth for him and his family at US$8.8 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Par (score)</span> Expected strokes for a proficient golfer

In golf, par is the predetermined number of strokes that a proficient golfer should require to complete a hole, a round, or a tournament. For scoring purposes, a golfer's number of strokes is compared with the par score to determine how much the golfer was either "over par", "under par", or was "even with/equal to par".

Paul Dye Jr., known as Pete Dye, was an American golf course designer and a member of a family of course designers. He was married to fellow designer and amateur champion Alice Dye.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oak Tree National</span>

Oak Tree National, formerly called Oak Tree Golf Club, is a golf and country club located in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond, Oklahoma. The course was designed by Pete Dye, and it opened in 1976. It plays to a par 71.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blackwolf Run</span>

Blackwolf Run is a golf course complex in Kohler, Wisconsin. It is one of two golf destinations associated with The American Club, owned by a subsidiary of the Kohler Company. The other is the Whistling Straits complex in nearby Haven.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Club (Kohler, Wisconsin)</span> United States historic place

The American Club is a luxury spa and resort located in Kohler, Wisconsin. It is owned and operated by the Kohler Company. It has received various awards, including the Top 100 Golf Resorts by Conde Nast Traveler magazine, and is the Midwest's only AAA Five Diamond Resort Hotel. It is now part of Destination Kohler. The American Club is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2004 PGA Championship</span> Golf tournament

The 2004 PGA Championship was the 86th PGA Championship, played August 12–15 at the Straits Course of the Whistling Straits complex in Haven, Wisconsin. The purse was $6.25 million and the winner's share was $1.125 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010 PGA Championship</span> Golf tournament

The 2010 PGA Championship was the 92nd PGA Championship, played August 12–15 at the Straits Course of the Whistling Straits complex in Haven, Wisconsin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haven Nuclear Power Plant</span>

The Haven Nuclear Power Plant was a proposed nuclear power plant in Haven, Wisconsin north of Sheboygan at the site of closed military camp called Camp Haven. The power plant was proposed in the 1970s by Wisconsin Electric, but was never built. Two 900 MWe Westinghouse pressurized water reactor were proposed in 1973. Reactor one was canceled in 1978 and reactor two was canceled in 1980. After plans never materialized, the Kohler Company purchased the site. Construction of the Whistling Straits golf course began in 1995.

University Ridge Golf Course is a public golf course in the central United States, located in Verona and Madison, Wisconsin. It is the home course to both the men's and women's golf teams for the University of Wisconsin. Also, since 1994, it has been home to both the boys' and girls' WIAA state golf championships for all divisions. Beginning in 2016, Steve Stricker, a Wisconsin native, has hosted an event on the PGA Tour Champions every June at University Ridge. The Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course is also located on the property.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015 PGA Championship</span> Golf tournament

The 2015 PGA Championship was the 97th PGA Championship, held August 13–16 on the Straits Course of Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin. It was the third PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, which previously hosted in 2004 and 2010, as well as the United States Senior Open in 2007, all held on the Straits Course.

Destination Kohler is the hospitality and real estate arm of the Kohler Company, and the tourism promotion agency for the Village of Kohler, Wisconsin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wisconsin's 27th Assembly district</span>

The 27th Assembly District of Wisconsin is one of 99 districts in the Wisconsin State Assembly. Located in eastern Wisconsin, the district comprises northeast Sheboygan County and southeast Manitowoc County. It includes part of northern Sheboygan, as well as the cities of Plymouth and Kiel, and the villages of Cleveland, Elkhart Lake, and Kohler. It also contains Lakeland University, the Whistling Straits and Blackwolf Run golf courses, the Road America motorsport course, and the Sheboygan County Memorial Airport. The district is represented by Republican Amy Binsfeld, since January 2023.

References

  1. "Course Rating and Slope Database: Whistling Straits: Straits Course". USGA. Retrieved August 11, 2014.
  2. "Mead Library Information on Camp Haven".
  3. Camp Haven history, accessed December 2019.
  4. "Whistling Straits - Irish Course (Haven, WI) - GolfWRX.com". www.golfwrx.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-01.
  5. 1 2 "PGA Championship: course tour". PGA of America. 2015. Retrieved August 11, 2014.
  6. 1 2 "The Straits, hole-by-hole". Whistling Straits. Retrieved August 11, 2014.

43°51′04″N87°44′06″W / 43.851°N 87.735°W / 43.851; -87.735