COVER STORY
Four of A Kind
WITH THE 2020 RYDER CUP ON THE WAY, CELEBRATE KOHLER’S INCREDIBLE QUARTET OF GOLF COURSES
By JOE PASSOV
N
EARLY 35 YEARS AGO, the green-hued light bulb went off for plumbing titan Herb Kohler. He needed a
golf course to enhance the amenity package at his new American Club hotel in the Wisconsin heartland, 60 miles north of Milwaukee. Enlisting the services of golf’s hottest architect, Pete Dye, they created Blackwolf Run, which opened in 1988. Quickly the layout zoomed to the top of every public and resort course ranking—and Kohler and Dye were only getting started.
18 | AZ GOLF Insider | PREVIEW 2019
The creative juices between these
two fast friends helped produce and refine three more stellar 18-hole tracts over the next 13 years, including Whistling Straits, host to three PGA Championships. Pair the 72 Dye- designed holes with The American Club, Kohler’s five-star, five-diamond resort, and it’s easy to see why many discerning travelers identify Destination Kohler as the finest golf resort in North America. And with the 2020 Ryder Cup slotted at Whistling Straits, the first American public-access course to host the Cup since 1991, now is definitely the time to visit.
“The excitement has been
building,” said Dirk Willis, GM & group director, Kohler Golf. “We’ve seen an uptick, as expected, in demand to experience the course, as well as guests interested in talking with our staff about the Ryder Cup.” Kohler gave Dye his marching orders when it came to plotting the Straits course: “I want it to look like it’s in Ireland.” With eight holes draped atop bluffs overlooking vast Lake Michigan (which the caddies call the “Sea of Wisconsin”), 70-foot-tall sandhills that are garbed in tall, tawny-colored native fescue grasses, firm-and-fast rippled
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COURTESY OF KOHLER CO.
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