“It’s golf, and it’s golf only.”



Pure, simple, and developed with passion – those words can describe a new Wisconsin golf course, yet cannot fully tell its story. Only the experience will be able to do that.

For public golfers who truly love the game and want to be taken back to its origins, a unique opportunity is available for them right in the Midwest. Their mecca has arrived 35 miles outside of Milwaukee.

Erin Hills, the most highly-anticipated new course in Wisconsin, opened late this summer. Already receiving rave reviews, it is a golfing experience unlike any other having been developed with that thought in mind.

“We have 651 acres of just simply natural landscape which we laid the golf course into the natural land which is formed, surrounded 70% by wetlands, and the course itself is the result of the glacial dunes, eskers, and kettles that were formed thousands and thousands of years ago,” said course owner and “steward” Bob Lang. “The course is so natural that I was actually mowing the routing, mowing the holes, before we ever started construction.”

Located in the town of Erin, northwest of Milwaukee, Erin Hills does not resemble modern-looking golf courses that are built today. When Lang, a Delafield real estate developer and former owner of the Lang Companies, saw the land for the first time in 1999, he knew he was looking at something special. So, too, did the architectural team of Michael Hurzdan, Dana Fry, and Ron Whitten.

“I’ve been lucky enough to see a lot of raw pieces of land that were later developed into golf courses over the years,” said Whitten, Golf Digest’s Architectural Editor, “that includes Bandon Dunes (Oregon)… Sand Hills (Nebraska)… I was with Pete Dye at Whistling Straits back when it was a table top… Rees Jones and Nantucket Island (Massachusetts), so it’s just the nature of what I do for a living that I get a lot of invitations to go around and tag along with the architects over the years… Erin [Hills] really is one of the very best properties I’ve ever seen.”


Erin Hills was not created, it was discovered. Humps, hollows, and rolling hills that exist are natural. Land the course was laid out on was virtually untouched during construction. Really only the par-five first hole had to be “created,” moving land to accommodate a double fairway. In a sense, the course was designed by Mother Nature.

“We tried very hard to let nature try to design every hole simply as the ground lie and not add anything more artificially than was absolutely necessary for the playing of golf…” said Whitten. “Most places go in and bulldoze topsoil to one side and they shape their fairways and they spread the topsoil back out and then plant the grass. We mowed out our fairways then we sprayed Roundup in the fairway areas… and then we seeded right into that seed bed without tearing up anything. We did do little slits for irrigation lines, but other than that, nothing’s been changed.”

Residential properties, a banquet hall, or pristinely manicured flower beds do not apply at Erin Hills. The course does not have continuous winding cart paths, tricked-up holes, or large ponds coming into play, either. Instead, the theme is rough and rugged throughout the property, and the course intends to play firm and fast with a variety of shots to choose from. For that, it is a links-style, but included is a touch of a parkland layout with a spattering of hickory, oak, and maple trees. The greens are on the smaller side, resembling the styles of some older courses around Wisconsin.

The course itself occupies just 230-250 acres of the 651-acre property, providing for stunning 360-degree vistas. As Lang states, a “sea of fescue” will dominate the property outside of bentgrass greens and tees.

“There will be forty shades of green, just like in Ireland,” he said.
The fairways are made of fescue grass like the Straits course at Whistling Straits down the road in Haven, Wisconsin. There will be challenges maintaining that grass according to superintendent Jeff Rottier, but the land at Erin Hills has some advantages.

“Our soil is a sandier soil, and the fescue grass generally thrives in a sandier soil,” he said. “That’s what we have as well as some new and improved varieties of the fescue grass, so time will be the true test when we get golfers out there. Typically fescue is not a traffic-tolerant grass, but we’re hoping with a better soil and improved varieties, the fescue will be pretty good.”

The only noticeable structures on the course are a rustic wood and stone clubhouse, two restored 1880’s barns, and three “craggy-looking” halfway houses. Lang has seen to it that the land will never be developed commercially or residentially through an open space easement.


“It’s golf and it’s golf only,” he said.
No signature hole defines Erin Hills. All 18 of the par-72 course offer different challenges and combine to create for a great day of golf. Five sets of tees, ranging from 4,543 yards to 7,824 yards are in play for the public. An extra set of tees, the “back blacks,” are not for daily play as they stretch out to an unthinkable 8,100 yards. Par fives from the black tees are meant to play as three-shot holes, ranging in distance from 615 yards to 652 yards. The course is rated at 77.7 with a slope of 141 from the back.

While wetlands are prevalent throughout the property and a small “river” comes into play to the right of No. 14, water does not pose much of a threat on the course. Bunkers instead take care of wayward shots and serve as the biggest hazards.

“Our bunkers will be hand-raked. They are natural looking bunkers,” said Whitten. “You’re not going to be able to get a Sand Pro in there and whip around with automated equipment. Like with everything we did there, we tried to make it look like nature did it, so the bunkers really look like the wind blew them out or running water carved them out or they were kettle holes created by glaciers… These things are gnarly-looking, they’re nasty-looking, and some of them are very deep.”

While nationally-acclaimed Whistling Straits beautifully replicates an Irish experience with an American touch in its design, Erin Hills will more closely replicate an Irish experience with an Irish touch. It will not only feel like Ireland, it will play like it.

“It’s a pretty rare breed in American golf… It’s a throwback,” said Whitten. “It’s more like Shinnecock (Hills) or something in Ireland than it is modern day, upscale American public golf.”
“It’s a passion for golf,” added Lang. “To be able to play golf with friends and come back to a pub and drown your sorrows. We’ll have beer and scotch and a couple of cigars and a very natural place.”

Lang clearly states he has two goals for Erin Hills - to offer the ordinary golfer an experience unique to any other golf course and to create a championship tournament-type course. He is well on his way to doing both.

The United States Golf Association (USGA) is one organization which has taken notice to Erin Hills as a championship venue. In an unprecedented move, the country’s governing body for golf awarded the course the 2008 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship before the course was even open for regular play.
Greens fees for Erin Hills are $150 ($125 for Wisconsin residents). For more information go to www.erinhills.com or or either call 262-646-3331 or 262-670-8600.

USGA warms up to Erin Hills

Bob Lang quickly realized one of the goals for his new life venture when the United States Golf Association (USGA) awarded Erin Hills golf course the 2008 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship. As the owner of the new Wisconsin course, Lang has set out to make it a most unique golf experience and a venue for championship golf.

Visits in the past three years by USGA staff, which includes executive director David Fay and senior director of rules and competition Mike Davis, brought forth positive remarks for Erin Hills, which opened to the public for play in August.
“We are very supportive of the USGA and what it stands for because it stands for amateur and public golf,” said Lang. “I’ll make no bones about it, the long-term goal is to host the U.S. Open.”

A U.S. Open at Erin Hills would be another major feather in the hat for golf in Wisconsin after the national recognition that the American Club resort courses in Kohler have brought to the state. Securing such a tournament will be a monumental task, but communication with the USGA, which conducts the U.S. Open, is a step in the right direction.

“As I suggested to Mike Davis, I do not take for granted that I will ever get a U.S. Open,” said Lang, “all I ever ask for is the opportunity to earn it.

“I am most honored to receive the 2008 Women’s Public Links, and if I never get anything beyond that, I am very grateful. It is my responsibility to make sure that the 2008 Women’s Public Links is successful at Erin Hills so that I can have the opportunity to host the U.S. Open.”

Ultimately, the difficulty and quality of a course determines if it can host a U.S. Open. With time, Erin Hills will answer any questions. For now, however, it has these factors which make it attractive to the USGA:

1. It is public.
2. It is close to a major metropolitan area (Milwaukee).
3. It has vast expanses of land to accommodate people and tournament set-up.
4. It has different highways with access to it.
5. It has the flexibility and elasticity to provide for the most difficult of competitions.
6. It is in the Midwest, where no U.S. Open is scheduled for the next six years.

Lang and course's architects Mike Hurzdan, Dana Fry, and Ron Whitten have taken into account suggestions made by the USGA as to the shaping of Erin Hills. Some of those construction details, such as bunker design, were completed right up until the course’s opening. More visits by the USGA are expected.

The USGA has served as the governing body for golf in the country since 1894. Among its various roles, it conducts 13 national championships each year including the Men’s, Women’s, and Senior U.S. Open, and 10 events strictly for amateurs. The 2007 Senior U.S. Open will be held at Whistling Straits in Haven, Wisconsin.

According to usga.org, the Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship (WAPL) began in 1977 at Yahara Hills in Madison. The web site also states, “The WAPL is open to female golfers who have been bonafide public-course players since Jan. 1 of the current championship year. The competition is open to any bonafide public-course player whose USGA Handicap Index does not exceed 18.4.