Whistling Straits

Golf course in Kohler, Wisconsin

Whistling Straits

Clubhouse during 2010 PGA Championship

Club information
Location| Town of Mosel, at Haven,
Sheboygan County, Wisconsin
Established| 1998, 27 years ago
Type| Public
Owned by| Kohler Company
Operated by| The American Club
Total holes| 36
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
Length| 7,790 yards (7,123 m)
Course rating| 77.2
Slope rating| 152[1]
Irish Course
Designed by| Pete and Alice Dye
Par| 72
Length| 7,201 yards (6,585 m)
Course rating| 75.6
Slope rating| 146
Map of Wisconsin showing Sheboygan Co. 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.

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

## Straits Course

[edit]

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

[edit]

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 Par 5 along Lake Michigan

## Major tournaments hosted

[edit]

Year | Tournament | Winner | Score | Margin of
victory | Runner(s)-up | Winner's
share ($)

|
|
|
|
|
|

2004 | PGA Championship |  Vijay Singh | 280 (−8) | Playoff |  Justin Leonard
Chris DiMarco | 1,125,000
2007 | U.S. Senior Open |  Brad Bryant | 282 (−6) | 3 strokes |  Ben Crenshaw | 470,000
2010 | PGA Championship |  Martin Kaymer | 277 (−11) | Playoff |  Bubba Watson | 1,350,000
2015 | PGA Championship |  Jason Day | 268 (−20) | 3 strokes |  Jordan Spieth | 1,800,000
2021 | Ryder Cup |  United States | 19−9 |  Europe | n/a

## Course layout

[edit]

### Straits Course

[edit]

Hole | Name | Yards | Par |  | Hole | Name | Yards | Par

|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

1 | Outward Bound | 408 | 4 |  | 10 | Voyageur | 361 | 4
2 | Cross Country | 593 | 5 | 11 | Sand Box | 563 | 5
3 | O' Man | 181 | 3 | 12 | Pop Up | 143 | 3
4 | Glory | 489 | 4 | 13 | Cliff Hanger | 404 | 4
5 | Snake | 603 | 5 | 14 | Widow's Watch | 397 | 4
6 | Gremlin's Ear | 355 | 4 | 15 | Grand Strand | 518 | 4
7 | Shipwreck | 221 | 3 | 16 | Endless Bite | 569 | 5
8 | On the Rocks | 507 | 4 | 17 | Pinched Nerve | 223 | 3
9 | Down and Dirty | 446 | 4 | 18 | Dyeabolical | 520 | 4
Out | 3,803 | 36 | In | 3,698 | 36
Source:[5][6] | Total | 7,501 | 72

Previous course lengths for major championships:

* 7,514 yards (6,871 m) – par 72, 2010 PGA Championship
* 7,514 yards (6,871 m) – par 72, 2004 PGA Championship

### Irish Course

[edit]

Hole | Name | Yards | Par |  | Hole | Name | Yards | Par

|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

1 | High Ground | 400 | 4 |  | 10 | Shepherd's Post | 398 | 4
2 | Giants Leap | 372 | 4 | 11 | Lamp Chop | 208 | 3
3 | Sleeper | 147 | 3 | 12 | Highland Trek | 413 | 4
4 | Sandbanks | 489 | 4 | 13 | Blind Man's Bluff | 183 | 3
5 | Devil's Elbow | 570 | 5 | 14 | Tullamore Dew | 564 | 5
6 | Mulligan's Watch | 160 | 3 | 15 | Frog Water | 479 | 4
7 | Troll | 372 | 4 | 16 | Deep Dye | 474 | 4
8 | Garden Creek | 555 | 5 | 17 | Irish Mist | 375 | 4
9 | Last Gaspe | 484 | 4 | 18 | Black and Tan | 558 | 5
Out | 3,549 | 36 | In | 3,652 | 36
Source:[5][6] | Total | 7,201 | 72

## References

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Whistling Straits Golf Course.

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. ^ a b "PGA Championship: course tour". PGA of America. 2015. Retrieved August 11, 2014.
6. ^ a b "The Straits, hole-by-hole". Whistling Straits. Retrieved August 11, 2014.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website

* v
* t
* e

Ryder Cup venues

* Worcester Country Club, Worcester, Massachusetts (1927)
* Moortown Golf Club, Leeds (1929)
* Scioto Country Club, Upper Arlington, Ohio (1931)
* Southport and Ainsdale Golf Club, Southport (1933, 1937)
* Ridgewood Country Club, Paramus, New Jersey (1935)
* Portland Golf Club, Raleigh Hills, Oregon (1947)
* Ganton Golf Club, Ganton, East Riding of Yorkshire (1949)
* Pinehurst Resort, Pinehurst, North Carolina (1951)
* Wentworth Club, Virginia Water, Surrey (1953)
* Thunderbird Country Club, Rancho Mirage, California (1955)
* Lindrick Golf Club, near Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire (1957)
* Eldorado Country Club, Indian Wells, California (1959)
* Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club, Lytham St Annes, Lancashire (1961, 1977)
* East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta, Georgia (1963)
* Royal Birkdale Golf Club, Southport, Merseyside (1965, 1969)
* Champions Golf Club, Houston, Texas (1967)
* Old Warson Country Club, St. Louis, Missouri (1971)
* Muirfield, Gullane, East Lothian (1973)
* Laurel Valley Golf Club, Ligonier, Pennsylvania (1975)
* The Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia (1979)
* Walton Heath Golf Club, Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey (1981)
* PGA National Golf Club, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida (1983)
* The Belfry, Wishaw, Warwickshire (1985, 1989, 1993, 2002)
* Muirfield Village, Dublin, Ohio (1987)
* Kiawah Island Golf Resort, Kiawah Island, South Carolina (1991)
* Oak Hill Country Club, Pittsford, New York (1995)
* Real Club Valderrama, Sotogrande, Andalusia (1997)
* The Country Club, Brookline, Massachusetts (1999)
* Oakland Hills Country Club, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan (2004)
* K Club, Straffan, County Kildare (2006)
* Valhalla Golf Club, Louisville, Kentucky (2008)
* Celtic Manor Resort, Newport, Wales (2010)
* Medinah Country Club, Medinah, Illinois (2012)
* Gleneagles, Auchterarder, Perth and Kinross (2014)
* Hazeltine National Golf Club, Chaska, Minnesota (2016, 2029)
* Le Golf National, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Île-de-France (2018)
* Whistling Straits, Haven, Wisconsin (2021)
* Marco Simone Golf and Country Club, Guidonia, Rome (2023)
* Bethpage Black Course, Farmingdale, New York (2025)
* Adare Manor, Adare, County Limerick (2027)
* Olympic Club, San Francisco, California (2033)
* Congressional Country Club, Bethesda, Maryland (2037)

versus

* v
* t
* e

Kohler Company

Divisions|

* Kohler Company
* Kohler Kitchen & Bath
* Kohler Interiors
* Kohler Mira Ltd
* Residential Review Committee

Destination Kohler|

* American Club
* Whistling Straits
* Blackwolf Run
* Riverbend
* Kohler Design Center
* Old Course Hotel
* Waelderhaus
* Kohler Stables

Related|

* Village Realty & Development
* John Michael Kohler Arts Center
* Kohler Distinguished Guest Series
* Kohler Foundation
* Village of Kohler
* Noble Flaire
* The Vollrath Company
* Waelderhaus
* Windway

Events|

* 2021 Ryder Cup
* PGA Championship
* 2015
* 2010
* 2004
* U.S. Women's Open
* 2012
* 1998
* U.S. Senior Open
* 2007
* Kohler strikes
* 1934
* 1954
* 1983
* 2015

People|

* John Michael Kohler (Founder)
* David Kohler (President and CEO)

| Kohler family|

* Walter J. Kohler Sr. (son)
* Marie Christine Kohler (daughter)
* Herbert Kohler Jr. (grandson)
* Walter J. Kohler Jr. (grandson)
* Terry Kohler (great-grandson)
* Marie Kohler (great-granddaughter)

|

43°51′04″N 87°44′06″W﻿ / ﻿43.851°N 87.735°W﻿ / 43.851; -87.735
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template