Straits Golf Course at Whistling Straits

Description

In commissioning Pete Dye to design the Straits Course at Whistling Straits, the resort's founder, Herb Kohler, essentially gave the designer free range and an open wallet to create something that had never been seen before. The result was an unbelievable test of golf on the shores of Lake Michigan. The golf course was quickly selected to host the 2004 PGA Championship and 2007 U.S. Senior Open and will also host the 2010 and 2015 PGA Championship, as well as the 2020 Ryder Cup Matches. Dye and his team moved about 800,000 cubic yards of dirt to transform a mostly flat, featureless abandoned airfield into the rugged spectacle it is today. The Straits course boasts a two-tiered amphitheater effect that gives just about every hole a view of Lake Michigan, which is big enough to pass as the Irish sea or any ocean. There is an uncountable number of bunkers and grassy dunes; the result is something in the mold of a Ballybunion.