Whistling Straits (Straits Course)

In an era of containment mounds, water features, and cart-forward golf design, Pete Dye was tasked with creating a walking-only course "like Ballybunion” along the shores of Lake Michigan in central Wisconsin. This was the vision of businessman and golf developer Herb Kohler, who had already worked with Dye on the two courses at Blackwolf Run a few miles away. 

While the new course would have tremendous views of the vast lake, which could stand in for the Irish Sea, the flat landscape that was once a World War II military base would have to be completely reimagined to mimic the massive dunes at Ballybunion. This Herculean task required millions of yards of dirt to be imported and engineered to create completely new terrain atop the 70-foot bluffs. The catalyst for making this project work was that Dye theorized pushing the shoreline bluffs back inland to build faux dunes. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which had final say, realized this would be a great way to stop ongoing coastal erosion by providing beaches that could withstand the crashing waves and ultimately gave the green light. Tons of sand were purchased from a nearby farm, which allowed Dye to create the dramatic dunescape and visual extravaganza seen today. 

To the untrained eye, the faux dunes of Whistling Straits appear to have been there for hundreds of years. Dye created a stepped topography where the non-coastal holes were perched up above the lower-lying lakefront holes, producing stunning views on all 18 holes and providing a necessary framework for adequate drainage. The construction of the Straits was just one piece of this fascinating puzzle. Dye formulated a double figure-eight routing along the two-mile shoreline that allowed for eight holes directly on the water: four holes playing north-south and four south-north. Each coastal section is split into pairs, so sequences of two inland holes and two water holes alternate throughout the round. In addition, the fescue-covered landscape contains over 1,000 bunkers—a sensory blitzkrieg. Whistling Straits is a masterpiece of golf course construction and design capable of both hosting major championships and appealing to the everyday golfer.

Take Note...

Winter work. In order to push the shoreline bluffs back inland, the construction crew took advantage of the frigid winter months to drive heavy machinery on top of the frozen lake.

‍Pete did. During construction of the 17th hole, Alice Dye told her husband Pete that the hole wasn’t difficult enough and that there needed to be "a chance of making double bogey.” Kohler suggested pushing the green atop a tall, nearby mound, while Alice suggested placing a pond between the green and the lake. Pete ignored both suggestions and built a large fronting mound that obscures the view of half the putting surface from the championship tees. To capture this moment, Alice crafted a sketch of each of the three ideas and titled them “Herb Said,” “Alice Said,” and “Pete Did,” respectively. This story captures Pete’s stubbornness and his genius in using visual deception as a challenge versus a physical hazard. Today, this framed sketch is hanging inside the bar at the clubhouse.

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