Brief review of Lawsonia-Links/Green Lake, WI

[exgolfpro]

Based solely on advice from this message board, I took a side trip to Green Lake, WI on our annual trip to Kohler, WI.

 

Our annual vacation in Kohler was to begin Monday, June 26th. But decided to get to Wisconsin on Sunday, in order to play Lawsonia-Links before crossing over to Kohler. First off, if anyone is travelling to this area with a spouse or significant other, I might recommend The Angel Inn in Green Lake. A nice bed and breakfast about 2 minutes from the course. If anyone needs any contact info, please message me.

 

So we got to town Sunday about 2pm and decided to take advantage of their twilight rate, because Monday was looking like all day rain. So, we dropped out bags at The Angel Inn, changed clothes and headed to the golf course. When we arrived, we pulled in the parking lot and because we hadn't eaten in about 5 hours we went to the attached Langford Pub. Wife had a cup of ham/bean soup that she said was good and I had a brat. It was fine as well. Nothing showy or fancy, but the food and service were good. The bill with tip came to about $15.00.

 

Went next door to see if I could get on the course and found they had plenty of openings. The weather was in the 60's and the wind was howling. Wasn't the best day to play, but the next days forecast was bad, so I paid the $59 for twilight and cart and we went straight out the practice green to hit some putts. Practice green was empty and hit 5-10 putts. Greens were very firm and fast, with the windy conditions making them that much faster. After the practice green, we headed for the first tee and began our round.

 

The first hole is a dogleg right. The tee shot is a bit blind to the landing area and there is no indication as to the direction of the hole. If it weren't for seeing the course on google maps before making the trip, I wouldn't know how the hole was situated. But I striped my opening tee shot into a 25mph head wind. Found it in the fwy and had about 178yds left to the green. Hit 4iron on about 40 ft from the hole and proceeded to 3 putt the first hole for bogey. I will not provide a hole by hole or play by play review, but will give some highlights. But I will say the greens were very firm and very fast. I would love to play these greens on a daily basis.

 

The second hole is another blind tee shot. At the time, I wasn't sure how I felt about these two blind tee shots, but after the round I can say, I enjoyed the second hole more than the first (maybe because I parred it). The 4th hole is interesting, it is an uphill par 3 that looks like a fortress from the tee. The green is not visible, only the top of the flag. There is a bunker that wraps from the front right of the green, all the way around the left side, the back and stops at the back right. If you are unlucky enough to find this bunker, you have a 15 foot wall/berm between you and the green. I found the sand, made bogey.

 

The rest of the front nine wandered around the western half of the property. The most interesting and unusual design feature of this course is the cross bunkers. Most of the fairway bunkers ran perpendicular to the shot direction and hid the fairway, or at least the landing area. This was the case on 2, 5, 6 and 8, as well as many holes on the back nine. The second interesting feature was how elevated most of the greens are. Most of the greens are pushed up from the surrounding area, about 5-10 ft, some more than that.

 

The back nine starts with a long par 3 (227yds from the tee I played). Like many of my approach shots on this day, the ball hit in front, rolled across these fast/hard greens and finished just over the back of the green. A good chip and a scared sidehill putt left me with another bogey. From the 11th tee, you can see every hole on the back nine. Every hole runs across and around a large rectangle shaped meadow and it gives you a neat view that you don't always see on today's golf courses. The back nine was more of the same with the cross bunkers hiding the view of the fairway.

 

Once we got to 13, it started to rain, but 15, it was pouring. But 17, it had stopped. Another unusual feature is from 9-14, the pars alternate as follows: 5-3-5-3-5-3. For good measure, hole 18 throws in another par 5.

 

I wrapped up my round with a one putt par and we headed to The Goose Blind for dinner. For the record, I will say that I really enjoyed my round. It was an interesting, fun course and I would play it again any day. The greens were spectacular and have a way of making you look silly occasionally. If you hit your irons well and can putt, you will play well here. But at the risk of angering some people, I'm glad I paid $59. I think their normal weekday rate is $80 with a cart and I think that is a fair price as well. But some on this board say it is a better course than Whistling Straits and personally, I disagree. I cannot justify the price that The Straits charges, but given the chance to play 10 rounds, I would play the Straits 8 times and Lawsonia 2 times.

 

If I could compare the quality of the golf and the enjoyment of the round to any of the courses at Kohler/Sheboygan, I would say similar (maybe slightly better) than The Bull at Pinehurst Farms and similar to Blackwolf Run-Meadow Valleys and in my opinion is better than The Irish.

[zer0]

Glad you enjoyed the course and too bad it rained on you. Also too bad you went to Goose Blind, that place is at best mediocre. Lots of BnBs in town, but the most famous hotel is the Heidel House with its famous spa. If you are traveling with a non golfing wife this is the place to stay.

 

It helps to play Lawsonia with someone who has played it before so they can point out all the proper lines on blind shots.

 

As someone who insists that Lawsonia is a better course than Whistling Straits (or any course in Wisconsin for that matter) I think you are underrating it when you say its maybe slightly better than The Bull and the lesser known courses at Kohler. IMO, the only advantage WS has over Lawsonia is the lake view. I can't think of one other golf related thing that WS does better than Lawsonia. Lawsonia has better greens, better course conditions, more interesting routing and actual sand in the greenside bunkers.

 

I think it takes several rounds to truly appreciate the pure genius of the Links course. IMO, it really is the perfect golf course and one you could play every day and never get bored.

[ldchristopher]

The elevated greens are a Langford design staple. He did that at pretty much all of his courses in the Midwest. Initially, I'm assuming it was for drainage purposes but it's become what he's most known for. When I played Lawsonia, the Assistant Pro told us where to hit our drives on the blind tee shots. There aren't many but it was good to know what the target was. I liked holes 4-18 a lot and the odd layout with alternating par 3s and 5s to open the back didn't really bother me. However, I'm with you that I didn't find it to be the best course in Wisconsin. Personally, I think Washington County is better if you're factoring in overall course quality, green maintenance, variety, and value. But, hey, different strokes for different folks. Zer0 isn't the only one around here who loves to wax poetic about Lawsonia.

 

Lawsonia never got as much hype as it has been getting the last few years and, since I don't really follow Wisconsin golf outside of places that are within 2.5 hours outside of Chicago, I couldn't figure out why there was a sudden love affair with a place that had been around for 86 years. However, while playing a couple of weeks ago, I was told by a regular that over the years, so many trees had been planted that it had turned into a glorified parkland course. I'm not sure if this was overstatement on this guy's part, but apparently they ripped out all the trees except what surrounds the course and frames the greens, thereby having it look and feel like Langford originally intended. It's also an anomaly in that it's an old school place with a wide-open design. Courses like that rarely existed in the Midwest since most of the golf facilities built in the 1910s and 1920s are tree-lined parkland and woodland courses with narrow fairways and less room for error from tee to green. Lawsonia is, as the OP experienced, the opposite in that it's open from tee to green but very penal when on or near the putting surface.

[ode1]

The raised greens are def an interesting feature and do not allow for naturally running the ball on the green as you'd expect to be able to do on a links style course. 2 is an exception, 9, 10, 15, 16 also being good options if you must, 16 moreso due to length of the hole, at times making it a necessity and also 10 depending on your game. There are others you could run it up but it's a narrow area to do so. That being said you can def use the contours if the green to run the ball towards the hole....that takes knowing the course.and knowing the greens. It took me at least a half dozen times to really appreciate the course, but only once to appreciate the greens. They are really something. The angles off the tee are interesting and also the elevation changes. Going there this weekend and bringing my bro and dad for the first time. Can't wait.

[ode1]

We had a great time. Greens were slick, my dad had more than double the length on several of his 2nd putts vs. the first. Birdied 4, 9, and 15. Had several very nice par saves.

 

For those who haven't been to the area and are looking for somewhere to eat, check out Knuth's Brewing Company in Ripon...good wood fired/brick oven pizzas, the house brews were solid, I had the brown ale. They had two guest brews, one from Dogfish, which I forget what it was and Central Waters Bourbon Barrel aged barley wine which was money. We are going to Christiano's tonight to compare. Not expecting the same level of beer selection, but that's all good.

[klebs01]

I'm not sure if this was overstatement on this guy's part, but apparently they ripped out all the trees except what surrounds the course and frames the greens, thereby having it look and feel like Langford originally intended. It's also an anomaly in that it's an old school place with a wide-open design. Courses like that rarely existed in the Midwest since most of the golf facilities built in the 1910s and 1920s are tree-lined parkland and woodland courses with narrow fairways and less room for error from tee to green. Lawsonia is, as the OP experienced, the opposite in that it's open from tee to green but very penal when on or near the putting surface.

 

Open courses were not an anomaly in the Midwest, the old courses were simply overplanted with trees during the dark ages (WWII to the late 90s). If you look at historical photos, nearly all courses were open. We are lucky that the madness has ended an courses are being restored.