Lawsonia (Links)

After years of course improvements helped bring it out of the shadows, Lawsonia no longer counts as a sleeper. But it still qualifies as one of the country’s greatest steals. Golden Age maestros Langford and Moreau spent some $5 million in 2024 dollars to produce this literally groundbreaking Wisconsin design. With the help of steam shovels, they built fairways with bedeviling browns and greens with remarkably bold contours. Of the many superb holes, the par-3 7th rightly gets the most attention, in part because of the story behind it. Rumor is that a boxcar is buried beneath it. Given its bulging surface and the 20-foot drop-off along its front-right side, that’s easy to believe.