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The post Herb Kohler, legendary businessman, golf course owner, dies at 83 appeared first on Golf.

Herb Kohler, the plumbing magnate and legendary golf-course developer who built Whistling Straits, host site of the 2021 Ryder Cup, died Saturday at 83.

Kohler was an avid golfer who made it his mission to turn eastern Wisconsin and the shores of Lake Michigan into an international golf destination.

“His zest for life, adventure and impact inspires all of us,” his family wrote in a Kohler Company press release. “We traveled together, celebrated together, and worked together. He was all in, all the time, leaving an indelible mark on how we live our lives today and carry on his legacy.”

Kohler entered the golf industry in 1988 with the first 18 holes at Blackwolf Run, near Sheboygan, in his home state of Wisconsin. From there, not only did the golf facility grow, adding a second 18 holes by 1990, but so too did its fame. A composite course of the 36 holes at Blackwolf hosted the 1998 U.S. Women’s Open, won by Se Ri Pak.

Also in 1998, Kohler expanded his golf portfolio, opening 36 holes at Whistling Straits in the nearby town of Haven. Kohler and architect Pete Dye, who also designed the courses at Blackwolf Run, turned a polluted, abandoned airfield site into a links-like experience, making one think they might be in the dunes of the British Isles.

The Straits course at Whistling Straits has hosted three PGA Championships, a U.S. Senior Open and last year’s Ryder Cup, the site of one of the U.S. team’s greatest triumphs and perhaps the culmination of Kohler’s golf legacy.

Kohler also helped design the newest course in his portfolio, the 10-hole par-3 track, The Baths of Blackwolf Run, which opened last year. Kohler had been involved with plans to build a fifth 18-hole course on Lake Michigan’s shoreline, south of Whistling Straits.

Wisconsin native and PGA Tour winner Jerry Kerry thanked Kohler for all he’s done for the state in a tweet Sunday night.

Kohler’s influence on the sport wasn’t limited to just his home state. Since 2004, Kohler has owned the Old Course Hotel Resort and Spa, the hotel adjacent to The Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland, which players must hit over to reach the 17th fairway. He also built The Duke’s Course, a heathland design just outside of St. Andrews.

Kohler’s received various accolades for his contributions to the game, including the Old Tom Morris Award from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America in 2016 for leaving his “indelible mark on golf and focus on the importance of environmental stewardship.” In 2019, Kohler was inducted into the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame for making Wisconsin a worldwide golf destination and bringing six major championships to the state. Kohler only got serious about the game in his 50s but was no fair-weather golfer, playing across the globe, rain or shine. He made his first hole-in-one at the Old Course in 2007, the release said. He said he “laughingly remembered” it not only for the ace but also for picking up the tab for his group after the round.

Kohler was born in Chicago in 1938 and became CEO of the Kohler Company, founded by his grandfather Michael, in 1968. He also became president and served in both roles until stepping down in 2015 and handing the reins of the company to his son David. He is survived by his wife, Natalie; two daughters, Laura and Rachel Kohler; and one son, David.

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The post Walk a golf course with designer Gil Hanse and you’ll see the game differently appeared first on Golf.

The post Walk a golf course with designer Gil Hanse and you’ll see the game differently appeared first on Golf.

If you’re into golf-course architecture — and who among us is not? — this won’t be news: this Gil Hanse is everywhere. Last year’s U.S. Open at Winged Foot? Resto’ by Hanse. This year’s U.S. Open (women’s edition) at Olympic? Another Hanse joint. Southern Hills, where the 2022 PGA will be played, and The Country Club, site of the 2022 U.S. Open? G. Hanse, G. Hanse. The Yale course redo? The Merion East nip-and-tuck? The Pinehurst No. 4 reinvention? Yada. Yada. Yada.

So you can imagine our collective surprise when we, a handful of a Redan-o-philes, learned, during an on-site Ryder Cup walk with Hanse as our shepherd, that the man was making his first trip to Whistling Straits, the must-see American golf resort, pricey and spectacular. Oceanside golf in Wisconsin, even if the body of water along its shore is technically a mere lake. Redan, you may know, is a term of war and also a term of golf-course architecture. It’s a meaty word though I can’t say I’ve ever really understood it. The word came up more than once, as we walked the course.

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“Never been here before,” Hanse said. “But I did play with Pete once, at Hilton Head. He carried his own bag, played fast and played great.” Hanse’s Pete was the late Pete Dye, who built Whistling Straits, the Harbour Town Golf Links (aka Hilton Head) and loads of other courses. In manner, Hanse (reserved) and Dye (outrageous) were opposites. As architects, ditto. But Hanse’s reverence for Dye, over the course of our walk, became obvious.

One member of our group, a style writer and golf blogger named Michael Williams, was wearing a golf hat of his own design with one word stenciled across its brim: redan. The first letter was lower case and there was a period after the n — and those things made all the difference.

Also in the group was a slender young gent named Ben Boskovich, an editor at Esquire, the stylish magazine that coined the phrase “Man at his Best.” Boskovich was wearing a hat bearing the name Aimé Leon Dore. You know, the New York-based street-meets-club fashion brand. OK, yes: I looked it up. But I can tell you something about Jos. A Bank fall collection.

To keep the theme going here, Hanse was wearing a Southern Hills baseball cap, various Peter Millar golf duds and, on his wrist, a heavy Rolex. That was not a coincidence. Our little walk was organized by Rolex.

When I first met Hanse, nearly 30 years ago, he was wearing dungarees and L.L. Bean boots and he came off a bulldozer to say hello. Today, Hanse and his work colleagues use a name that descends, in its way, from Man at this Best: Caveman Construction. It’s the push-the-dirt side of Hanse Golf Design.

“Wearing a Rolex and a golf hat at the same time, it’s a nice sweet spot,” Boskovich told me later, when I asked him to size-up Hanse’s style sensibilities. “It speaks to where the game of golf is right now. I’ve golfed with guys wearing jeans shorts, and I’ve golfed with guys dressed like Tour pros. We all love the game.”

It’s always neat, getting a fresh perspective on anything, and that was one. Golf needs more players in jean shorts, and more people who use golf as a verb. As for the hoodie in golf, that’s not even a question anymore. You likely saw the American players wearing them at Whistling Straits. Wearing, not rocking. Please. That’s so 1996. Collin Morikawa wasn’t even born.

I first met Hanse in 1992, when he was starting out in the biz and working for Tom Doak. Doak, when he was starting out, worked for Dye. There’s a lot of that in golf-course architecture, a lot of Mungo begat Old Tom and Old Tom begat D. Ross and D. Ross begat — just about everybody.

Six degrees, golf-style.

And as Gil Hanse once golfed with Dye, Dye golfed (take it up with my editor) with Donald Ross. And as Dye made a study of the great Scottish courses, Hanse did the same. In passing, Hanse talked about Dye’s use of railroad ties, a common way to hold up bunker walls in the Motherland, and easy to find over there. The wooden ties were lying about, detritus from the railway lines in coastal Scotland. A lot of trucks once roamed the Straits course, in its embryonic stages. At Whistling Straits, the railroad ties were trucked in. Hanse’s thing is to use, as best he can, what Mother Nature provides him. Dye’s thing was something else.

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Hanse told us something I should have known but didn’t: When Dye and Herb Kohler, the plumbing-fixtures magnate and golf nut, started talking about a golf course on the shore of Lake Michigan in rural central Wisconsin, the entire tract was dead-flat farmland. All known evidence of that origin story is gone. Hanse talked about a small mountain Dye built at the end of the Whistling Straits property, beyond the 5th hole, to block out the view of the neighboring flatlands and farmland. That made an impression on Boskovich, both what Dye did and Hanse’s description of it. Boskovich’s interpretation of it made an impression on me.

“When Dye put that mound there, it was his way of saying, ‘You’re on the course now, and you don’t want to be anywhere else.’” That comment made me think of Augusta National as a golfing oasis. For a lucky few, you get beyond chaotic Washington Road, past the club’s imposing wall, and then you’re in a golfing dreamscape.

The Old Course, come to think of it, is like that, too, but in a different way. You start in town. You leave town. You finish in town.

There are many ways, to the heart of golf. They’re all good. Still, there’s a reason why the Grand Slam events are almost never played on courses lined with homes. There’s not a single home on the Straits course. Golf is, among other things, a form of escape.

If you think of Whistling Straits as an American version of Scottish linksland, you likely have transported yourself to the West Coast of Scotland, where the land heaves, and not the East, where it does not. Hanse said that Whistling Straits might look like a true links course, but it doesn’t play like one. The ball doesn’t roll out. It doesn’t tumble. Hanse, tall and measured, was standing on a manmade hill, looking at a manmade course, Lake Michigan shimmering (literally) beyond it.

Hanse imagined a course that he might have built there, a course with a much lower profile. No towering anything. Hanse is a minimalist. Dye was a maximalist. The old Scottish architects often talked about the hand of God at work on the great courses. Dye was an archetype American course designer, as Hanse described him. A golf-course builder, really. Hanse said he considered himself a builder, too, but his aesthetic is totally different.

As we walked the course Hanse chatted about this and that. He started out as a history major in college (he went to the University of Denver) and switched to landscape architecture. But history is always tugging at him. He said that, in his experience, Merion and Yale had the best archival materials about their courses, and he goes back to them again and again. He cited Ben Crenshaw and Geoff Ogilvy as two elite players who were world-class in their knowledge of golf-course design, and golf-course history. The two go hand-in-hand, to a point.

Dye died last year, and this year was some tribute to him. Justin Thomas won the Players at TPC Sawgrass, a Dye course. Phil Mickelson won the PGA Championship at Kiawah, a Dye course. Stewart Cink won at Hilton Head. The U.S. won the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. Next year will be a good one for Hanse, if you’re talking about main-stage golf. Of course, there’s way more to golf than that. Dye’s landmark courses are ones you might play once in your life. That’s not where Hanse goes.

“Listening to Gil, you could hear how the architects want to innovate, they compete with each other, and that’s good for the game,” Boskovich told me. “They’re artists. They’re innovators. That’s why not all golf courses look the same.” An excellent insight and observation. 

The walk was about 90 minutes or so, and then lunch was served. You can imagine the scene: red wine or white, your choice. Tom Watson, holding court. Before going in, Hanse, his wife, Tracey, alongside him, looked at a large electronic leaderboard. “We’re up in three, down in one,” he said. The U.S. win was coming.

Kohler wanted a destination golf course and he hired Dye to build him one. They got what they wanted. The Ryder Cup was at Whistling Straits. Gil Hanse was taking it in.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@golf.com.

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The post WATCH: Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka’s hug seen ’round the world appeared first on Golf.

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HAVEN, Wis. — The final moment of the U.S. team’s press conference belonged to Steve Stricker: “It was a great bunch of guys, and I really had a great time, and they deserve it.”     

No, Steve, that will not fly. Not in this age of irony!     

Justin Thomas stepped in and saved the night.     

“I think before this is all over, we should have Brooks and Bryson hug in the middle of the room,” he said from the back row. “To prove how much of a team we are, they are going to hug.”     

He broke out in song: “Why can’t we be friends, why can’t we be friends?” The song is by a band called “War.” The title is the refrain.     

You surely know the whole history to this Bryson DeChambeau-Brooks Koepka contretemps in a Bud bottle. If you don’t, don’t bother.     

Looking at a replay of the ensuing hug, it seems obvious that DeChambeau is far more eager to embrace the moment than the ever-cool Koepka. DeChambeau waves Koepka down. Koepka puts down his beer. DeChambeau picks up the Ryder Cup trophy and initiates a hug. Koepka meets him halfway, sort of. Thomas cheers.

The hug ends. Another begins. It ends.

The team files out and into the Wisconsin night. 

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The post Anatomy of a Ryder Cup blowout: How the U.S. found its mojo and throttled the Europeans appeared first on Golf.

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HAVEN, Wis. — When just the fourth match of the day reached the 16th hole of the Straits course on Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Ryder Cup team was already in coronation mode. Packed in a cluster to the right of the green were a host of players, captains and other golfing dignitaries representing multiple generations. Ryder Cup rookie Scottie Scheffler, fresh off his 4-up thumping of Spanish buzzsaw Jon Rahm, sat on grassy knoll flanked by 51-year-old U.S. vice-captain Phil Mickelson and 69-year-old Ben Crenshaw, who captained another epic U.S. Ryder Cup win, at Brookline, in 1999. As Morikawa made his way to the green, Bryson DeChambeau — visibly giddy from his own Sunday success: a 3-up win over the other Spanish buzzsaw, Sergio Garcia — leaned in and clasped hands with Scheffler, his fourball partner this week.

“You see what I did on 1?” DeChambeau said, beaming. “Drove it to 40 feet and made the putt.”

Scheffler’s eyes widened and he held up his phone.

“I can’t believe I didn’t see that!” he said.

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Observers of the game might be asking themselves a similar question in the wake of the U.S.’s record 19-9 drubbing of the Europeans. The U.S. was slightly favored heading into the week but given the American horrors of Ryder Cups past — the U.S, as if we need remind you, had lost nine of the last 12 editions, including a seven-point beatdown in Paris three years ago — few predicted what transpired this week on the lakeside engineering marvel that is Pete Dye’s Straits course.

Over three breezy sun-splashed days, the U.S. suffocated the Europeans, jumping out to a 3-1 lead after the first session, extending that margin to 6-2 after the second session. On Saturday, more of the same: 3-1 in the morning foursomes followed by 2-2 in the afternoon fourballs. On Sunday? Yep. More, more, more. Europe won just three of the 12 singles matches. When the dust settled, the U.S. had more than doubled Europe’s point total. “Blowout” is not a term used often in golf, but it was the only way to describe the result.

So, how we did we arrive here? How did this American team come together and run away from this European side like Secretariat at Belmont? Let us count the ways.

1. The U.S. team has better players

Obvious, yes, but it must be our starting point: the U.S. players are superior. More firepower, better putters and more in form than their European counterparts.

Heading into the week, the Europeans had just one player in the top in the world ranking (Jon Rahm) and their third-highest ranked player, Rory McIlroy (No. 15), had admitted to being run down in recent weeks. Meanwhile, the U.S. team’s average world ranking was a staggering 8.9. “It was really just getting out of their way,” U.S. captain Steve Stricker said Sunday evening. “Let them go. Provide an atmosphere and camaraderie that they enjoyed and wanted to be a part of.”

Simple formula, devastating results.  

2. The U.S. rookies played like veterans

Better on paper hasn’t always translated into Ryder Cup wins for the U.S., but this U.S. side was buoyed by the fact that most of the team hadn’t been exposed to the U.S. team’s past baggage. With six fresh-faced but undaunted rookies, this was a markedly different squad from the fractured team that Europe hammered in Paris three years ago. Having experience never hurts in the cauldron of the Ryder Cup but it also has proven not to be a requirement for success. At Valhalla, in 2008, the Paul Azinger-led U.S. team also had six first-timers and cruised to a six-point win.

“We have a team with no scar tissue,” Tony Finau said earlier in the week. “There’s only a handful of us that has even played in a Ryder Cup, and the few of those, we have winning records. So we actually don’t have guys on our team that have lost a lot in Ryder Cups … We’ve got a whole different group of young guys that are hungry. You guys see six rookies. Man, in this team room, I don’t see any rookies. I see 12 guys that are confident and none of us are wide-eyed. We want to win.”

And win they did. The half-dozen rookies combined for a gaudy 14-4-3 record: Collin Morikawa (3-1-0), Xander Schauffele (3-1-0), Patrick Cantlay (3-0-1), and Scheffler (2-0-1), Harris English (1-1-1), Daniel Berger (2-1-0). “The notion that rookies can’t come out here because they don’t have the experience can kind of be thrown out the window,” said Daniel Berger, who won the record-setting 19th on Sunday, dispatching Matt Fitzpatrick on the 18th green, 1 up. “All of these guys are competing at the biggest events, the major championships, and winning big golf tournaments. That’s what it comes down to is being able to perform at the highest level.”

3. The U.S. players seemed to actually bond

Bonding is a popular buzzword at the Ryder Cup. All teams claim to do it, but how much has actually happened on the U.S. side in recent Cups is up for debate. This week, the guys legitimately seemed to warm to one another.

From week to week on the PGA Tour, Cantlay said he’s more or less a closed book with his peers. That’s intentional. “I don’t want you to know what I’m thinking or know my insecurities or whatever,” he said. In Kohler, however, where the U.S. team bunked together in the tranquil confines of The American Club, Cantlay said he let down his guard and saw the same from his teammates, notably DJ and Berger. “I think they can be more of themselves with less protectiveness,” he said.

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Cantlay’s closeness with Xander Schauffele, his partner in two winning matches, was also apparent, a kinship that dates to the time they spent together at the 2019 Presidents Cup in Melbourne. (He’s become one of my best friends through that experience,” Schauffele said.) As Schauffele and Cantlay were partying with their teammates by the 18th green on Sunday, they looked like a couple of college bros enjoying a frat party. Schauffele had a crumpled High Noon in his hand; in each of Cantlay’s back pockets was a can of Mich Ultra.

“How many beers have you had?!” Cantlay said.

They both cracked up.

Among the other players that vibed: DJ and Morikawa. “Two weeks ago I had them together,” Striceker said of the Whistling Straits reconnaissance mission he organized for the team. “They just felt good with each other. They complement each other’s game very nicely. Both heck of players, and they just enjoy being with each other.”

Really, this week, the entire team seemed to enjoy one another’s company. Oh, and they also share one essential trait. “We all have one thing in common,” DJ said. “We do not like to lose.”

4. The U.S had more (and better) captain’s picks

If Padraig Harrington made any missteps, it started with his captain’s picks: not so much who he picked but how many selections he allowed himself. Whereas Stricker allotted himself six picks, Harrington took only half as many, using them on Sergio Garcia, Shane Lowry and Ian Poulter. Garcia proved to be a worthy pick, whil Lowry and Poulter each went 1-2, but brave be the captain who would have left one of Europe’s best-ever Ryder Cuppers off the team.

The bigger issue was that only three picks meant nine auto-qualifiers, the last three of those free bids going to Paul Casey, Matt Fitzpatrick and an out-of-form Lee Westwood; that trio combined for a woeful 2-8 record at Whistling Straits. Would the likes of Justin Rose, Victor Perez or Robert MacIntryre have bolstered Team Europe? Maybe, maybe not. But surely Harrington would have benefited from having more flexibility in determining his lineup. Stricker certainly did. His six picks — Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth, Daniel Berger, Tony Finau, Harris English and Scottie Scheffler — injected more youth into an already youthful team, and delivered big: the six U.S. wildcard picks combined for a 10-7-3 record.  

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5. Bryson and Brooks hugged it out

The 2018 U.S. team was largely derailed by the European’s torrid putting at Le Golf National but also by infighting. Patrick Reed publicly bemoaned captain Jim Furyk’s decision to bench Reed for two sessions and break up his partnership with Jordan Spieth. Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka also had a riff, reportedly nearly coming to blows at a team party Sunday night.

This year’s team seemed destined for more disruption. Just a week before the event, Koepka offered a less-than-ringing endorsement for the Ryder Cup when in an interview with Golf Digest he described the week as busy and “odd,” with a scarcity of time to decompress. (Earlier this week, Koepka stressed, “I never said it was negative. I said it was different.”) Koepka’s mood and play can be hard to predict, but he didn’t sound like a guy who was ready to run through a wall to win points.

Then there was Koepka’s longstanding riff with Bryson DeChambeau. Would that toxicity spill into the team room and/or press conferences?

Neither of these concerns materialized. Koepka did troll DeChambeau with a tweet after the opening ceremony and childishly squabbled with a rules official in his Saturday foursomes match, but otherwise showed up to play, winning twice. He and DeChambeau also appeared to find common ground in team dinners and, ultimately, with a hug — albeit a highly manufactured hug — in the U.S. team’s Sunday evening press conference. Is Bryson vs. Brooks history? Don’t bet on it. But for one week at least, they mostly put aside their differences and came together for the good of the team.

6. Patrick Reed stayed home

Of all the calls Stricker made to alert potential captain’s picks that they didn’t make the team, Stricker said his call to Reed — a Ryder Cup dynamo — was the toughest. “Kind of lost sleep over that one,” Stricker said. Left unsaid, however, was that leaving Reed off the squad reduced the chances of any more Team USA weirdness. Reed is as gritty a match-player as any top American and might well have been a force for good in Wisconsin, but that pettiness in Paris won’t soon be forgotten by the deciders of future U.S. teams.

7. Home-crowd advantage

Ryder Cup crowds are always one-sided, but this week in Wisconsin the galleries were especially star-spangled. With the pandemic preventing European fans from traveling en masse across the Atlantic, blue-and-gold loyalists were so outnumbered that it was hard to find them (I know because I tried). Harrington said he was surprised by how few Europeans were on site, while McIlroy added that even in normal years it has become increasingly harder to win on the road.

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“It seems the way the Ryder Cup is going, the home team certainly has an advantage every time that we play this thing,” said McIlroy, who went a listless 1-3. “That was apparent in Paris a couple years ago. I think it was pretty apparent this week, as well. You go back to Hazeltine, same sort of thing. This is the pattern that we are on.”

8. Stricker’s “chill confidence”

Stricker said his job this week started two and a half years ago. But really it started way earlier, in his role as assistants for other teams. He first began absorbing captaining do’s and don’ts in 2014, when he was Ryder Cup vice-captain for Tom Watson. Two years, later he performed the same duty for Davis Love III. He also was a vice-captain on Jay Haas’s Presidents Cup team, a role he repeated in 2019 for Tiger Woods.

Stricker also played on three Ryder Cup teams, including at Medinah in 2012, when the Europeans came back from four points down in singles to prevail. “I think we learned a lot of lessons from 2012,” he said. “Probably the thing I can say is that we didn’t do a good job putting our lineup out on Sunday. Not that we took it for granted by any stretch of the imagination, but we just could have done better with it.” This week, Stricker’s lineups were nearly flawless. “Let’s be honest,” DJ said after a few post-victory libations. “Captain Strick did an unbelievable job of putting us all in the best position we could be in to win our matches.”

Stricker’s hands-off style appeared to be an excellent fit for this loaded team: stand back and let the horses run. If his guys wanted to grab a nap or a workout, they were free to do so. (Spieth said the vibe was more Presidents Cup than Ryder Cup.) Sticker didn’t wear out his guys in the team room either. He’s not much of a talker; in fact, on Sunday evening he revealed that he doesn’t like to talk at all. There were no Lombardi-like speeches, no pep talks from presidents, no hype videos. Just a few quiet words of encouragement.

“He’s got this chill confidence to him, and I think when I say that, most of you know what I’m talking about,” Finau said. “He’s doesn’t talk a lot. In our team meetings he hasn’t too much. But you can tell the energy he has for the Ryder Cup, the passion he has for it, just by the way he goes about his business.”

This week’s business: domination.

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The post Ryder Cup winnings: Everything players get for winning the 2021 Ryder Cup appeared first on Golf.

The post Ryder Cup winnings: Everything players get for winning the 2021 Ryder Cup appeared first on Golf.

Representing your country as a member of the Ryder Cup team is a huge honor, and one that is only bestowed on 24 players every other year. Often, the players participating in the Ryder Cup are some of the best in the world, with bank-account balances to match.

The top six players on the 2021 PGA Tour money list are all competing this week. Jon Rahm, World No. 1 and Team Europe’s star player, was the season’s top-earner (not including FedEx Cup money), raking in over $7.7 million in winnings. The next five players — Patrick Cantlay, Bryson DeChambeau, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth — are all teeing it up for Team USA this week. Each of them cleared over $6.4 million.

So what do the winning Ryder Cup team members get to add to their bottom line at Whistling Straits this week?

The answer may surprise you: $0.

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Yes, that’s right. Players are not compensated for participating in the Ryder Cup, even if they compete on the winning team. They do, however, receive compensation in another way. The PGA of America reportedly gives each player on Team USA $200,000 for charity, half of which the players can distribute to organizations of their choice. The other half is reportedly directed to the Boys & Girls Club of America, the Drive, Chip, & Putt Championship, and the PGA Junior League. Team Europe’s captain bestows gifts on his players, which are paid for from a Ryder Cup pool of funds.

In 2018, Team Europe was treated to a nice gift indeed — a personalized Rolex watch from captain Thomas Bjorn.

Sometimes, the opposing captain will even step in with a thoughtful memento. In the wake of Team USA’s loss to Europe in 2018, U.S. Captain Jim Furyk sent this lovely decanter to the European team.

Charity dollars and nifty gifts aside, there’s no question that there’s only one thing on each player’s mind at Whistling Straits this week: laying claim to the coveted Ryder Cup.

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HAVEN, Wis. — If you want to make Bryson DeChambeau look like a mere mortal, take driver out of his hand, replace it with a wedge and have him hit a shot to where the pin was set on the par-3 12th hole at the Straits course on Saturday afternoon.

The 12th plays only 150 yards, give or take, over a gnarly, sandy chasm that sits hard against Lake Michigan, where cocktail-sipping boaters can take in the action. The green is big and sprawling and when the hole is cut in the front or middle even weekend hackers can take dead aim.

But in the Saturday fourball session in this 43rd Ryder Cup, the hole was in neither of those places. Instead, it was set on a maniacal section of the green that Pete Dye surely designed in a fever dream: a back-right finger that is no wider than a two-car driveway. If there’s a more daunting pin position in tournament golf, this reporter hasn’t seen it.

Further complicating matters Saturday was the wind, a steady 15 mph left-to-right breeze blowing back out toward the lake. Further complicating those matters were the several thousand frenzied fans lining the left side of the hole and jammed in the grandstand just behind the green. Attempting this shot in solitude is one thing, attempting it in the cauldron of the most pressure-packed event in golf is quite another.    

So, DeChambeau. When he arrived on the 12th tee, the stakes were high: he and Scottie Scheffler were knotted in their fourball match against Tommy Fleetwood and Viktor Hovland. DeChambeau studied his notes, paced off the yardage and conferred with his caddie, Brian Ziegler. Then he swung, sending his ball on a high, soaring trajectory toward the green. The distance was right, the ball flight was not. Too high for this wind. DeChambeau’s ball drifted right, descended, then disappeared down the cliff.

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DeChambeau found his ball but perhaps it’d be better if he hadn’t. From an awkward, tangled hillside lie, he lofted his orb back over the green and into a bunker on the opposing side. After another swing, he still wasn’t on the green. Ball in pocket. Twelfth hole, 1, Bryson, 0.

DeChambeau wasn’t the only player to fall prey to the wicked pin position. Of the 16 players who came through the 12th hole in the Saturday fourball matches, half of them missed the green and none made birdie. (Jordan Spieth nearly did, but his putt from six feet refused to cooperate, horseshoeing out.) Rory McIlroy was left shaking his head after his chip shot from the junk short and right of the green didn’t reach the putting surface. Partners Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia, who have been unflappable over the last two days, both missed the green right.    

All this treacherous fun made the 12th one of the best spectator experiences on a sun-splashed Saturday at Whistling Straits.

In the grandstand next to the green, two fans in George Washington costumes led the U-S-A cheers and, when Tony Finau and Harris English arrived on the tee, they were greeted by a spirited rendition of “God Bless America.” European balls that trundled into bunkers — Garcia’s, Rahm’s, Poulter’s — drew cheers, and even the view-obstructing Juniper bush left of the green landed in the gallery’s crosshairs. “Trim that bush!” they boomed in unison. “Trim that bush!” Fifteen motorboats bopped happily out on the lake. A drone buzzed overhead. It was all happening.

Behind the green, two twentysomethings with 24-ounce Mich Ultras in hand had an over-under debate about how many balls they’d need to get a tee shot within a 10-foot circle of the hole.

“At least a couple of sleeves,” one of them said.  

“You mean a couple of buckets?” the other one said, laughing.

Take the over.  

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The post ‘It’s so calming’: Inside the Ryder Cup teams’ luxurious home this week appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘It’s so calming’: Inside the Ryder Cup teams’ luxurious home this week appeared first on Golf.

HAVEN, Wis. — Nobody, pretty much, is wearing a mask around here, but there’s still talk of “a bubble.” The players, in theory, are in a bubble. Then there’s the bubble-within-the-bubble: The American Club hotel, in the heart of downtown Kohler, about 10 miles from the course.

The public cannot get in it, in these holy days of Ryder Cup play. You know a special pass, and a special handshake. It’s the HQ for the U.S. team and its caddies and captain and assistant captains and support team. Ditto for the European team. Ditto for various Golf People of High Standing. Your John Solheims, for instance, father and son. Your NBC talent. A Paul Azinger. A Dan Hicks. This name-brand executive. That one.

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“You walk in there, and your heart rate goes down by 10 beats,” Azinger said the other day. “It’s just so calming.”

Anybody who has stayed there is likely to tell you about the same thing. The lobby is cozy. The ceilings are low. The beer is cold. The water pressure is excellent, and the faucets are wide. You’re in Kohler Country now!

You like high thread-count sheets? This is your place. You like dark wood, heavy forks, low voices? This is your place. Bring your heaviest credit card. Rooms can be had for less than $200 per night during sleepier periods but creep north of four-figures when demand is high.

Golf has some fine and cozy hotels. Rusacks, in St. Andrews, Scotland. La Playa, in Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif. The American Club in Kohler, Wis.

Check out The American Club here:

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The post How to book a tee time at Whistling Straits, host of the 2021 Ryder Cup appeared first on Golf.

The post How to book a tee time at Whistling Straits, host of the 2021 Ryder Cup appeared first on Golf.

As this week’s matches have proven this far, fall golf in the Midwest is tough to beat — especially when your venue is as spectacular as this year’s Ryder Cup host, Whistling Straits.

This isn’t the first time golf fans have had the chance to enjoy the stellar views of the Straits course, which flanks the shores of Lake Michigan. Whistling Straits has an impressive major championship pedigree, with three PGA Championships (2004, 2010 and 2015) and U.S. Senior Open (2007) on its resume.

Located in Haven, Wis., just north of Sheybogan and 72 miles from the Milwaukee airport, Whistling Straits boasts 36 holes of incredible golf: the well-known Straits course, and its sibling, the Irish course. The best part? Both courses are publicly accessible, if not exactly affordable. So are two other Destination Kohler courses a few miles away at Blackwolf Run, along with a par-3 course, The Baths.

How to book a tee time at Whistling Straits

Tee times can be made online by visiting Whistling Straits’ website, or by calling the reservation team at (855) 444-2838. In the high season (roughly June through mid-October) you can expect to spend $485 on green fees alone at the Straits course.

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If you aren’t planning on staying at the onsite American Club hotel, golf reservations may be made online no more than two weeks in advance. (You don’t have to stay in the hotel to play if you’re looking to book a round after Oct. 17, 2021.) Guests looking to book more than two weeks in advance, looking to book a stay-and-play golf package, or looking to book a group of more than eight players, should contact the reservations team via telephone. 

Other fee information at Whistling Straits

According to the course website, for non-twilight tee times, the rate quoted at confirmation of your tee time on the Straits Course includes greens fees, caddie fees and tax — but not caddie gratuity. (Recommended gratuity is $50 per bag.) The course is walking-only, so caddies are highly recommended but not required. Carts are not available.

The caddie fee is $70 per person for 18 holes. To help promote a brisk pace-of-play, Whistling Straits recommends traveling with a single-strap carry bag weighing less than 25 pounds. If your bag does not meet these requirements, you may be asked to use a provided change-out bag. Pull-carts can be rented for $15 per player.

Ready to book? Enjoy! But first — soak in the fervor of this weekend’s Ryder Cup excitement.

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The post A peaceful quiet at the Ryder Cup?! On these holes there was one appeared first on Golf.

The post A peaceful quiet at the Ryder Cup?! On these holes there was one appeared first on Golf.

HAVEN, Wis. — It would be wrong to call the vibe at this Ryder Cup subdued. That’s not at all the right word.

When Tony Finau stuffed his approach at the par-4 9th in his fourball match Friday afternoon, chants of “To-ny! To-ny” cascaded down upon him from thousands of fans lining both the towering corporate hospitality structure to the right of the fairway and the hillside on the opposing side of the hole. As the chants died out, another lusty cry followed from a Cobra Kai devotee: “Sweep the leg, Tony!” Minutes later, Finau holed his ensuing birdie putt and raised a hand to his ear, the international sign for “I can’t hearrrr you!” The crowd responded with a mighty roar.

This Ryder Cup largely has sounded like a Ryder Cup, but there is also one stretch of the Straits course where this event has felt decidedly unlike a Ryder Cup.

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That’s not a knock on the Wisconsin fans, who have come out in star-spangled force this week. It’s an effect of the extraordinary piece of property upon which this 43rd Ryder Cup is being played: a dunesy, windy Pete Dye masterwork that extends along two miles of Lake Michigan. If you don’t watch your step, you can easily tumble into one of the nearly 1,000 bunkers that pepper the course, or slide down the slick fescue-lined mounds that flank every hole. All of this wild landscaping makes the Straits course difficult to navigate, both for fans and tournament organizers alike.

During the Friday afternoon fourball session, I strolled out to follow the Justin Thomas-Patrick Cantlay vs. Tommy Fleetwood-Viktor Hovland match. By the time I caught up to them, they were on the par-5 2nd, where hundreds of fans were standing beneath the green straining for a view, as you’d see at any big-time golf tournament.

But as the match progressed down the rugged coast to the par-3 3rd, the par-4 4th and to the southernmost point of the property — the tucked-away back tee at the par-5 5th — a strange thing happened. This Ryder Cup started to feel more like a Walker Cup. No grandstands, no scoreboards, no head-rattling roars, partly because of the sound-muffling wind howling off the lake and partly because on this part of the course there’s just no good place for fans to follow the action.

It was just four guys playing golf. Well, four guys and more than a hundred assorted hangers-on watching the match from inside the ropes, ranging from wives and mothers, to coaches and captains, to ShotLink operators and heat-packing wardens.

When the group reached the 5th fairway, a double dogleg that slithers between two ponds and is more removed from the rope lines than any other hole on the property, there were seemingly more spectators watching the action from within the ropes than there were from outside. At an event famous for its noise, the quiet was eerie, or, at the very least, odd.

On the 6th tee, the mood began to liven again with a cluster of fans crowding the area to the right of the tee box on the drivable par-4. As Thomas and Cantlay launched a couple of 3-wood missiles toward their targets, fans hooted. The players trekked up the hill toward the green and encountered the first grandstand since the raucous arena at the 1st tee.

“Cant-lay! Cant-lay!” the fans boomed.

Cantlay looked up and nodded. Then he raised his pointer finger to his lips.

Quiet, please. Fleetwood was trying to play his shot.

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The post Ryder Cup format: What is foursomes? What is four-ball? How does it work? appeared first on Golf.

The post Ryder Cup format: What is foursomes? What is four-ball? How does it work? appeared first on Golf.

The Ryder Cup is one of golf’s greatest traditions, and also one of its most confusing. For the golf diehards, understanding the tournament format and intricacies is no issue, but for those of us who watch more casually? Well, that’s a bit of a different story. After years of being coaxed to sleep by the gentle caress of strokeplay, it’s hard to turn one’s mind into the buzzsaw that is match play golf. But there is no need to fret. Below, we’ll break down everything you need to know in order to be your Ryder Cup watch party’s match play expert.

First, a refresher

The Ryder Cup is a match play tournament hosted every two years pitting a team of the best golfers in the United States against a team of the best golfers in Europe. The tournament has 28 matches broken out into three formats across five sessions (Friday morning and afternoon, Saturday morning and afternoon, and Sunday afternoon). That’s a lot of numbers, but the main math is simple. Each of the 28 matches is worth one point (in the situation of a tie, each side takes a half-point), and the first team to 14 1/2 points wins the cup.

So, how does it work?

Foursomes, or “alternate shot”

In this format, it’s two-vs.-two (two players from the European side, two from the American). Each team plays one ball, alternating shots between the two players until the ball has been holed. If scores are tied, the hole is halved (so no carryovers!).

In Foursomes, it’s key to find partners who balance each other’s strengths, as pairing strengths can compound problems between the two players.

In each foursomes session, four matches will be contested.

Four-ball

Another two-on-two format, but in this instance, there are four balls in play on every hole (hence the name). Each player plays their own ball into the hole, and the player with the lowest score of the group wins the hole for his team. If scores are tied, the hole is halved.

In each four-ball session, four matches will be contested.

Singles

A good, old-fashioned one-on-one. The player with the lowest score on each hole wins the hole. All twelve players in each team participate in this session, with each captain picking the order of players.

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